The Steelers made a valiant run down the stretch to reach .500 and avoid their first losing season since 2003 but unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough to slip into the 2013 playoffs.

Leading into last week, the Steelers needed eight things to happen in order for them to make the miraculous appearance in the postseason. Leading up to the 4:30 games on Sunday afternoon; the first seven of those things went the right way.  All that needed to happen now was a win by the Chiefs over the Chargers. The Chiefs however had elected to sit the bulk of their starters; so the odds of a Kansas City victory appeared slim. Yet, the Chiefs put up a true fight and took a 24-14 second half lead. They allowed the Chargers to tie the game at 24 but managed to drive the ball down the field with eight seconds left and all they needed was Ryan Succop to hit a 41 yard field goal, which would send the black and gold on to next week. The rest is history, Succop missed the kick and the Chiefs lost in overtime keeping the Steelers out.

Many blame Succop for the Steelers misfortune but the Steelers should only blame themselves.  Succop wasn’t part of the team that started 0-4. He wasn’t the guy who stepped out of bounds against the Dolphins on a game winning miracle touchdown (Antonio  Brown), he wasn’t the guy who dropped a game tying two point conversion against the Ravens on Thanksgiving night (Emmanuel Sanders) and he wasn’t part of a defense who was torched on an almost weekly basis. 

The team finished 8-8, Succop wasn’t part of that.  8-8 is not good, period. The players in that locker room and the coaches in that office will tell you that. Had the Steelers taken care of their own business, they wouldn’t have to rely on Succop in the first place.  The fact the Steelers won their last three games should not fool anyone into thinking they were a true playoff team.  The reality of it is; 8-8 being a playoff contender is an indictment on the AFC as a conference and not a barometer for how good the Steelers were.  In the NFC a ten win Cardinal team missed out on the same seed the Steelers were playing for.

It was great to see the Steelers win their final three games and show they had a sense of pride and a motivation to succeed but they didn’t have what it took this year. It is now necessary for the front office to not be fooled into thinking this team was actually a championship team just a Succop miss away from making a run. If they do that, the black and gold will be in this position again next season.

While it’s never easy, its’ time for this team to acknowledge it’s time to move on from some of the most revered Steelers in franchise history and rebuild this roster for another run of success. The bulk of these guys are past their prime and will always be remembered for what they accomplished here. They just are no longer a part of what will happen here and the sooner the front office accepts that and moves on, the sooner the Steelers can get back to a point in time where they aren’t relying on a kick being made by a player on another team in a game they aren’t playing in.

The Steelers continued their bi polar season on Sunday when they went into Green Bay and took out the Packers 38-31.  With the win the Steelers improved to 7-8 and more importantly were able to keep their playoff hopes alive with the help of some other teams losing.

The team will tell you they are simply playing one game at a time and are not concerned with what the Ravens, Dolphins and Chargers do. While that may be true for them; that’s certainly not the case for everyone else.  Anyone with a rooting interest in this team is scoreboard watching these days. 

While the Steelers can’t just beat the Browns this upcoming week and get into the playoffs in doing so, they can win and hope everything else falls into place accordingly.  

By now you know the scenario but here it is again.

First off, the Steelers must beat the Browns. If they fail to do so, it’s over, they fall to 7-9 and have their first losing record since 2003 when Bill Cowher was coaching and Tommy Maddox was the quarterback.  If they win, they can avoid the losing season and then hope for some help.

They’ll need to have the Ravens lose to the Bengals in Cincinnati. This seems like a strong possibility as the Bengals haven’t lost at home this year and are still playing for the #2 seed and a first round bye.

Maybe a little more challenging is having the Dolphins lose at home to the Jets. The Jets are 7-8 but even if they win and get to 8-8, they lose all tie breakers and can’t get in. They are playing for nothing but pride and knocking out the rival Dolphins. There still is a possibility this could happen but it seems like it could be difficult.

Lastly, if all else comes through, at 4pm, the team will become Chiefs fans. The Chargers will need to lose at home to Kansas City. This on paper may look great as the Chiefs are an 11-4 ball club and have played well all year, but, since the Chiefs lost last week, they have absolutely nothing to play for this week. They are locked into the #5 seed and can’t do any better or worse. Kansas City has absolutely nothing to play for and will likely rest guys and scale back their offense as well.  Unless they’d truly like to stick it to San Diego, this seems like the least likely outcome of the group.

One can hope and pray and if the first three games go the right way and the final game doesn’t, it’ will put a stamp on the bi polar season this team had with one final bi polar Sunday filled with a raucous high and a devastating low.

