Week 9: Ravens 23, Steelers 20

Substandard defense

I know Pittsburgh poet laureate Mike Tomlin says "The standard is the standard." 

But I'm a little worried that LaMarr Woodley might be the new "Steelers defense isn't the same without him" guy, inheriting that honor from Troy Polamalu.

Joe Flacco's 26-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith with eight seconds left gave the Ravens a 23-20 win over the Steelers Sunday night. The pass completed a 92-yard drive that began with 2:24 left in the game.

The failure of the Steelers' defense was not limited to the last two minutes. All night, the unit was more accommodating than the staff at the Omni William Penn, particularly on third down, where the Steelers allowed the Ravens to keep drives alive 14 of 21 times.

Woodley's absence didn't help. He's out with a hamstring injury. Who knows when he'll be back? Those hamstrings can be tricky.

But, the standard is the standard, right?

Well, not really.

The Steelers showed that Tomlin's mantra is nothing more than hot air when they collapsed in 2009 when Polamalu went down.

Polamalu patrolled the gridiron Sunday night, but the hair didn't scare the Ravens. On their winning drive, an incompletion bounced off Ray Rice's hands, and Polamalu was so tantalizingly close to an interception, but just not where he needed to be. We seem to be seeing that a lot lately, going back to Super Bowl XLV. Could it be that at 30 Polamalu's no longer fast enough to get to a ball hanging in the air?

During the Steelers' four-game winning streak that was snapped Sunday night, Woodley was the transcendent player that Polamalu used to be. Of his nine sacks this year, seven-and-a-half came during that quarter-season stretch.

Sure, James Harrison came back with a vengeance, sacking Joe Flacco three times and forcing a fumble that William Gay recovered. But he couldn't do it by himself. No one else sacked Flacco, and that one turnover wasn't enough, especially when the Steelers committed two (technically, the second one came on a fumble by Mike Wallace on the final play of the game).

Woodley didn't get his ass in gear this season until after Harrison hurt his eye in Week 4 at Houston. So the outside linebacker tandem of Harrison and Woodley has yet to be on the field together at peak level this season.

Perhaps that's the reason the Steelers have forced just four turnovers in nine games. This year's Dolphins, who just got their first win Sunday, are the only other team in the history of the NFL with four takeaways through nine games.

We're past the point of this turnover drought being some statistical quirk. We're past the "Oh, the turnovers will come" stage. Something is missing from this Steelers defense.

Too good to be true

It's too bad Steelers defenders not named James Harrison let the team down, because Sunday night was the finest hour for some Steelers, and it was all in vain.

Jerricho Cotchery had his best game as a Steeler, catching three passes for 44 yards, including a third-down conversion with less than four minutes left when the Steelers were trying to protect a 20-16 lead.

Cotchery and his Jets teammates came damn close to dancing on the Heinz Field turf last January. The way he played Sunday, it sure was nice to see him wearing the mustard yellow of the Steelers retro uniforms and not green and white.

For that matter, the Ravens could have had him, too. Imagine how bad the Steelers' defense would have looked Sunday if Flacco had Cotchery as an option?

The Steelers were thin at receiver with Emmanuel Sanders out and Hines Ward hurt early in the game. The Steelers needed Cotchery to finally be a factor, and he answered the call.

Also rising to the occasion, and then some, of this crucial AFC North showdown was the Steelers' offensive line. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked just once. He didn't even have to live up to his nickname, The Grimace, because he wasn't touched enough to show any pain on his face. When will we ever see that again?

Even Rashard Mendenhall averaged four yards a carry, rushing 13 times for 52 yards. He hasn't been used all that much over the past two weeks, but when called upon he's averaged 4.3 yards per carry.

No, Mendenhall wasn't the running back who made us reach for the Tums this week. Unfortunately, it was Mewelde Moore.

You always can count on Moore to come off the bench and make a big catch when the Steelers are trying to run out the clock with a lead.

Until Sunday.

