Soft in the Middle

By The Wise Guy
There were a lot of things about Sunday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that made you want to wear a Giant Eagle bag over your head. 

Was there a more embarrassing sight than Ike Taylor holding hands for over 20 yards with Bengals kick returner Tab Perry during the Tabsters 94-yard kickoff return?  It looked as if Ike wanted to square-dance with Tab rather than tackle him.

Then there was Fast Willie Parker running so fast, he outran the ball in his hands.  Not once, but twice.  There was the Duce Staley bobbled-headed fumble on a crucial third and three.   There was Hines Ward dropping a touchdown pass and later fumbling at the Bengals 20.  There was Ben “The Thumb” Roethlisberger throwing a couple of interceptions that looked a lot the wounded ducks he threw in last year’s AFC championship loss to the Patriots.

We had to suffer the indignity of seeing Bengals running back Rudy Johnson push the pile backward, just like the Colts Edgerrin James did the week before.  It used to be the Steelers that pushed the pile.  Not no more.

The final straw was our final drive.  After finally stopping the Bengals for once, we took ourselves out of good field position at our 46-yard-line with a holding penalty on the punt return.   By the way, it’s virtually automatic that the refs will call holding on every other punt return.  Then our klutzy offensive line committed two consecutive penalties.  We went from second and four to second and nine to second and nineteen to third and no chance. 

Maybe we could have tolerated our offensive guffaws had our defense made some big plays to bail us out. But for most of the game, the D was on the defensive. 

So what’s the problem?  It’s not the front.  It’s not the back.  It’s in the middle.  Unfortunately, the Steelers aren’t Linebacker University anymore.   There was a time when our linebackers could take over a game.   It isn’t happening this year.

Joey Porter hasn’t been the same since he was shot in the butt two years ago.   Clark Haagans had groin surgery in the middle of the year.  Makes me cringe just to think about it.   James Farrior’s knee is banged up, probably worse than we are led to believe.  And let’s face it, Larry Foote is no Kendrell Bell.  Sure, Kendrell was hurt more than Ken Griffey, but when he was in there he dictated the tempo to the other team.  He freed up James Farrior in a way that Larry Foote doesn’t.

However, we have to make the best of who we are on defense, unless Jack Lambert decides to come out of retirement.  Let’s hope we’re good enough to “run the table” against the next four opponents, three of which—Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit—are severely offensively challenged.  Otherwise, we will suffer the biggest embarrassment of all.   We could be the only team in the franchise’s history that that started 7-2 to miss the playoffs.