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By Scott Brown
TRIBUNE-REVIEW

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Some Steelers players weren't ready to talk about the season in the past tense, weren't ready to participate in their own postmortem.

"I'm not reflecting right now," outside linebacker Clark Haggans said. "We've still got football to play."

One game, to be exact.

What has emerged as the cliche of choice in the Steelers' locker room - "It is what it is" - seemed particularly appropriate after the Baltimore Ravens again dominated the Steelers on their way to a 31-7 victory Sunday at Heinz Field.

The Steelers entered the season as legitimate Super Bowl contenders. They'll go into their regular-season finale Sunday at Cincinnati with nothing to play for other than finishing with a nonlosing record.

"It definitely wasn't our expectation at the beginning of the season," inside linebacker Larry Foote said of finishing with an 8-8 record, "but that's our goal right now."

There will be plenty of time for the Steelers to deconstruct how a quest for greatness turned into a quest for average.

The loss to the Ravens officially eliminated the Steelers from playoff contention. But the reality, which a few players acknowledged in a quiet locker room, is that the Steelers did themselves in with a 2-6 start.

"Losing (to the Ravens) shouldn't be a reason why we're out of the playoffs," veteran center Jeff Hartings said. "It has a lot to do with the first eight games and not taking care of the business that we're there to take care of. I've never had a season like this season, where so many games we had opportunities to win."

Losses to Cincinnati, Atlanta and especially Oakland were largely a result of turnovers.

Fitting enough, a turnover killed any chance the Steelers had of rallying Sunday and keeping their season alive.

With just under 14 minutes left in the game and the Steelers trailing, 21-7, running back Willie Parker lost a fumble at the Ravens' 3-yard line.

"It's been like that all year," wide receiver Hines Ward. "We fight our tails off, we get down there, and then that happens. "

The Ravens broke open the game later in the quarter after intercepting a pair of Ben Roethlisberger passes.

The game was every bit as one-sided as the score indicated, as the Steelers couldn't run the ball, couldn't protect Roethlisberger and couldn't stop Ravens quarterback Steve McNair from having another big game against them.

The statistic that stood out after the Ravens completed a season sweep of the Steelers for the first time: the two times the Steelers converted on third down in 14 attempts.

"It's disappointing that it ended here at this field, our opportunity," Steelers coach Bill Cowher said after his team was exposed a second time this season by the Ravens. "What we have to do right now is go to Cincinnati, and we have to do everything we can to finish on a winning note."

The Steelers will have an entire offseason to ponder when, where and why the season went awry.

"We just dug too deep of a hole," defensive end Brett Keisel said.

Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.