2009 Steelers—What Went Wrong

I've never seen a season before quite like the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers season. There's many different ways to look at their season. Any season in Steelers Country where they don't make the playoffs is a disappointment, but to miss the playoffs coming off a Super Bowl title again is severely disappointing. On the other hand, optimists will say the Steelers had a winning season at 9-7, and you can't argue that point, but in Pittsburgh that's just not good enough these days.

The undoubtedly frustrating part this season is how the Steelers were in every single game and easily could have been 14-2 if not better. In what truly was a bizarre season, they never were out of any game nor did they blow any team away. The biggest victory of the season was a 28-10 win at Denver that was a tight game until the fourth quarter when the Steelers finally put them away. Meanwhile, five of their seven losses were by only three points including two of those games in overtime. The other two losses were by six points and seven points. That's it. They did not lose a game by more than seven points all year.

So what went wrong? The phrase "Super Bowl hangover" gets tossed around a lot when the Steelers dropped five straight in the middle of the season. I don't understand how that can be true. The Steelers won their opener against Tennessee and rolled to a 6-2 start. Not exactly the signs of a team thinking about their championship last year, so forget that. Toss that theory out the window.

The black and gold held a lead at some point in the fourth quarter in five out of their seven losses. Let's take a look at those five losses.

Week 2 @ Chicago Led 14-7 in 4th (lost 14-17)
Week 3 @ Cincinnati Led 20-9 in 4th (lost 20-23)
Week 11 @ Kansas City Led 24-17 in 4th (lost 24-27 in OT)
Week 12 @ Baltimore Led 17-14 in 4th (lost 17-20 in OT)
Week 13 vs. Oakland Led 17-13 AND 24-20 in 4th (lost 24-27)

The sixth loss was a tie game in the 4th quarter against the Bungals
Week 10 vs. Cincinnati Tied 12-12 in 4th (lost 12-18)

And their last loss was an awful 6-13 defeat at Cleveland where they never held a lead. I have nothing else to add at that performance.

Looking at the games above, you can obviously point out the glaring problem—the fourth-quarter collapse that let six games get away. The defense was a shell of its self this year especially in the 4th quarter when they suddenly couldn't stop Ryan Leaf if he was out there. And these collapses didn't just happen in the losses, they also exploded to a 28-0 lead over San Diego before almost blowing it before making it a game and holding on for a 38-28 win.

Injuries were an obvious part of the problem with Aaron Smith and Troy Polamalu missing for most of the season, but injuries are a part of the game and the reserves were not prepared to handle that. The defense deserves a lot of the blame, we know this, but I'll be damned to not hand the offense some blame for falling apart late as well.

For some reason the Pittsburgh media seems to think it's sacrilegious to say the offense was part of the problem because they had a 4,000-yard passer. Wow, what an accomplishment! Last I checked, a 4,000-yard passer was not the equivalent of a Vince Lombardi Trophy.

Look above at all those fourth quarter scores...only in the Oakland loss did the Steelers offense score points late in the game. The rest of the losses, they were completely shut out. The reason the offense deserves part of the blame in this year's collapse is due to their lack of a game plan with a lead. All season with the lead, OC Bruce Arians continuously went to the passing game instead of running the football and eating the clock. I couldn't tell you the number of times the Steelers had a late drive that took no more than two minutes off the clock. That's horrendous. Look no further than last week's game against the Dolphins when the Steelers took a 27-10 in the last quarter only to see Miami, just like magic, move the ball straight down field with a third string quarterback for a touchdown. With the score 27-17 and 11 minutes left, how were the Steelers not thinking about another late game collapse? What did Arians draw up? A first-down pass that led to a sack. Second down, well now we're buried on 2nd and long so two passing plays and punt. That series took a nice 1:32 off the clock. No wonder the defense was awful in the fourth quarter when they were on the field 90 percent of the time.

It happened all season as the Steelers lacked the ability to put their foot down and close out games. The defense was at largely at fault, but the offense isn't clean in this mess. Oh, and how could I forget the special teams play? The kickoff and punt coverage was shitty too, allowing four returns for touchdowns in five games. Overall, everything went wrong for this team at times.

Also, where was Coach Tomlin in the midst of this mess? He just promised to unleash hell in December only to see his team fall flat. I'm still looking for his mark on this team, it's Dick LeBeau's defense while Arians is allowed to run the offense however he sees fit. It was encouraging to see the team rebound and win its first three games, but the damage done midseason was too much to overcome. Tomlin talks a great game, but in the end he was just as clueless as anyone else on how to fix this team.

Changes will be made (and already have) with part of the coaching staff and players. I don't understand how Tyrone Carter could be brought back next season. Overall, it was one maddening year in Steelers football. Oh well, I can't write, talk or think about it much more. There's always next year, right?