After the Steelers manhandled the Bengals on Sunday Night, many were left wondering what could have been. What if the Steelers had played this well all year? What if Pouncey and Foote and others hadn’t been hurt? What if they didn’t start 0-4?

 Well, those are all the wrong questions to ponder, there are no if’s and re do’s in the world.  The reality of the situation is this, none of those things occurred this year and the team is in the situation they’re in because they didn’t have a backup plan for the “if’s”.

The black and gold looked great on Sunday Night, they looked like the team trying to clinch a playoff spot and not a team desperately clinging to their lives. The exposition that Big Ben and Antonio Brown put on was one that proves those two are the best players this team has, without them they’d be vying for the number one pick.  

On the defensive side of the ball, players like Jason Worilds and Lawrence Timmons stepped up to the plate and were impactful in determining the outcome of the football game. They showed they can be the two centerpieces of the defense moving into 2014 and beyond (if the team can re up Worilds).

This game was about pride, it was about seeing who has the competitive fires burning inside them to win a largely meaningless game.  This was an audition for the guys wearing the black and gold to see who was worth keeping next year and who the team should part ways with.

It was all of those things but the one thing it was not was the display of a team that should be looked at as a contender who had things go wrong because this or that happened or a team that should be looked at in the ‘what if’ mode.

They are what they are; a 6-8 ball club after that win.  They’re a team in the middle of the pack. Middle of the pack teams can on occasion beat good teams but will also lose to the bad ones (see the Oakland, Minnesota and Tennessee games).  Middle of the pack teams play inconsistently, see the Dolphins game just last week and the turnaround the team had this week.  Or just look at the 0-4 start, to winning five of seven to now being 6-8.

This team has its flaw this season and that’s ok. All teams go through a rebuild, the failure often comes when a team can’t form an identity and recognize who they really are. That’s what struck this team this year.

While they thought they were still a contender this year, they decided to move forward with some aging, overpriced veterans. They should have cut ties with more of the older guys and implemented playing time for the younger generation to gain experience.   The front office refused to accept or believe this team needed a rebuild but classified it as a transition.  In essence they put everything back a year. What should have happened this year will need to happen next.

The game last night should be looked upon fondly as it was a great win for the black and gold and very well could have been the final big game several of the old school veterans have together in a Steeler uniform. Just don’t look at it as ‘what if’, look at it as ‘what is’.

Just like that, the miracle play that wasn’t, nearly saved the season that never was. As Antonio Brown appeared to score on the now infamous hook and lateral play gone wrong, it seemed the Steelers season was still alive. Yet, moments later, it was ruled that Brown had stepped out of bounds and with that the game was over, along with the season.

The Steelers, now 5-8, have no reasonable shot at making the playoffs let alone seeing a winning record, which they never saw at any point this season. It’s so bad that it will take winning their final three games just to see .500, for the first time all year. 

Many people were fooled after the Steelers won 5 of 7 following their 0-4 start, thinking this team had a true shot at the playoffs. But much like Brown’s run on Sunday, appearance is not always reality.

The reality of the season to this point is pretty simple. They aren’t good. Their eight losses come to teams with a combined record of 51-51-1.  That record clearly indicates the Steelers can’t even beat teams in the middle of the pack, let alone hang with the big boys. The stat is even skewed when you take into account the Patriots own 10 of those wins and the Bengals another 9.  The Steelers own losses to some incredibly horrific teams like the Raiders and Vikings. But, in the end, aren’t the Steelers just as horrific?

They have beaten teams with a combined record of 28-37. Is it a wonder the black and gold are currently 5-8 and at the brink of obtaining their first losing record since Big Ben joined the team in 2004?

There are many flaws with this team that will need to be addressed in the offseason but many were on display on Sunday against the Dolphins. Time management was an issue that played a factor in the game, the offensive line couldn’t make the necessary plays down the stretch to allow Ben time, the defense, a major issue, couldn’t make a play in crucial situations, tackling was atrocious, the play calling was ill timed and questionable and the team just looks flat and overmatched at nearly every position on the field.

The game against the Dolphins didn’t dictate the Steelers ultimate fate this season, it was only a another example in the ever growing list of examples as to why this team never had a real shot at any success in 2013.

NOTES:

Big Ben surpassed Terry Bradshaw for the most TD passes in team history when he threw is 213^th.

The Steelers are not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention but will need to win out and have multiple teams in front of them lose out, as if either of those could happen.

Next Game: Vs. Cincinnati on Sunday Night (not sure why this wasn’t flexed out)