So now what?

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: So now what?

Will the Steelers come out to play like we know they can next week, or fold up like a cheap lawn chair?

We'll get a chance to see the character of this team next week.

this team has character, I don't need to wait until next week to find that out.

but what worries me more is that this team also has a very poor OL that is going to get Ben killed one day, and I'm not sure how far we can go with Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon.

[Sugar]

Re: So now what?

Will the Steelers come out to play like we know they can next week, or fold up like a cheap lawn chair?

We'll get a chance to see the character of this team next week.

this team has character, I don't need to wait until next week to find that out.

but what worries me more is that this team also has a very poor OL that is going to get Ben killed one day, and I'm not sure how far we can go with Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon.

If the poor OL gets a survivor like Ben killed, Batch and Dixon are screwed!

[fordfixer]

Re: So now what?

Steelers regrouping after meltdown in Baltimore

By WILL GRAVES, AP Sports Writer – 6 hours ago
[url="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hCAtqVy3dgQQCy6zJxeNcl3LR81g?docId=0d64a74fa d134c6190d9f2be247a6721"]http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... be247a6721[/url]

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Go ahead, pick your adjective. The Pittsburgh Steelers probably used it following a stunning 35-7 loss to Baltimore on Sunday.

Safety Ryan Clark called it "a whipping." Several players went with "humbling." Linebacker James Harrison considers it "a reality check" while offensive tackle Willie Colon labeled it "embarrassing."

Whatever it was, it wasn't nearly good enough for a team that spent training camp talking about taking the next step after a crushing Super Bowl defeat.

The offense, the one considered the team's most potent since quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took over eight years ago, turned it over seven times. The defense, the one that's shouted down any suggestion that it's starting to get too old, allowed Baltimore running back Ray Rice to go over 100 yards and failed to take the ball away once.

The best team in the AFC a year ago didn't look like the best team — or even the second-best team — in the AFC North.

Wide receiver Antonio Brown spent Monday dutifully going through tape highlighting the ugly details.

"A lot of guys would have never expected us to come out with a game like that," Brown said.

Particularly the Steelers.

Though coach Mike Tomlin did his best to try and calm his team, shaking hands with his players afterward and reminded them it was just three miserable hours in a four-month marathon.

Still, for a team playing against the usual high expectations, to fall woefully short of them even for a week was disheartening.

"We knew going into the game that we were going to face a lot of adversity, but we normally stay positive and respond to it," Brown said. "But I think everything we did, as far as responding to it, wasn't in the right way."

It's hardly time to panic. Yet it has been so long since the Steelers were manhandled so completely even the team's most even-keeled guys lost their cool. Safety Troy Polamalu, a day after signing a contract extension that will keep in with the team through 2014, found himself mixing it up with several Ravens out of frustration.

"I may have lost it a little bit, which is not a good example," Polamalu said. "You know what, that's also part of this game. The truth of it is we got our butts kicked."

There's plenty to work on heading into Sunday's home opener against Seattle.

The somewhat patchwork offensive line failed to open any holes for running back Rashard Mendenhall, who managed just 45 yards on 12 carries as the Steelers spent most of the second half trying to get back in the game. The Ravens also sacked Roethlisberger four times and harassed him into three interceptions.

The defense, which returned all 11 starters from a unit that led the league in points against a year ago, let Baltimore do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted.

Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who'd never beaten the Steelers when Roethlisberger was in the lineup, threw for 224 yards and three touchdowns. Rice, who managed a total of 84 yards in three games against Pittsburgh last year, ripped off a 36-yard on Baltimore's first snap and never looked back.

Harrison, who left the game with a knee contusion, posted on his Facebook page "That's what you call getting beat like you stole something!!!!"

The Steelers are hoping to steal back momentum next week against the Seahawks, who hardly looked like world beaters in a loss to San Francisco yesterday.

They may have to do it without Colon, who is dealing with a triceps injury and could be out the rest of the season. The team re-signed Colon to a five-year, $29 million deal in July and Colon had a solid camp before apparently suffering the injury late in the second half against the Ravens.

If Colon misses the entire season, it could throw the line into more upheaval. The team cut veterans Flozell Adams and Max Starks before camp started to save money against the salary cap before signing Trai Essex a few weeks ago. Colon was supposed to be a calming presence on a unit that has struggled at times. It's uncertain how the group would look.

The defense, save for a leg contusion suffered by Harrison, is healthy and Tomlin brushed off any suggestion that his group of 30-something defenders have lost a step.