On third-and-5 from the Ravens' 29, Moore didn't turn around in time to catch a pass from Roethlisberger. Had he caught the ball, the Steelers would have had a first down with 2:37 left. Instead, Shaun Suisham lined up for a 46-yard field goal attempt.

Does anyone really trust Suisham from 46 yards?

Well, apparently the Steelers don't either, because a delay of game penalty forced the Steelers to punt. I can't help but wonder if that penalty was on purpose. Perhaps they figured Suisham would miss, giving the Ravens the ball at about the 36-yard line. Better to give Jeremy Kapinos more room to punt and try to pin the Ravens deep.

Well, the Ravens had to start at their own 8 needing a touchdown. A championship-level defense doesn't allow a touchdown in that situation.

In fairness, the Steelers forced the Ravens' second three-and-out of the game on their previous possession, with less than five minutes left. They shouldn't have had to take the field again.

But like the honor society student who comes home with a big, red "F" on his paper, Moore disappointed us.

Let's complete the confluence of blame by giving Roethlisberger his share. What did he do to thank his offensive line for keeping him clean and pretty much taming Terrell Suggs? He threw a lollipop that Suggs picked off on the Steelers' first possession of the second half.

Trailing 9-6, the Steelers drove to the Ravens' 14 when Roethlisberger tried to find Wallace in the flat. The ball floated like a balloon and Suggs intercepted it, sparking a Ravens' touchdown drive and a 16-6 deficit the Steelers had to overcome.

Before the interception, neither team had scored a touchdown, which made that drive seem too good to be true.

You know what they say when something seems too good to be true.

Damage control

I'm wondering why the Ravens weren't sporting AFC North Champions caps with the tags still on them after the game. After all, Sunday's game was touted as the game that would decide the AFC North, right?

OK, it's not bloody likely the Steelers will win the division. That first-round bye the Steelers have had on their way to their last two Super Bowls? We probably can kiss that goodbye.

All that said, divisions aren't won in early November. Yes, the Ravens (6-2) own the tiebreaker over the Steelers (6-3). But it's not impossible for the Steelers to finish with a better record than the Ravens.

None of the Steelers' three losses this season have been what you would call "What the Fuck?" losses. They've lost to the Ravens and Texans, both teams that would make the playoffs if the season ended today.

The Ravens, on the other hand, have lost to the Titans (4-4) and Jaguars (2-6), the latter being a true "WTF?" loss. The Steelers haven't lost to bad teams this year. Not yet, anyway. The Ravens have.

That loss at Tennessee came the week after the Ravens trampled the Steelers in the opener. They had that opener circled on their calender since the NFL Network's schedule show in April. That loss in Tennessee had letdown written all over it.

The Ravens are at Seattle Sunday. Do the Seahawks suck? Yes. But Seattle is a tough place to play, and the Ravens have proven this season to be more prone to upsets than the Steelers.

After that, the only really easy games left on the Ravens' schedule are at Indianapolis and home to Cleveland. They still have to play the Bengals (6-2) twice. They have to go to San Diego. And coach John Harbaugh's little brother Jim will bring his 49ers (6-1) to Baltimore.

Not that the Steelers have an easy schedule. They, too, have two games against the Bengals, who also might have something to say about who wins the AFC North. The Steelers have to go to Kansas City (not as scary considering the Dolphins won there Sunday) and San Francisco, where they will try to prevent the Harbaugh Hat Trick.

No matter what happens, though, the Steelers will need to do some scoreboard watching. Now, even if they win the rest of their games, it might not be enough to win the division. Imagine being 13-3 and having to go on the road for a wild card game?

This is the fourth straight season the Steelers have dropped to 6-3 after going 6-2 at the halfway point. They dusted themselves off and got to the Super Bowl in 2008 and 2010. But in 2009, it was the beginning of the end.

So now it's all about damage control. That starts Sunday in Cincinnati. If the Steelers lose there, mediocrity beckons.

Week 8: Steelers 25, Patriots 17

Happy Halloween

The Steelers finally figured out the trick to beating the Patriots Sunday. Now they have a huge bag of treats to enjoy.

