STEELERS BLACK -N- GOLD POST A Pittsburgh Steelers Blog from the heart of Steelers Nation.

by Ramona Dye

Our Steelers averted a fourth-quarter collapse in hopes to extend the season, It ended three hours later.

Our Steelers defense sent two of the Miami Dolphins quarterbacks to the sidelines, including Pat White with a head injury, and beat the Dolphins 30-24 Sunday.

Little good that did considering the fact that our Steelers 9-7 were eliminated when the Ravens clinched an AFC wild-card berth by winning at Oakland, 21-13.

“I’d rather we go out with a win than a loss."

                                         -Ben Roethlisberger

Our teams undoing was due to losses to the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns in a span of 19 days during a late-season five-game losing streak.

“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do and take care of our business” “Therefore we have to suffer with what happens.”

                                           -Santonio Holmes

The Miami Dolphins trailed 27-10 before Tyler Thigpen led touchdown drives on his first two series.

“It irritates the heck out of you, but I didn’t sense a great deal of panic. The guys made the necessary plays to keep us in it.”

                                           - coach Mike Tomlin

With about 6 minutes left and the score 27-24, Joey Porter recovered a Roethlisberger fumble on a sack at our Steelers 13 to give Miami a chance to take the lead but Thigpen was intercepted by Ryan Clark at the 2.

Roethlisberger was favoring his throwing arm during our next possession, but he led Pittsburgh on a 14-play, 83-yard drive. It ended with a Jeff Reed field goal for a 30-24 lead with only forty seconds left.

Ike Taylor intercepted Thigpen on Miami’s next play to end the game.

“We finished the season the way we were supposed to”

                                          -Santonio Homes

“There are a lot of teams that are capable of going 6-10 facing the circumstances this group was faced with, They knuckled down, they hung together. They did the best of their ability to fix it. We won the last three ball games and gave ourselves a chance.”

                                          -coach Mike Tomlin

The Steelers added 202 yards rushing and held Ricky Williams to 31 yards. The defense came up with three interceptions. Roethlisberger finished with 3 touchdown passes by throwing 5 yards to Holmes, 54 yards to Mike Wallace and 3 yards to Heath Miller. Roethlisberger passed for 220 yards and ended the season at 4,328.

Well, I must say this season has been a complete let down after our Steelers winning last seasons Super Bowl. Injuries, loss of players and a multitude of other coaching complications hurt this Steelers team.

Hopefully we will see some big changes come next season, coaching staff and players alike. One thing is for sure, our beloved Steelers will not be down for long and I would watch out for this team next year. They will come to the battles of 2010 like a pack of vicious wolves ready to revenge themselves, the franchise and their fans!

As always, Here We Go!!!