Well, here we are. The end of the Pittsburgh Steelers season, and the end of all but the two remaining teams’ seasons as well.

If you’re like me, I like to follow a loss with a cooling off period: reflect, get a little perspective, and then focus on writing a well thought-out article. Let all of the haters have their rants on social media…

Nope. Didn’t work.

It’s one thing to lose in the regular season, but a loss in the playoffs is sudden death.

One and done.

So this particular loss in the AFC Championship game is a depressing. It hurts more than most, if not all of the losses this season, because we know how close the Steelers were to that 7th Lombardi trophy.

WTF indeed, but maybe the biggest WTF moment leading into this game were all of the distractions.

Distractions

Prior to the Kansas City game, linebackers coach Joey Porter was arrested, then had his charges downgraded, eventually some or all dismissed, and was reinstated by the team.

Then Antonio Brown decided to go “live” on Facebook from the Steelers locker room: the media could not (or would not) stop talking about it. (WTF?)

Continuing, many of the Steelers ended up with the stomach flu throughout the week and needed at least a day off to recover. It was reported their banana consumption was increased and other measures were taken to nurse everyone to full health.

But the distraction to top the WTF list wasn’t any of those: it was 25-year-old Dennis Harrison, the Patriots fan who decided to pull a fire alarm at the Steeler’s Boston hotel at 3:40am.

His excuse? Dennis reportedly told investigators he was “dared” by his friends, and that he was stupid and drunk at the time. (Hard to believe, right?)

HWTF dude?! Thanks a lot!

Apparently, this type of thing isn’t too uncommon if you’re up in those parts, according to Hall of Fame finalist, and former Steeler, Alan Faneca:

Never played a game in NE where that did not happen. Every single time https://t.co/hMFlTagcsc

— Alan Faneca (@afan66) January 22, 2017

So this was not a one time occurrence…

Did it effect the outcome of the game?

We will never know.

But does it reek of previous Patriots tactics to win?

Yes.

WTF?

The game

I’d like to say the game is a blur for me, but I would be lying.

All I can think about is the young guys dropping perfectly thrown balls by Big Ben. According to Pro Football Focus’ Mike Renner, Roethlisberger had 119 yards through the air dropped by receivers.

WTF?

You can’t win like that.

The tone was that of a badly played game, one which featured a missed extra point (Boswell’s only missed PAT this season), a Tom Brady flea flicker touchdown pass, and some untimely turnovers.

Coach Tomlin admitted “the young guys out there seemed scatterbrained”, while Roethlisberger said “the moment may have been to big for them”.

WTF boys? I get all of that, but these moments do not come often. Remember only 31 quarterbacks have won a Super Bowl. It’s not easy to get there, let alone win.

So who’s fault is it that they were so ill-prepared? Coaching WTF perhaps?

A lot has been made about playing zone, and making some freaking adjustments, but that didn’t work out too well either.

Steelers D went to man coverage 3 times and got burned each time by Brady. Stopped doing it after that. Per team source.

— Gerry Dulac (@gerrydulac) January 24, 2017

They had in fact used some man coverage, particularly with Artie Burns, but little could be done.

Maybe they didn’t get enough sleep because of that unexpected 3 am wake-up call?

Bell

I’ll take back what I said about the “biggest” WTF earlier: losing arguably our most productive offensive player, Le’Veon Bell, in the first quarter. Apparently he has been nursing a groin injury for weeks, admitting it “has been hurting for awhile now, and I haven’t been really telling people how I really felt”.

WTF Le’Veon? Not only have you put the team in a very precarious position, because if there is any chance they knew about this injury (think Seattle and Richard Sherman), and didn’t disclose it, there are draft disciplinary measures that will be taken for failure to report.

On top of that, we have to assume, had the Pittsburgh training staff known about the injury, they might have managed it differently, administered some treatment, and had DeAngelo Williams in there to carry us along, so that you were playoff ready.

Sadly we will never know “what if”?

I really hope this was just Bell trying to live with it, and not something that was known, or all hell will break loose.

He is about to enter free agency, and maybe he was hiding that injury was a part of that? (Because if he’s dishonest, that isn’t a good outlook for his future either.)

 

The other game

The WTF in the NFC Championship game was Aaron Rodgers getting a face mask penalty called against him.

That was amusing!

He is the media darling, a fan favorite, but that didn’t matter much on Sunday. It was the Matt Ryan and Julio Jones show, which left Rodgers with his own “WTF” expression on his face.

(Double check it!)

Moving forward

There will be more WTF moments I’m sure, as teams maneuver in free agency, move to other cities, and continue to shape their front offices going forward.

As for the Super Bowl, I’m a diehard Steelers fan who doesn’t want the Patriots to inch any closer to the Steelers record six Lombardi trophies. I will be rooting (heavily) for the Falcons to kick some serious Patriots butt in this game.

If any Falcons fans happen to walk by New England’s team hotel in Houston, I hear there are some easy fire alarms that can be triggered!