And So It Ends

As noted British sportswriter Tommy Stearns Elliot would have put it, the Steelers season, and a Hall of Fame career, ended in Kansas City last night "not with a bang, but a whimper."  

After a surprising first quarter ended in a 0-0 tie, the Steelers got on the board first and led 7-0 on a defensive touchdown scored by - who else? - T.J. Watt.

All that that appeared to do, however, was wake up Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, who scored TD's on their next five possessions on their way to a 42-21 win that wasn't as close as the score indicated.  The experts, it appeared, were correct in their pre-game assessments of this contest.

The career that came to an end, was of course, that of Ben Roethlisberger.  

As has been the case all season, both Roethlisberger and the team got off to a horrible start, only to rally late in the second half and pile up some yardage and touchdowns.   That worked well against the Browns and the Ravens the last two weeks, but it amounted to nothing but garbage time window dressing against the Chiefs last night.  Still, garbage time or not, it was somehow fitting that Big Ben's final in game action had him leading the Steelers downfield and completing a pass inside the Chiefs' ten yard line as the clock expired.   

Two Super Bowl wins and a third Super Bowl appearance, every passing record, and numerous other records, in Steelers history, and among the Top Five or Ten in various NFL statistical categories, more thrills and exciting games and plays than I can remember, and never a losing season.

Thank you, Ben.

Now, what to make of the Steelers very strange season and what the future might hold?

Well, against all evidence as seen by the naked eye, the Steelers somehow managed to win more games than they lost (9-7-1) and made the playoffs.  They had an awful penchant for starting out horribly and finishing games strongly, and actually winning them.  It seems that when they followed Matt Canada's dink-and-dunk game plans, which featured a lot of six yard passes when it was third-and-eight, it seemed like a good college team could beat them.  Late in games, it appeared that Roethlisberger would say "enough of this shit" and go to no-huddle hurry-up calls, and victory would be snatched from the jaws of defeat.  I'm no coach, and I am sure that Matt Canada has forgotten more about football than I will ever know, but his system sure didn't appear to be a good fit for the 2021 Steelers.

As for the future of the team itself, it would seem that they need help in the middle of the defense (teams would run at will against them), offensive line (they couldn't run the ball, although Najee Harris appears to be the Real Deal), a corner to replace the aging Joe Haden, perhaps a wide receiver or two, their second best defensive player, Cam Heyward, will be 33 next season, it appears that GM Kevin Colbert is retiring and will need to be replaced, and, let's see, what else?  Oh, yeah, a new starting quarterback, or at least someone who will compete with and push and perhaps be better than Mason Rudolph.  Speaking of Rudolph, I, for one, am not ready to consign him to the scrap heap.  Sure, he's no Bradshaw or Ben, but he might be another Neil O'Donnell, and he took the team to the Super Bowl one year.

Other than that, they appear to be set for 2022.

The rest of the Opening Weekend of Playoff action had some moments, but I'll save those until at least after the final Wildcard Weekend game between the Rams and the Cardinals is played tonight.