There’s no reason to worry about the Pittsburgh Steelers first loss
By Edward Hunt
I know this is not the happiest of weeks for Pittsburgh Steelers fans as they lost to a team they were clear favorites to beat. However, before you throw about your Super Bowl hopes here are a few things to consider.
The Steelers have a track record of losing to bad teams on the road. Now, this is not a good thing for sure, but rather a trend that ends up being okay for the Steelers. The Steelers have made the playoffs the past three years and have knocked on the door to the Super Bowl despite these losses. Sure, it is frustrating and no one really knows why the team has this much trouble against bad teams, but if there was a clear reason for it, the team would address it.
The Steelers were on the road. The Steelers have had a hard time on the road, particularly Roethlisberger has not played as well on the road. This is another trend that shows that the matchup was not as favorable as we thought. We must realize the Steelers were playing an NFL team on the road. The Bears may be headed for a top 10 pick, but they are still an NFL team. They still get paid to play football professionally. This is not like when Appalachian State beat Michigan. College football is much more stratified than the NFL. In the NFL, all teams play under the same salary cap.
The Steelers have also shown potential in all three phases of the game. The defense looks better in the past three games than in a while. I think the Steelers may have addressed their secondary issues. Their offense has too many weapons for them to stay at the level they are playing at. Special teams have been good the previous two games and should bounce back from a bad game.
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The fourth reason not to worry is the Steelers have improved as the season goes on. Sure, they had a bad game against the run, the offense has not met expectations and the special teams was horrible last Sunday, but the Steelers have shown over the past years improvement as the season goes on and I expect this year to be no different.