TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, December 17, 2007
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger watches as time runs out on the Steelers and they drop their first home game in a 29-22 loss to Heinz Field, Dec. 16, 2007.
Chaz Palla/TRIBUNE-REVIEW
It was an epic battle that combined physicality with a struggle against the elements as well as a determined opponent in a December setting of great consequence and significance.
Great theater, in other words.
And, for the Steelers, most revealing.
They came back from a 22-7, fourth-quarter deficit to tie the score, 22-22, on a two-point conversion that had to be witnessed to be appreciated.
Their quarterback was under siege again but still managed to engineer that fourth-quarter rally and in the process break the franchise record for touchdown passes.
And their tight end was so determined upon catching a desperation, fourth-down pass in the flat that he launched himself toward the marker in a potentially defeat-defying leap that wasn't officially determined to have come up a half-yard short until an extensive video review.
But in the NFL, the bottom line is the bottom line.
That being the case, the Steelers must accept the 29-22 loss the Jacksonville Jaguars shoved down their throats in the snow.
The rest of the NFL can interpret it as defining as far as the Steelers are concerned.
They're still on course to win the AFC North Division.
To do so, the Steelers need only defeat a three-win St. Louis team that was lit up Sunday by Green Bay and a four-win Baltimore team that lost yesterday to previously winless Miami.
Forget those road woes; the Steelers will get it together enough down the stretch to beat the Rams and Ravens.
The Jaguars' Maurice Jones-Drew picks up third-down yardage against the Steelers at Heinz Field, Dec. 16, 2007. The Jaguars defeated the Steelers, 29-22.
Philip G. Pavely/TRIBUNE-REVIEW
But the lingering question in the wake of what the Jaguars did to the Steelers in their previously impenetrable fortress on the North Shore is a sobering "What's the point?"
For every Ben Roethlisberger or Heath Miller highlight at Heinz, there was a more memorable sequence that exposed the Steelers' inadequacies on defense.
Jacksonville's 20-play, 74-yard touchdown drive in 9:40 to open the third quarter said pretty much all that needs to be said regarding the pecking order of the respective combatants.
Since another statement was ultimately required, Jacksonville provided it via an eight-play, 73-yard march for a touchdown that immediately followed the completion of the Steelers' miraculous comeback from that 22-7, fourth-quarter deficit.
On Dec. 9, the New England Patriots passed the Steelers silly.
Yesterday, Jacksonville ran right through the Steelers.
To counter such developments, the Steelers have Roethlisberger, but even he can only do so much, particularly when he spends so much of his time running for his life or picking himself up off the snowy deck.
"He came in at halftime and said, 'We gotta stop letting Ben get sacked,' " wide receiver Santonio Holmes said of coach Mike Tomlin's address to his team. "It didn't show. It continued to happen. He was forced out of the pocket too many times and forced to throw the ball away half the time and not where he wanted to put it."
Afterward, Tomlin told the media his team was making too many fundamental mistakes on offense and defense, missed tackles, dropped passes, etc.
Those are not the characteristics of a team that's destined to do anything in the playoffs but lose.
It may be an exciting demise, but for the Steelers the writing is on the wall.
Mike Prisuta is a columnist for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He can be reached at mprisuta@tribweb.com or 412-320-7923.
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