PITTSBURGH STEELERS ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY

The 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers Are Vying For Seventh Title; Steelers Super Bowl Champions in Games IX, X, XIII, XIV, XL and XLIII

A 2-2 record leaves fans feeling fearful that the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers season will fade away like the 2006 Steelers did in their "Super Bowl Hangover" season.  Steelers fans, you leave me feeling pessimistic when our team loses and overly optimistic when our team wins.  Steelers fans, it's a long season.  There are twelve games to go.  The Steelers will probably win eight or nine of them to end 10-6 or 11-5.  To the Steelers fans freaking out: RELAX. 

Steelers Fans, you are the same crowd who cry wolf every time there is a Steeler loss.  Try rooting for one of the true LOSERS in the NFL who string together back to back losses like a Steeler fan strings together a twelve pack on Sundays.  We're spoiled.  The sky isn't falling if we lose two in a row.  The sky isn't falling if we lose three in a row.  This team hardly ever has back to back losses.  Flat out - we're spoiled as fans.  We expect too much.  We criticize too harshly. 

Steelers fans, you are the same people who talk all the time about how bad our Super Bowl winning offensive line is.  That's just ridiculous.  There's nothing else to say about it.  'Shortest paragraph needed. 

Steelers fans, you are the same crowd who claimed Max Starks should not get the highest pay of all linemen when he was obviously the most massive, gifted, versatile, athletic lineman on the team; he's the whole package for crying out loud!  You knew he played guard on the right, tackle on the right, you knew he played guard on the left and tackle on the left.  The only position he had not, and still has not played, is Center.  Even if he could play it, a 6 foot 8 center is too tall for even a tall QB like Ben to see over, otherwise he would probably have played Center by now!  I blogged then that he was staying for higher pay and not starting because the team knew someone would go down eventually and they knew Starks would be the player to fill in for whoever that was, that he would not get injured himself, but that the line needed continuity before the inevitable change to inserting Starks SOMEWHERE.  Nobody said "you may be right" but I was! 

Even criticism deserves an opposite accolade here. Fans, you are the same crowd that cheer louder for the Defense than the offense when most other teams in the NFL have fans trying to make it too loud for the offense to hear the home Quarterback's signals.  The average Cleveland fan has an IQ of 75.  The average Steelers fan has an IQ of 120.  'Pointing it out?  'Priceless.

You are the most traveled, nuanced, well behaved crowd in the NFL.  Imagine the Dawg Pound invading other stadiums like Steeler nation.  They would fill the police blotter of that city the next morning.  You are the best fans ever.  You know when it's good and you know when it's bad.  I am just as guilty as all of you of taking either opinion to the extremes.  That passion gets misplaced at times.  That's Steelers Nation's flaw and the only one I can see. 

To be fair in 2006 there were an abundance of factors we don't face in 2009, that all mounted against a team that may or may not have had big heads that led to less than exemplary preparation.  It's almost pointless to re-hash but everyone's freaking out that this is 2006 all over and the season is lost.  There was the motorcylce accident and the appendix that did in Ben before he could get going.  We don't have those concerns in 2009.  In 2006, the low point, I felt, was when San Diego was up, Pittsburgh was down and after Ben felt the sting of Jamaal Williams' hits to the midsection, Steeler Nation felt the sting also.  Then the accusations began to fly.  2-6 was followed by a too late 6-2 turn around.  We're 2-2 now people; not 2-6.  I know people are feeling better at 2-2 than they did at 1-2 but I honestly don't.  It's still a pain to be at .500 but I know it is a long season and I do not see these guys ending 8-8.  This isn't 2006.  RELAX.