Hangover city up in here. Steelers are on the brink. The effort was there tonight for once. People battled despite missing their 2 best players. BUT, a loss like this pisses me off since they PISSED away losses to the Bungles, Bears, Chiefs. Losing to Baltimore is always painful but now pissing away an opportunity to get into the playoffs makes it more wretched. There is no clear cut team in the AFC and no one playing nearly as well as the Vikings are. The Steelers have an opportunity to get back there and maybe, just maybe get into the superbowl again. I'm afraid now though it might be too late.

Here are some quick thoughts on what happened this past Sunday night's @ Balmor. This is without actually watching the game a second time but I needed to write some stuff down to feel better about this loss.

• Can't fault Dennis Dixon at all really. Wildly exceeded expectations in this game against the Ratbird defense in a hostile towel waving atmosphere. The INT was a killer but the issue for this is more on Arians who seemingly has little to no grasp on what people on this team do well and what do they do poorly. The missed checkdown to a wide open Heath Miller in the first of OT enraged me to no end. Though, Heath would have probably caught the ball and decided to juke defenders instead of plowing ahead.
  
• James Farrior is done. Period. This is a sobering thought to someone who has been one of my favorite Steelers ever. The man can barely cover Matt Spaeth at this point in his career. Problem is we have no one who can replace him this year. Timmons should get the bulk of the coverage duties but really you can't expect teams to not challenge ol Potsie. At this point, it might be better served to have him rush the passer more instead of trying to stop options of the backfield. If the man can't stop boot footed Brian Leonard, he can't stop Gay Rice either. Sickening play with a more vomit inducing result.
  
• No Bryant McFadden this year is really exposing the corners. We all thought Gay could step in and play well but sadly we were mistaken. Fumble aside, he is playing too soft out there and his tackling and technique in general has been wretched.
• Why fear throwing at Ike since he can't make a play on a ball nor catch a ball to save his life
• Kickoff/punt coverage is still terrible. I guess though a 40+ yd return average is better than a touchdown a game.
  
• I pray to Allah this is the last year, I'll have to see Tyrone Carter out there.
  
• Ditto Ryan Mundy. I'd rather have Anthony Smith out there. Mundy is garbage on special teams and worthless when he sees snaps on defense.
• Clark had his worst game of his Steeler career today. Usually, the last line of defense shouldn't be going for so many kill shots.
  
• Best running game this offense has had versus Baltimore in a while.
  
• Felt Lebeau called a good game overall. Players again failing to execute. Every big play the Ravens had, we had an opportunity to make a play.
  
• Arians will get railed on the blogs and message boards BUT i thought he did what he had to do. Granted some more boots and PAs could have been worthwhile but you don't want an obviously rattled young QB flinging the ball all over the place. It caught up with DD in OT. I would have liked to see more of the running game also.
• Two tight end scheme is the right way to go but not when your blocking from these men are below average. Heath has regressed as a blocker since even his rookie year. Spaeth is borderline useless out there. No athletic ability in this unit at all either. Yinzer nation might not like this but Heath, despite his stats, is an average tight end at this rate with good hands.
• Willie Parker showed something in his one drive he had. So much so he was ignored the rest of the game.
• Rashard Mendenhall should now be the 3rd down back. Period. No one else can pick up the blitz like him. Moore can catch like him but apparently became slower than Carey Davis.
  
• Joe Flacco is a checkdown QB with a big arm. He is scared of the rush and the Steelers had him. Playing off was the worst decision as usual. Allowing close to 300 yards passing on a guy who was as scattershot and timid as possible is equally sickening. The media is going to praise Joe for his skills and stats but he did nothing to impress this author.
  
• Ray Rice though is a superstar.
• For being the longest tenured Steeler, Hines Ward should not calling out his QB's toughness on national tv. Inexcusable for a leader.
  

Being the #7 seed now with 5 left isn't the worst thing but this team needs to remove it's head from it's ass and quick. Luckily, they can do such a thing against the Raiders and the Browns but still. The mistakes most stop.

Last year, we lucked out with clutch defense and touchdowns. We can't rely on that this year. Unfortunately, that lesson might be learned a bit too late in the season.

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