Another disappointing loss should hasten soul searching for Steelers

It was December, it was snowing, it was Heinz Field, it was Pittsburgh, and the Steelers were playing for their playoff lives against the visiting warm-weather Dolphins.  Steeler Nation had great expectations at kick-off, but were left absolutely disappointed by the game's end as Miami won 34-28.

No divine intervention this season

In a cruel final twist, Pittsburgh briefly appeared to pull off a miracle win on the game's final play with a series of lateral passes and Antonio Brown scampering for the end zone.  Alas, it was revealed that he barely stepped out of bounds before reaching the end zone--leaving the Steelers out of reach of even divine intervention.

Besides the game's final play, there were plenty of remarkable performances by Pittsburgh in this one.  Big Ben surpassed Terry Bradshaw for most touchdown passes all-time by a Steeler QB.  He made (yet another) valiant effort throwing for 3 TDs (and now has 11 touchdown passes against 0 interceptions in the last 4 games).  Troy Polamalu (remember him) had a pick-6, and made a notable effort to run back a missed field goal as time expired at the end of the first half.

There were also plenty of frustrations -- dropped passes and missed tackles were chief among them.

. . . and neither should you be

However, at 5-8, Steeler Nation (from top to bottom) needs to do some deep soul searching.  Where did it all start to go wrong?  How did we get here?  How do we change this?

The Steeler Face will break it down later this week . . .