"I'm not ready to judge it from a speed standpoint," he said. "We didn't turn around enough ball carriers. We didn't get off well enough on third down. We didn't create turnovers ... Usually speed is a part of that equation but I'm not ready to say that at this juncture."

What he is ready to say is that his team needs to get better quickly. The Ravens sent a loud message that they're not going anywhere anytime soon. The Steelers can't let their rivals become a distant speck on the horizon.

The benefit of being a veteran team, however, is that panic doesn't come easy. Sure, Pittsburgh knows it needed to play better and yes, the team hardly looked like the one that dominated the Ravens so thoroughly a year ago.

It was still just one week. There are 15 more to come.

"Coming into this game, we thought our offense was better than what it was," Roethlisberger said. "This gives us a chance to regroup and get ready for next week. I just think this was a bump in the road."

[fordfixer]

Re: So now what?

Don't write off season just yet
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
[url="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11256/1174286-87-0.stm"]http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11256/1174286-87-0.stm[/url]

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a brief chat with linebacker James Farrior near the end of their 35-7 smackdown Sunday by the Baltimore Ravens. It was a man-to-man talk. It was a captain-to-captain talk. And it wasn't anything like you might imagine.

Roethlisberger did not say: "I'm so sorry I played like this. Throwing three interceptions and losing two fumbles is so unlike me. I never do that against those guys."

Although he could have said just that.

Farrior did not say: "I apologize for our defense. We couldn't stop the run. We couldn't stop the pass. We couldn't stop anything."

Although he, too, could have said it.

No, the conversation was a little more upbeat. At least Roethlisberger meant it to be upbeat. This is his recollection of what he told Farrior:

"There's not much we can do about this game. Let's just make sure we stay together and keep fighting as an offense and a defense. Let's don't let anything come between us. I know we won't."

On the surface, that might not seem like such a good thing.

The star quarterback is worried that a team that went to two of the past three Super Bowls and three of the past six is capable of crumbling after just one loss, awful as it was?

But I don't believe that was Roethlisberger's message to Farrior, their teammates or you. I think he was trying to say the Steelers' leadership is so strong that it will be able to bring the team back from the massive kick to the ego delivered by the Ravens.

"I know [Farrior] will take care of the defensive guys," Roethlisberger said. "We'll take care of the offense. We'll come back from this better and stronger as a team."

I have no reason to doubt the man.

I'm certainly not willing to write off the season after one ridiculously lopsided defeat.

I know what a leader Roethlisberger has become. He played a miserable game Sunday against a team he had owned and had beaten seven consecutive times. But his body language never betrayed him. He knew he couldn't afford to sulk. He knew teammates were watching him.

"I grabbed the offense and told the guys, 'The season isn't won or lost today. The division isn't won or lost today. We just have to regroup,' " Roethlisberger said.

Presumably, Farrior said the same thing to his defense. I know what a leader he is, as well. He's the Steelers' unquestioned leader. The defense was terrible Sunday, allowing Ravens running back Ray Rice to rush for 107 yards and quarterback Joe Flacco to throw for three touchdowns. It didn't force a turnover and had just one sack.

The talk that the defense is getting too old to be effective has started. That's inevitable after this sort of lame performance, especially with eight starters in their 30s. But Farrior won't allow doubt to creep into the minds of the defensive players. I don't suspect there's much chance of that, anyway.

"You guys have been saying we're too old for years," Farrior said of the media. "You keep saying it enough, one of these days you'll be right. I just don't think it's now."

Most of all, I know what a leader coach Mike Tomlin is. His record is 48-24, including postseason games. This was, by far, his worst defeat. Only four other times did he have double-digit losses -- against New England (34-13) in 2007, Tennessee (31-14) in '08 and New Orleans (20-10) and New England (39-26) last season. After each of those games, it was as if it were The Mourning After around here. It seemed like the end of the world. But Tomlin made certain his men regrouped, and they made the playoffs in '07, won the Super Bowl in '08 and got to the Super Bowl last season.

That's why Tomlin won't panic after this loss. He won't allow his players to shrug it off as "just one game," which is a real temptation after this kind of beating. He made them aware of their mistakes Monday afternoon when they gathered at their South Side complex. He'll go about correcting those mistakes this week before the game Sunday at Heinz Field against the Seattle Seahawks.

Is it really that much of a stretch to think Tomlin will bring the Steelers back again?

Not for me.

Not for Ravens coach John Harbaugh. "That's a heck of a football team. I guarantee you, they'll be back."

Certainly, not for Roethlisberger. "I just think this was a bump in the road."

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