Well, I guess I feel like an idiot. I predicted a big win. Ah, well.
You can't pin this one on Ben, the officials, the running into the kicker penalty (which I've taken to referring to as the tripping over the Polamalu penalty). You can't blame the run defense just because they folded in the fourth quarter and overtime.
You seriously have to blame Cowher. I mean, special teams have been a problem all year. Holmes muffs another punt and we give up 38,515 return yards. We outgained them and did better on third down. And even the 473-399 edge that we had in total yards is skewed by the fact that they held the ball for all but 25 seconds at the end of the game and piled up 114 yards. So, when it was still tied at 38, we outgained them 453-285. And were tied with them.
You can put dumb penalties and mental errors on the players to some degree. You can even say that they were put in a position to make plays and didn't (lots of missed tackles and dropped passes), but it ultimately comes down to the fact that Cowher has not had this team ready to play all season. We should've lost to Miami. We definitely could've won any of the other games we played this year, but we didn't. And it's because we're not focused, we're taking dumb penalties, doing stupid shit, and turning the ball over way too much. Fourteen times in 6 games. In 1995, we turned the ball over 15 times all year. So that's an issue.
We need to stop giving games away, play for an entire game (not just when we feel like it, like aginst Atlanta, Miami, Cincinnati or for one half, like San Diego, or not at all, like Jacksonville). We need to start showing some discipline for God's sake. I mean, the season might already be over, but we've still got a shot at winning 10 or 11 games.
We still get to play Oakland. I think we'll beat Denver. We still get to play Cleveland and Baltimore (not as good as advertised) twice. And Tampa. I think we'll have a real good shot against the Saints. And, we'll get to play Cincy at Cincy, which seems to work out better for us for some reason.
This is a very, very talented team that can beat anyone in the league. All they need to do is completely overhaul special teams and change their entire mental state. No problem.
Okay. That is a problem.
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