Not The Perfect Season Ender

It was time to get excited, The 2016 Steelers had made it to the AFC Championship game!!! The defense had shockingly turned itself around during a 9 game winning streak. The offense came back to life.All things pointed to this team becoming something special, And finally getting Lombardi trophy #7.




Then the wild, weird events started last week...

Antonio Brown, Going on Facebook Live, And sharing the post game speech from head coach Mike Tomlin. A bone head thing to do, But not the root cause of what Lied ahead..


A flu bug hit most of the team, You can't blame a flu bug if you are on the field at the start of the game.


Some dip shit decided to take a drunken dare, And pull the fire alarm at the Steelers hotel in Foxboro.. Not saying this is what cause the following events, But think back to this later..

Right out of the gate Brady was slinging, Pats up 3-0  with just under 2 minutes in the 1st quarter..

Steelers come out running with Bell getting 9 yards on 2 carries, On 3rd down...Incomplete pass to Brown.. Steelers punt..


THIS is the series where the turnaround should have started..

After a punt, The Patriots rushed for -1, Incomplete pass, And Jason Hargrave takes Brady down for a 10 yard loss, Pats forced to punt..


After 2 or 3 rushes by Bell, And a pass to James, The in completes started again.Steelers punt.

After 2  drives, Steelers longest play- 7 Yards, Patriots Drive with key passes to Hogan, Now up 10-0.

With 2:36 left in the 1st, Bell goes up the middle for no gain, On that play, He left the game with a quad injury..Finally get a score,Williams(in for Bell) 5 yard td, But Boswell misses extra point,Now 10-6

Continuing with a trend, Chris Hogan, is left wide open, Gets score #2  Patriots up 17-6 . Hogan has 7 catches for 117 yards and 2 touchdowns and we are not even halfway into the 2nd quarter..


CBS shows a shot of Johnny Manziel with a Brady Jersey on, Big deal...Steelers drop sure TD pass in end zone, Settle for a field goal, I see a trend starting..Halftime score, 17-9 Patriots. This should be a 24-17 Steelers lead, Without dropped td passes,And Sammie Coats having all e gator arms!!!

Fast forward to the fourth, Patriots have put up 19....19 Unanswered .. Although, They have also gotten away with quite a few pass interference and holding calls .. Plus the fact a Brady fumble was ruled not a fumble, Even though Hargraves had the ball.....At this point...

 
 Say what you want, But IF the Steelers would actually caught a few of the passes Ben put up, This game would have  a much different outcome..

All around, From offense to defense, The blame can spread evenly... Yes there were a few bad calls.. And The Brady fumble may have been a crusher.. But there was plenty of  time to get back into this game.The season that started with such promise after going 4-1 .... Imploded  for a 11-5 record..

The Steelers lost chances to nail down a bye week, They lost to Miami, Baltimore, And New England .. Key losses on the path to the AFC North Championship..
.   Saying all that, There are plenty of good times, Bell leading ALL rushers going into week 16.Only playing in 13 games. Skipping week 17, And still ended up over 2100 yards rushing/receiving for the season and,In my opinion Should get consideration for MVP votes.. You can see the difference with him off the field for sure.... Ben broke team records with wins, Passing yards,And a few others.. The defense had a great stretch,And is very young.. Losing like this, Should help build this team in the long run.

Here's looking forward to a successful 2017 season, No suspensions, No major injuries.. The climb on that stairway to 7 starts  anew.. I can't wait!!!!