Steelers fall short
The Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7) closed out the regular season with their third straight win as Ben Roethlisberger threw 3 touchdowns leading the Steelers to a 30-24 victory over the Miami Dolphins (7-9).
Despite the victory, Pittsburgh's slim playoff hopes took a serious dent when the Houston Texans rallied from a 27-13 deficit to beat the New England Patriots 34-27 and later in the day, the Steelers were officially were eliminated from playoff contention as the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Oakland Raiders 21-13.
For the defending Super Bowl champions, the 2009 season was a year of disappointment as the Steelers failed to qualify for the playoffs the year after winning the Super Bowl for the second time in four years.
The Steelers who came into week 17 needing a lot of help, made their own bed as a five game losing streak after a 6-2 start, that included loses to Cleveland (5-11), Oakland (5-11) and Kansas City (4-12) did them in.
"We didn't do what we were supposed to do and take care of our business," wide receiver Santonio Holmes said.
After a stunning loss to the Cleveland Browns in week 13, the Steelers season appeared to be over but the Steelers climbed back into the playoff hunt, winning their final three games to give themselves at least a chance to get into the tournament.
"There are a lot of teams that are capable of going 6-10 facing the circumstances this group was faced with," Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. "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."
The Steelers had a number of flaws this season from special teams to a struggling pass defense to name a few but what haunted this team was a defense that could not hold onto a lead.
After having the #1 ranked defense in 2008, the Steelers once vaunted defense was a thing of the past in 2009. Injuries to Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith showed that the Steelers are an aging defense in key areas and that the team has major issues in the secondary.Pittsburgh led the league with five 4th quarter blown leads and almost added their 6th in Sunday's season finale as the Dolphins nearly rallied from a 27-10 deficit to score 14 unanswered points in the 4th quarter.
A disturbing stat for Pittsburgh was that through the first 16 games of the season, the Steelers didn't have one interception from any of their cornerbacks on the roster.
That finally changed against Miami as Deshea Townsend and Ike Taylor each recorded their 1st interceptions of the season.
While the Steelers secondary as a whole struggled and the teams run defense took a step back late in the season, there were a few bright spots for the Steelers on the defensive side of the ball.
Among them was linebacker LaMarr Woodley who elevated his game in the second half of the season and is on the rise to stardom.Woodley finished the season with a team high 13.5 sacks and recorded 11.5 sacks in his final 8 games. Woodley finished the season on a high note leading the Steelers with 2 sacks against Miami.
The Steelers had three sacks on the afternoon against the Dolphins as Lawrence Timmons added a sack and finished with a team high 7 tackles.
Woodley won the team sack crown from linebacker James Harrison who finished the season with 10 sacks. Harrison, the 2008 defensive player of the year, did not record a sack in the Steelers final 6 games.
On the offensive side of the ball the Steelers put up staggering statistics but the stats didn't always result in touchdowns.
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went 18 for 27 for 220 yards and three TDs in the Steelers season finale as Roethlisberger continues to establish himself as one of the premier quarterbacks in the game.Roethlisberger finished the season with 26 touchdown passes and a team record 4,328 passing yards.
The Steelers rushing attack allso ended the season on a high note as Rashard Mendenhall (94 yards) and Willie Parker (91 yards) combined for 195 yards and Pittsburgh gained a season-high 202 yards on the ground.
After carrying the ball only 7 times in the first three games, Rashard Mendenhall took over the starting running back role from Willie Parker in week 4 and rushed for 1,108 yards and 7 touchdowns on the season.Mendenhall also added 261 receiving yards and 1 touchdown. At age 22 Mendenhall has cemented his status as the Steelers running back of the future, which means Willie Parker has likely played his final game in the Steelers uniform.
Parker, 29 is an impending free agent and is seeking a starting role elsewhere. A good parting gift for Parker is that he was in on the Steelers' final offensive possession and helped seal the Steelers win, rushing for 74 yards on the final drive.
As the Steelers moved to a passing team in 2009, wide receiver Santonio Holmes and tight end Heath Miller each had career years.
Holmes had career-highs in receptions (79) and yards (a team-high 1,248) while Heath Miller had career-highs in receptions (76) and yards (789).
Hines Ward continues his path to a hall of fame career. The 33 year old wide out had a team-high 93 receptions and was second on the team with 1,167 yards receiving and 6 TD's (tied for first).
How much the Hines Ward has left in the tank remains to be seen but the Steelers passing game has a bright future and a promising up and coming wide receiver in Mike Wallace.
The rookie wideout was the Steelers top deep threat finishing with 39 receptions, 756 receiving yards and six touchdowns.Moving forward the Steelers focus now turns to getting this team back to being a title contender in 2010. A primary area of focus at the draft and in free agency to some extent will be the secondary and defensive line.
There will be a number of personnel changes on the defensive side of the ball along with what is expected to be one or two assistant coaching changes.
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