It might be tempting to bite into some of that candy and savor this victory over the Patriots, the Steelers' first win over Tom Brady since Facebook was still just for college students.

But when you went trick-or-treating as a kid, wasn't there always some old coot in the neighborhood who dropped an apple into your bag?

What a bummer that was.

Well, the Steelers better not chuck that apple. That apple is the Ravens, who visit Heinz Field Sunday night. As sweet as beating the Patriots is, beating the Ravens is better for them.

If the Steelers lose to the Ravens, winning the AFC North will be harder than getting Bill Belichick to do stand-up comedy. The Ravens would hold the tiebreaker with two wins over the Steelers.

Then, the Steelers go to Cincinnati in two weeks. Like the Ravens, the Bengals are 5-2 and a half-game behind the Steelers in the division.

As liberating as a win over the Patriots is, it will ring hollow if the Steelers can't take care of business in the division and eventually have to navigate the wild-card route to the Super Bowl.

All that said, a win over the Patriots usually signals a deep run in the playoffs. Since 1995, every win over the Patriots has pointed the Steelers to at least the AFC championship game.

It's too early to tell if that will be the case again this year, but we do know that the Steelers now have a showcase victory to highlight their four-game winning streak, a streak in which they haven't been behind since trailing the Titans 3-0 in the first quarter three weeks ago. 

Prescription for winning  

What makes the Steelers' victory over a Brady-led team so uncanny is the fact that they did it by giving the pretty-boy quarterback exactly what he wants. Plenty of face time. That is, lots of shots of him on the sidelines with his helmet off. You beat the Patriots by keeping Brady off the field.

The Steelers gave the Patriots a taste of their own medicine (doesn't Belichick always look like he's swallowing bitter medicine?) by using the passing game essentially as their running game. The Steelers possessed the ball for 21 minutes, 13 seconds in the first half. Ben Roethlisberger completed 23 of the 32 passes he threw, leading the Steelers to a 17-10 halftime lead.

Roethlisberger threw to nine different receivers in the game (even Jerricho Cotchery caught his first pass as a Steeler). Antonio Brown caught nine of those passes for 67 yards and a touchdown. I thought the Steelers were going to need a punt or kickoff return from Brown to have any chance to win this game. But Brown's more than just a returner now. He's pretty much the Steelers' No. 2 receiver. For the second straight week, he's surpassed a career high for receptions in a game.

A common thread of the Patriots' success over the past decade has been their ability to take away their opponent's biggest strength. Mike Wallace had a reception of at least 40 yards in six straight games. The Patriots made damn sure that didn't happen Sunday. But Wallace still caught seven passes for 70 yards, showing he's a complete receiver.

Heath Miller also caught seven passes, including four for 55 yards on the game's opening drive, prompting enough baritone "Heeeeeaaaath!" rumblings in Western Pennsylvania to register on the Richter scale.

The Steelers' use of the tight end on that drive was a nice little game of "See, We Can Do That, Too." The Patriots gouged the Steelers' defense with their tight ends in last year's win at Heinz Field. 

Rob Gronkowski, who scored three touchdowns against the Steelers in that game, still caught seven passes for 94 yards, but the Steelers limited the damage by employing the Cavalry Defense. After the 6-foot-6, 265-pounder caught a pass, one Steeler would hold onto him and wait for teammates to get there and help bring him down. On one play, Troy Polamalu rode Gronkowski like a jockey until the cavalry arrived.

Patriots fans are going to say that Gronkowski should have had a touchdown when he caught a pass at the goal line with 4:15 left in the game. Yeah, it probably was a touchdown, but didn't Gronkowski do enough scoring during the Patriots' bye week?

After getting the ball to the 1 on that play, the Patriots had a dumb spell and managed the clock poorly before finally getting a touchdown with 2:35 left, narrowing the Steelers' lead to 23-17.

Turnover talk 

Yeah, it got a little hairy at the end, despite the Steelers' dominance in the game.

