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

by Ramona Dye

Things went from bad to worse for our Steelers in this match-up, starting with a 97 yard touchdown on the opening kickoff from the Kansas City Chiefs, Jamaal Charles and ending with a Chiefs Ryan Succop game winning field goal in OT.

What went wrong in this game?

In my opinion the defense. In another game where they just could not seem to stop their opponents from scoring and allowed for a Steelers fourth quarter lead to slip by the way-side. Sound familiar?

Ben Roethlisberger was 33/43, 398 yards passing, 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions before suffering a knee to the head in OT. Our running game was not nearly as effective as it should have been against a Kansas City 28Th ranked run Defense. Our Steelers only totaled 114 yards on the ground.

I continue to have doubts about our offensive play calling and wonder if Bruce Arians will find himself in the hot-seat. But it's our special teams and our defense that let us down in this game.

Even with five sacks Matt Cassel was able to complete 15/30 passes, with 248 yards passing and 2 touchdowns against our number two ranked run defense. There were some close would-be interceptions for our secondary. Yet, it seems our corners and safeties cannot hold on to the ball.

Special teams have allowed four kick-offs returned for touchdowns in our last 5 games. This immediately puts pressure on the offense and keeps us playing keep-up from the beginning of the game.

What are the answers to our Steelers problems? Is it injuries that are holding us back?, Bad play calls form our coaching staff? A lack of team readiness against our opponents? Special team breakdowns? A defense that seems to lack the ability to make their opponents turn over the ball?

I am not sure what the problems are, I have my guesses but I am not paid the big bucks to figure out what our problems are on the field. Just seems to me like there is a huge lack of communication going around our franchise, coaches and players that must come to an end. Starting with our coaching staff.

We have a big rivalry game coming up next weekend against a tough opponent, The Baltimore Ravens. Hopefully Big Ben's concussion-oriented injury will be OK considering the fact we lost back-up quarterback, Charlie batch to a broken wrist in OT as well.

As always, Here We Go!!!