Well, the Steelers win over the Browns certainly was fitting - a mediocre game between two mediocre teams. It took them 15 games and three quarters to do it, but the Steelers defense finally was able to force turnovers and the offense was able to take advantage of them and turned a 10-10 slog into a 24-10 win, thus preventing Mike Tomlin's first losing season to finish with an 8-8 record. Like I said, mediocre.
In summarizing the season, let's look back at what I wrote on September 9 in previewing the Steelers.
As for how they will do over the course of the season, I think that they are a good enough team to win more games than they will lose, but will they be good enough to make the playoffs from a division that sent two other teams, the Ravens and Bengals, to the playoffs last season?
Okay, I almost got that one right. They were 8-8, but both the Ravens and Bengals made the playoffs while the Steelers are going home. Later in that same post, I did predict that the Steelers would not make the playoffs.
On the plus side, they have a great quarterback and a corps of very good, if not great, receivers.
The corps of "Young Money" receivers came up way short this year. Mike Wallace seemed to drop more passes than he caught and was caught loafing a couple of times when he needed to play defense after Roethlisberger interceptions. He held out during training camp and demanded to be paid like Larry Fitzgerald, but he ended up playing more like Barry Fitzgerald. He won't be back in 2013. The absence of Hines Ward, even an over-the-hill Hines Ward, was surely felt this season.
As for Roethlisberger, he remains the teams' best player, and the guy around whom the offense must be structured, but he bears as much of the blame for the Steelers 8-8 season as anyone. When the Steelers were at 6-3, Ben was in the conversation as a league MVP candidate. Then the shoulder/rib injury in the Kansas City game and he was not the same QB when he came back three games later. Critical interceptions against Cincy and Dallas when the team had the chance to win pretty much ended any hope the team had of making the post-season. Not sure how much the injury played into that, but you certainly have to wonder.
I am also concerned with the running backs. They are counting on Isaac Redman to replace an injured Rashard Mendenhall. Redman has been okay as a short yardage guy and a fill in in the past, but it's still a question, in my mind anyway, if he can do it over the long haul.
I forgot to mention Jonathan Dwyer in the season opening write-up, but no matter. Save for three mid-season games when 100 yard games were turned in by Dwyer (2) and Redman (1), the Steelers had no running game. The continuing insistence on stressing the run by the game planners made this all the more frustrating as the season concluded with that 2-5 record in the last seven weeks. Finding a dependable running back has got to be a priority in this off-season. Don't expect Mendenhall back next year, either.
On defense, younger guys need to step up to replace guys like James Farrior and Aaron Smith, while guys like James Harrison and Troy Polamalu are another year older.
Polamalu missed nine games due to injury, and Harrison appeared to be a shadow of his former self when he returned after starting the season as inactive due to injury. Keenan Lewis and Cortez Allen appeared to make some nice strides as defensive backs, but where are the young guys needed to replace Farrior, Smith, and, maybe soon, Casey Hampton and Brett Kiesel?
People will also continue to cite losses to teams that "we should beat" - Oakland, Tennessee, San Diego, and Cleveland - and that's true, but to rehash the tired Bill Parcells line, "You are what your record says you are", and while one, maybe two bad losses like that can happen, when FOUR of them happen in a season, maybe you are in the same class as those crummy teams that beat you.
However, the NFL is structured so that no one stays on top forever, and the Steelers have certainly shown a track record of being able to bounce back from down years. In the end, the 2012 Steelers were not a particularly bad team, but perhaps wins over teams like the Giants, Redskins, and Ravens were done on memory rather than ability. They just were never a particularly good team. That's okay. Believe it or not, and annual trip to the Super Bowl is not the Steelers' - nor their fans' - birthright.
Then there was the coaching. I will start right off by saying that I am not qualified to judge the "X's and O's" abilities of professional football coaches. They are a lot smarter than me, but I do feel qualified to say that the Steelers offense did not get better after Art Rooney II inserted himself into the make up of the coaching staff and forced the "retirement" of OC Bruce Ariens and the team brought in Todd Hailey after the 2011 season. Maybe it was injuries, maybe it was age, I don't know, but that was NOT an improved offense in 2012 over 2011.
As for Mike Tomlin, I love the guy. People who call for him to be fired (listen to The Fan and you'll hear them) are beyond ridiculous. If anyone has earned a mulligan or two or three, it's Mike Tomlin.
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