Why is that?

To answer that question, we have to have our weekly turnover talk.

Do we really have to do that again, you ask? The Steelers finally got that long-awaited win over the Patriots, can't we reward them by not pointing out their takeaway futility for one week?

No. Because the Steelers once again failed to force a turnover Sunday. The Patriots did get an interception, which put the ball on the Steelers' 8 and led to a touchdown to cut the Steelers' lead to 10-7 in the second quarter.

That means the Steelers lost the turnover battle. That's why their lead was a puny 17-10 at halftime despite all the good they did in the first half. That's why we couldn't be sure of a Steelers win until eight seconds remained in the game.

From the Broken Record Department, the Steelers are the only team in the history of the NFL with just three takeaways through eight games, according to profootballreference.com. At the season's midpoint, they're on pace for six takeaways in 2011. That would be just half of the 12 the Redskins had in 2006. That's the record for fewest takeaways in a 16-game season.

The Steelers join the 1983 Raiders (who won the Super Bowl), the 1971 49ers and the 1945 Lions in going 6-2 despite a turnover differential of minus-10 or worse.

Going the distance 

The only other time the Steelers beat Brady, they blindsided the Patriots with turnovers. After taking a 7-3 lead in that game in 2004, they strip-sacked Brady on the first play of New England's next possession and eventually scored to make it 14-3. Then on the first play of the Patriots' next drive, Deshea Townsend scored on a Pick 6, and it was 21-3 in the first quarter before the Patriots knew what hit them.

So instead of knocking out the Patriots with turnovers like they did seven years ago today, the Steelers went the distance with the Patriots Sunday. Without the knockout punch of a turnover, they stood toe-to-toe with them and outpunched them.

For a while there, though, it looked like the Patriots were going to find a new way to beat the Steelers. For all the Patriots' mastery over the Steelers before Sunday, they've never come from behind to beat them during the Brady Era.

Down six, the Patriots had the ball at their own 22 with 19 seconds left and no timeouts. Was Brady going to add a whole new dimension to our frustration with a miracle?

Thankfully, no.

On a play that crystallized the Steelers' stellar coverage of the Patriots' receivers, they rushed only three, but Brady found no one open. Brett Keisel, who already had his customary batted pass earlier in the game, knocked the ball loose. Polamalu punched the ball through the end zone for a safety. It might have been illegal, but that's for Spygate.

Speaking of people who get away with things, Ray Lewis and the Ravens come to town Sunday in a game even more important than this one.

Week 7: Steelers 32, Cardinals 20

Steelers play Cards right

Funny how the biggest highlight of the Steelers' win over the Cardinals Sunday was a reminder of what might have been.

The same play that fell apart and allowed the Packers to take control of Super Bowl XLV worked to perfection Sunday, allowing the Steelers to take control in their Super Bowl XLIII rematch.

In Super Bowl XLV, the Steelers were at their own 7-yard line, and Ben Roethlisberger tried to find Mike Wallace on a sideline route. But Roethlisberger's arm was hit on the play, and the Packers' Nick Collins grabbed the fluttering ball and returned it for a Pick 6 and a 14-0 Packers lead. If only Roethlisberger had released the ball cleanly, Wallace would have been gone and the game would have been tied.

On Sunday, the Steelers were at their own 5 and, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, were going to try a short pass to tight end David Johnson to get them a little breathing room.

But Roethlisberger saw that Wallace was open going down the sideline, just like he was in the Super Bowl. This time, nobody in a red shirt touched Roethlisberger before he got the ball off, and he connected with Wallace on a 95-yard touchdown pass, the longest pass play in Steelers' history.

This time, the 14-0 lead belonged to the Steelers. 

Touch of gray

Wallace was preparing for the NFL Scouting Combine three years ago when the Cardinals were giving the Steelers all they could handle in Tampa. The Cardinals wouldn't go quietly on Sunday, either. The 17-7 halftime score was discomforting. That was the halftime score of Super Bowl XLIII, and the second half of that game was a little too white-knuckle for my taste.

