The year after the Steelers won the Super Bowl, they peaked at 6-2 after a home win over the powerful Vikings. (One of their two losses had come at the hands of a pretty bad Bears team, but who cares?) They had also recently humbled the 6-0 Josh McDaniels Broncos. On the way they had overcome injuries that limited their hero Polamalu and sent key defensive lineman Aaron Smith to IR.

Things turned south after that as the Bengals completed a sweep; their talented cornerbacks were able to maintain coverage to beat Roethlisberger’s ability to extend plays. That signaled the start of the collapse that sent them all the way to 6-6, when Tomlin promised to “unleash hell in December,” and promptly seal the team’s fate with a loss in Cleveland to a very, very humble Cleveland squad.

The slide was all over the place with defensive collapses, special teams miscues, and an injury to Ben. Polamalu’s season ended after the Cincinatti loss. The team ended up a disappointing 9-7.

6-4 is a fine record and capping that with a loss to the Browns at Cleveland is no shame. Is KP the future? That’s a problem for the offseason. I think he’s good enough to get us to the playoffs this season and execute a gameplan that can win games when we get there. We still have the return of Fitzpatrick to look forward to and that could have easily been the difference in that game.

The real thing that I want to see is the coaches to recognize what has worked. In the games where we were completely shut down, Pickens and Warren were our offense. Get the ball in Pickens’ hands against the Jaguars and he turns a 5% chance into a touchdown. It was the two of them that brought us back against the Ravens and gave us a chance in the first Browns game.

The offense works best when it runs through Warren and Pickens, by a lot. If they can’t find that gameplan when it counts then there’s not much to get excited about, and this season will end up a coaching failure comparable to the mess of 2009.