Steelers Week 12, Reflections

A few quick thoughts:

1. Are we a good team now?  Maybe we are.  Well, we still can't run the ball.  And our defense will still seem to evaporate.  I think we're an average to above-average team.  We were better than 8-8 last year, we just had a lot of growing pains and bad seeds (Wallace, Mendenhall).  This year, we've got even more growing pains. I'll be happy if we can get to 8-8, and estatic if we get 9-7.
2. After the game, according to ESPN, we're now the 6th seed in the AFC! "Wins tie break over NY Jets and San Diego based on best win percentage in conference games. Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Miami (NY Jets wins tie break over Miami based on best win percentage in division games). Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Baltimore (Pittsburgh wins tie break over Baltimore based on head-to-head win percentage)."  This means that if we lose only to Green Bay & Bengals (both probable) then we'll be in.  Naturally if we win all the rest of the games we'll be 10-6 which is the definition of a good team (but if the Bengals win all the rest, except for the game vs Steelers, they'll be 11-5, so yeah).
3. Aaaaand, once Tennessee won, we're now the 7th seed: "Wins tie break over NY Jets, Pittsburgh and San Diego based on head-to-head sweep. Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Miami (NY Jets wins tie break over Miami based on best win percentage in division games). Division tie break was initially used to eliminate Baltimore (Pittsburgh wins tie break over Baltimore based on head-to-head win percentage)."
4. I was beaten to this joke - i.e. that after the pooch punt by Big Ben he should win AFC special teams player of the week (to go with winning Offensive player last week).
5. Stat issue - the third down conversions were bad, but we converted on many 1st & 2nd downs
6. AB beat Joe Haden and Megatron, AJ Green etc didn't.  While I think AB is great, it possible that his success was because his, our, QB is better.
7. I should've mentioned last week that Will Allen's interception seemed to be a sign that we need to send our defensive backs to other teams and have them return because we just don't seem to teach turnovers, but other teams do.  its like graduate school
8. This is awesome.  We beat the Browns so bad that Mike Polk Jr. needed to scream at the factory of sadness some more (YT: Browns/Steelers Postgame Thoughts, Shared With The Stadium)
   !
9. I really hope we win against the Ravens, because that would really solidify our standing.  There's a lot to say we'll lose.  Some real, some karma.  The karma could be that if you split the 16 games into 4 quarters, we could be going in reverse geometric loses: 4 then 2 then 1 then maybe 0!  Oy, I suck.
10. Actually, we were screwed with the schedule.  To win 2 in a row is hard, to win 2 road games in a row, to win 2 road DIVISION games, to win 2 road division games on a ridiculous short week, to win 2 road division games on a short week against teams fighting for a playoff spot...  Which means if we win, our status is really solid.  Which I don't necessarily want.  Tomlin gets really arrogant when we're considered good and I think that leads to really sloppy play.  If we lose, we're not eliminated from the playoffs, and it could help the team keep the hungry focus...   

I am glad I can see the game on TV this week.