The lead was chopped to 17-14 Sunday when Kevin Kolb, who looks like he's permanently afflicted with bitter-beer face, threw a short pass to LaRod Stephens-Howling that turned into a 73-yard touchdown. While overall the Steelers' defense played "above the line," as Mike Tomlin would say, that play revealed another gray hair on a unit that isn't getting any younger.

Yeah, we saw the 2009 James Farrior there. Stephens-Howling couldn't have embarrassed him any more if he had pulled his pants down.

With a few more gray hairs added to the heads of their fans at this point, the Steelers regained command of the game with an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive.

Heath Miller caught two passes for 38 yards on the drive. Emmanuel "Remember Me?" Sanders caught three of his five balls on the drive, including one for 20 yards that got the Steelers to the 2. Two plays later, Roethlisberger found Sanders again for the touchdown, dodging unblocked former teammate Clark Haggans before firing the pass.

We're probably going to see Tom Brady do a lot of things next Sunday at Heinz Field, but I guarantee you we won't see him avoid a sack like Roethlisberger did on that play, because that's one thing that Roethlisberger can do that Brady can't.

A penalty yanked the Cardinals back to their own 7 on the the ensuing kickoff, and on the first play LaMarr Woodley, who already had two sacks, roamed free in the backfield and waved his arms at Kolb as if to say "Yeah, it's me again" in a schoolyard kind of way.

Woodley forced Kolb to intentionally ground the ball in the end zone, giving the Steelers a safety and a 26-14 lead.

Suisham settles down 

It's funny how the two points gained from a safety, that most emasculating of football plays, can change the complexion of a game. Now the Cardinals needed two touchdowns, not just a touchdown and a field goal.

But first, the Steelers got the ball back on the free kick, and Shaun Suisham booted a 42-yard field goal to make it 29-14. Now the Cardinals needed two touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

The Steelers could loosen their ties even more after Suisham's 39-yarder later in the fourth quarter, which made it a 32-14 and a three-score game with less than seven minutes left. The Steelers' kicker, who has been shaky this year, made all three of his field goal attempts Sunday and gave us a week off from worrying about him.

The Steelers' running game wasn't quite as impressive, gaining just 3.3 yards per carry. However, after the Cardinals scored a throwaway touchdown (and missed the 2-point conversion) to make it 32-20, Isaac Redman and Mewelde Moore came out of the bullpen to close out the game.

Seriously, these guys should get some kick-ass closer's music when they step on the field, because when the Steelers are trying to protect a lead late in the game, they've proven they can run the ball, move the chains and drain the clock better than Rashard Mendenhall (13 carries, 32 yards). They combined for 27 yards in the final 3:53 as the Cardinals did not touch the ball again.

Let's not forget, too, that Antonio Brown (career-high seven catches) caught a first-down pass to keep the drive going and Sanders, who caught all his passes in the second half, twice gave the Steelers a new set of downs on the drive.

More turnover talk 

Sanders wasn't the only weapon the Steelers dusted off Sunday. The defense forced its first turnover in two weeks. Lawrence Timmons (Correction: James Farrior) tipped a Kolb pass on the opening drive and Ryan Clark intercepted it, leading to a 12-yard touchdown pass to Miller and a 7-0 Steelers lead.

While that turnover had quite a bit of impact, allowing the Steelers to score first in a game in which they never trailed, it was the Steelers' only takeaway of the game. That means I again had to comb the annals of ProFootballReference.com to find other teams that had just three takeaways in the first seven games of a season.

I couldn't find any.

That's right. According to Pro Football Reference, your 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers are the only team with just three takeaways in the first seven games of a season.

The Steelers almost had a second turnover Sunday, but Troy Polamalu dropped an easy interception. Several times this season, it seems the Steelers' mane man has been just a hair away from where he's needed to be to get an interception. It was encouraging, then, to at least see Polamalu in position to make a pick Sunday.

