3 things learned from Steelers Wild Card loss to Cleveland Browns

The Steelers offense got in going but it was ‘too little, too late’

So if you didn’t watch the game and I told you that Ben Roethlisberger, our future Hall of Fame QB, threw for 501 yards and 4 TDs, you would probably assume that we won the game.  Not so fast.  According to ESPN.com, although Big Ben threw for the aforementioned 501 yards and 4 TDs, he also threw 4 INTs.

Not all the INTs were on Big Ben as some were tipped and some were overthrows, but the fact of the matter is the 4 INTs count against his statistics.  Who knows what could have been had those INTs not been thrown, but, honestly, the lack of an effective running game reared its ugly head again.

The fact that we were forced to throw the ball 68 times tells you all you need to know about how things played out.  Yes, being down by 28 points does not lend itself to establishing a running game, but if we had had a viable running game for most of the regular season, we could have at least kept the defense honest.

Despite scoring 37 points, the offense came up short and it came up short because of this: without the threat of a running game, the defense played pass the whole game and took advantage of miscues and we lost; plain and simple.

Let’s take a look at the second thing we learned.