3 things we learned from Steelers loss against Cincinnati Bengals

The Steelers are seemingly running out of ‘magic’

Through the first 11 games of the season, it just seemed to me, anyway, that the Steelers were playing ‘magical’ football.  What I mean by that is this:  despite being down in some games, despite not playing our best football and despite adversity, Mike Tomlin, our HC since 2007, was able to galvanize the team in order for us to emerge as the victors.

Through the last three games, that has not been the case.  We are not playing well on the offensive side of the ball, we are turning the ball over at an alarming rate, at least as far as I am concerned, we are putting the defense on a ‘short field’ as a result of the turnovers and we are just not playing ‘smart’ football right now.

The Steelers are still a good team, but the flaws are becoming more evident

We need to be able to run the ball, but right now, we can not do so with any consistency.  That puts more pressure on the passing game, but some of our WRs and TEs seemingly can not catch a very catchable pass.  That, in turn, puts pressure on the defense as they are now out on the field for 70 snaps.  This cascade effect is a huge flaw that must be remedied immediately.

So what happened to that ‘magic’ that Coach Tomlin and company were able to conjure up through the first 11 games of the season?  I wish I knew, but what I do know is this:  if we do not find that ‘magic’ next week against the Indianapolis Colts, we may very well find ourselves out of the race for the AFC North Division and out of being considered a serious threat in the playoffs.