The good news is that on the other side of the ball, the Steelers had their second straight turnover-free game, chipping away at their ghastly giveaway-takeaway ratio, which stands at minus-9.

In the last 50 years, the 2001 Dolphins, the 1983 Raiders and the 1977 Vikings are the only other teams to go 5-2 despite a turnover margin of minus-9 or worse, according to Pro Football Reference. Interestingly, the '83 Raiders won the Super Bowl despite turning the ball over 13 more times than their opponent.

So I guess you don't have to win the turnover battle to win a Super Bowl. That said, the Steelers don't beat the Patriots next week if they cough the ball up more than they snatch it away. The Patriots are too good.

The Steelers have beaten the Patriots only twice since the turn of the century, and are 5-8 against them since 1995. But all five of those wins have come in seasons in which the Steelers have at least reached the AFC championship game.

I can't wait for the week when the Steelers' defense puts together four, five or six turnovers and I no longer have to scour the Internet for historic perspective on their turnover futility.

How about next week? Because if the Steelers beat the Patriots, no number crunching will be required for us to know that they are again capable of playing well into January.

Week 6: Steelers 17, Jaguars 13

Steelers are good, true or false?

The halfway point of the 2011 NFL season is approaching. That means the Steelers are taking their midterm exams.

On Sunday, they passed the True-False portion of the exam.

Barely.

Here's a tip, kids. Most True-False tests have more true answers than false answers. So you probably can pass if you put down "True" for everything. It also helps if you know how to make the letter that looks like both a "T" and an "F." 

It was with the same half-assed effort that the Steelers won Sunday's game over the Jaguars.

To fully restore their status as Super Bowl contenders, the Steelers (4-2) needed a convincing victory over the one-win Jaguars. But the Jaguars had a chance to win this game until the very last second. Thankfully, Blaine Gabbert's lame-assed Hail Mary found nothing but black shirts in the end zone.

The Steelers will take the multiple-choice portion of their midterms Sunday at Arizona. In the same way that multiple choice can be tricky (all of the above, none of the above, some of the above), weird shit tends to happen to the Steelers in Arizona. Although the game will be at University of Phoenix Stadium, the Steelers won't be able to take this test online. They have to show up.

Then the material goes from tricky to tough. The next phase of midterms will be essay questions, which the Steelers will have to answer in two weeks when the Patriots visit Heinz Field. That's going to require a lot of studying. The good news is that Bill Belichick will be proctoring the test, and he thinks cheating is OK.

Then, the Steelers will go from the classroom to the schoolyard for the last part of the exam -- the bully test. The Ravens bloodied the Steelers' nose in the season opener, and visit Heinz Field Nov. 6. To pass that part of the exam, the Steelers will have to win the fight with the bully, which is really all you need to learn in school to be ready for the real world.

What this midterm exam analogy means is that the Steelers have one more week to get their shit together before the Patriots and Ravens come to town.

Give and take

The Steelers nearly let a 17-0 lead slip away, at home, against a team with a rookie quarterback that had scored just five touchdowns heading into the game.

We can choose to be alarmed at all that, or we can choose to be encouraged that the Steelers have forced just two turnovers this season yet somehow are 4-2.

You know the only other team in the history of the NFL with just two takeaways in its first six games, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com? This year's Dolphins, who dropped to 0-5 Monday night.

At least the Steelers didn't turn the ball over Sunday. They've had just five giveaways since their seven-turnover debacle in Baltimore, Still, their turnover differential remains at minus-10. Only the 1960 Giants (4-1-1, minus-10) and the 1960 Bears (3-2-1, minus-11) had winning records with a turnover ratio of minus-10 or worse through six games, according to Pro-Football-Reference.

Another interception or two could have turned a loss into a win in Houston and made Sunday's win a little bit easier. 

We can bellyache about how bad the Steelers' offense was in the second half Sunday or how the defense wasn't able to stop the run. But just one takeaway could have given the Steelers a short field to work with and maybe another score. That would have made the offense look better with more points on the scoreboard and it would have made the defense look better with fewer rushing yards for the Jaguars, who ran for 133 yards at a 4.4-yard-per-carry clip.

Turnovers aren't just window dressing for a defense, folks. They're a necessary tool for winning. Trying to win without getting turnovers on defense is like trying to bang nails into a wall with a baseball bat. Eventually you're going to need that hammer.

The Steelers' defense has to start taking the ball away at some point, right? The law of averages almost dictates it. In a way, it's comforting to think that winning should be easier when those takeaways start catching up to the giveaways.

But what if the turnovers don't come? Is the inability to grab fumbles and pickoffs a sign of the Steelers' age on defense? What makes this more confounding is the fact that Troy Polamalu has been healthy, despite Sunday's scare, and playing well. But he's usually good for an interception or two by this point in the season. He is 30 now. Are the hands the first thing to go?

One encouraging sign is that the Steelers had a similar shortage of sacks earlier in the season. Through the first four games, they had just seven. They've had eight in the last two games, including two Sunday by Brett Keisel. By the way, let's not underestimate how much he was missed in Indianapolis and Houston.

Sacks and turnovers have been signatures of the Steelers' defense since Bill Cowher rejuvenated the franchise nearly two decades ago. It took a while for the Steelers to get to the quarterback this season, but eventually they did. Hopefully one of these sacks will knock a ball loose and open the floodgates for turnovers.

Familiar script

There have been times this season when I didn't think I'd write the following words: The Steelers would not have won Sunday's game without Rashard Mendenhall.

Seeing the running game function without him last week seemed to spark Mendenhall the same way as his benching early in the 2009 season. He ran the ball 23 times for 146 yards and a touchdown that gave the Steelers a 7-0 lead. Mendenhall's 68-yard run set up a Shaun Suisham field goal and a 17-0 Steelers lead in the second quarter.

In between those scores was a 28-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Mike Wallace and a 48-yard completion to Wallace. The second of those receptions marked the fifth straight game in which Wallace has caught a pass of at least 40 yards, the longest such streak since Terrell Owens did it in 2004. If that streak doesn't end Sunday, something tells me the Patriots will end it in two weeks.

Alas, that bomb to Wallace, which put the ball on the Jacksonville 31, didn't lead to any points. The drive ended with Suisham missing a 46-yard field goal. Suisham has made just seven of his 11 field goal attempts this season. Am I the only one who's nervous about this?

The trajectory of Sunday's game was eerily similar to the AFC championship game in January. The Steelers build a big lead in the first half. The opponent gets a field goal to gain a little momentum before halftime. The Steelers go scoreless in the second half and have to hang on for dear life to get the win. 

It's one thing to win in this fashion when a trip to the Super Bowl is at stake. It's quite another when the other team has no shot at getting to the Super Bowl. Or even the playoffs.

If they play like that on Sunday, the Steelers will flunk out of University of Phoenix Stadium.

Week 4: Texans 17, Steelers 10

No takers

By Mike Batista

Let's not kid ourselves. Sunday's seven-point margin of defeat was quite flattering for the Steelers. It doesn't tell the tale of just how badly the Texans outplayed them.

Even in the Steelers' two wins this season, red flags have been raised. They couldn't get the ball in from the 1-yard line against the Seahawks. They made Curtis Painter look like, well, Peyton Manning in the fourth quarter last week.

This team has so many weaknesses that it's hard to know where to begin. So I'll do my best and start with the inability of the Steelers' defense to force turnovers.

The Steelers have just one takeaway in the first four games of the season. The dubious record for fewest takeaways in a season is held by the 1982 Baltimore Colts, who had 11 in going 0-8-1 during a strike-shortened season. The 2006 Redskins are saddled with the record for a 16-game season with 12. They went 5-11 that year.

At the quarter pole, the Steelers are on pace to force four turnovers in 2011.

This year's Steelers are one of just seven teams since at least 1940 to force one turnover or less in the first four games, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. The others are the 2010 Bills, the 2005 Texans, the 1998 Eagles, the 1998 Redskins, the 1994 Buccaneers (still wearing the creamsicle unis with Bucco Bruce on their helmets) and the 1977 49ers.

Let's take a look at how these charitable foundations fared.

• 1977 49ers 5-9 (0-4 in first four games)
• 1994 Buccaneers 6-10 (1-3)
• 1998 Redskins 6-10 (0-4)
• 1998 Eagles 3-13 (0-4)
• 2005 Texans 2-14 (0-4)
• 2010 Bills 4-12 (0-4)

Sure, the Steelers (2-2) are off to a better start than any of those teams, and they've allowed fewer yards of offense through four games than any of them. But this isn't good company to keep. If you roll around with pigs, flies start swirling around you.

A 6-10 or 5-11 clunker of a season wouldn't surprise me. The Steelers are heading in a scary direction, and the lack of turnovers is symptomatic of deeper troubles for the Steelers defense, which can't seem to stop the run anymore and can't get to the quarterback. The Steelers have just seven sacks this season, tied for 20th in the league, and barely touched Matt Schaub Sunday.

Ben Roethlisberger, meanwhile, was subjected to his customary battering. He was sacked five times. We always take for granted that Roethlisberger will take his lickin' and keep on tickin', but he ended up in a walking boot on his left foot Sunday and was to undergo an MRI. He's been sacked 14 times this season, putting him on pace to be sacked 56 times, which would make the 50 sacks he took in 2009 seem like a Swedish massage.

It's a wonder Roethlisberger hasn't had a season-ending injury playing behind such a turnstile offensive line all these years. We'll see what the MRI shows, but let's hope the Steelers' luck doesn't run out.

At least Roethlisberger's weekly pounding was delayed for a while as the Texans (3-1) consumed 11 minutes in taking a 7-0 lead on the game's opening drive.

Arian Foster picked up 40 yards on that drive and became the first running back not named Ray Rice to gain 100 yards on the Steelers' defense since the Jaguars' Fred Taylor in 2007. Foster's 155 yards were the most against the Steelers since Curtin Martin's 174 in 2003.

Yes, Foster was the NFL's rushing leader last season, but he was supposed to be easing his way back from a hamstring injury. The Steelers used to allow 100-yard rushers with about the same frequency of a total solar eclipse, but they've allowed two in four weeks.

The Texans committed three penalties on that opening drive and were flagged nine times in the game. Two of those infractions wiped out touchdowns. They did all they could to give this game away, but the Steelers haven't been in a taking mood all season.

The Steelers also couldn't take advantage of first-half injuries to running back Ben Tate, who had a 20-yard gain on that opening drive, and Andre Johnson, the Texans' leading receiver.

That tattered defense had a chance to lick its wounds when the Steelers had the ball for the last 2:33 of the first half and the first eight minutes of the second half. The Steelers wrested the momentum from the Texans and got on the board with a 3-yard Rashard Mendenhall touchdown run in the third quarter.

Mendenhall, however, left the game with a hamstring injury after his touchdown. Did anyone really miss him? He had just 25 yards on nine carries. Meanwhile, Isaac Redman gained 40 yards on six carries and fueled the game-tying drive with 32 of those yards. Shaun Suisham's 26-yard field goal to open the fourth quarter knotted the game at 10-10.

It seemed like the Steelers had gone from decrepit old geezers in the first half to cagey and wily veterans finding a way to win in crunch time.

Then, as if the Steelers' dominant third quarter were just some sort of recess from reality, the Texans needed just five plays to cover 85 yards and take a 17-10 lead on Foster's 42-yard touchdown run, the longest TD run against the Steelers since the Broncos' Javon Walker had a 72-yarder in 2006.

The Steelers' defense turned in three-and-outs on the rest of the Texans' second-half possessions, but we have to accept the fact that this aging unit is prone to senior moments every now and then, and their only one of the second half proved costly.

Then again, turnovers have a way of touching up the gray.