Just when we had nearly given up all hope, Steelers President Art Rooney II steps in to restore a much-needed dose of common sense. There should be no doubt anymore about who's in charge of the Black and Gold, and it's certainly not Coach Tomlin nor Ben Roethlisberger. Sometimes the people closest to the problem are the last ones to recognize it.

Let's face it, Bruce Arians has been a liability as OC for some time, but apparently nobody except the chief had the guts to get out the hook. Mike Tomlin might feel undercut and Big Ben might be miffed. The local Pittsburgh sportswriters claim to be horrified at the shabby way they believe this situation was handled. But that's really not Mr. Rooney's problem, is it? Either his team is improving or declining; there's no middle ground unless you enjoy watching a team that semi-sucks clawing its way to a .500 season record.

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I'm watching the Broncos literally implode at Foxboro. Tebow has reverted to his normal sucky, ineffective passing and Brady is doing surgery on the Broncos defense. At halftime, the Pats are romping by 35-7. Well, at least something still makes sense in the world of pro football. The Broncos will end their season at 9-9, which is about what they deserve. They were never a legitimate championship contender and how we ever let them beat us stands as one of the great mysteries of Steeler history.

The really bad news for Denver is that Brady, Belichick and Company are never satisfied to merely beat you. By the time this one is over, the Pats will rub Tebow's nose in this defeat and he'll need to pray that he can keep the starting QB job next season. You can't beat the top NFL teams in a playoff game by running option plays. Any guesses on the final score in this slaughter?

You can't always post everything you're thinking because sometimes it sounds like you're trying to jinx the home team. But I must admit to some serious reservations about the Steelers' chances as we headed into the playoffs this time. We hardly expected our playoff run to end quite so quickly in Denver, but how many of us could honestly say that we didn't have nightmarish visions of a post-game Brady smirk-fest dancing in our heads when we pondered an AFC Championship game in Foxboro?

Tim Tebow, the guy who some in the BTSC crowd dismissed as a mere pretender, showed everyone that he's worth, at the very least, a much longer look in Denver before dispatching him to the CFL. And somehow this humiliating loss was fitting for a Pittsburgh team that rarely lived up to the hallowed credo of Steeler Football during the 2011 season. For sure, some of this lost season was purely bad luck. More troubling, though, were some serious weaknesses exposed during the season that even the lowly 8-8 Denver Broncos were able to exploit.

I don't think it's overly dramatic to say that this marks the end of a watershed season for the Black and Gold. Several of our veteran leaders are likely to be gone by next September when we buckle our chinstraps for another drive at the big prize. And the team will need to forge a new identity that's worthy of the six Lombardi trophies on display at Steeler headquarters. Some tough decisions need to be made during the off-season and, as usual, the upcoming 2012 NFL draft will be crucial to our future success.

For now, though, I want to focus on some steps that I feel are essential and which we can only hope will start to take shape with the dawn of a new season and renewed optimism.

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Going into the backyard brawl in Cleveland, I was firmly against playing Ben, not even for 20 snaps, let alone for the entire game. I also felt that it might be better to give Pouncey some additional rest. We knew the odds were slim that the Ravens would lose in Cincinnati to give us a playoff bye. But after seeing how Big Ben and the Steeler D gutted it up to once again deny the Browns bragging rights, I'm convinced that Mike Tomlin chose exactly the right course in the final week of the regular season.

Against my expectations, I think the Steelers returned from Cleveland as a team better prepared for the playoffs, even though we picked up a couple of potentially key injuries.

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In a game that looked more like the tussle in KC a couple weeks ago than last week's rout of the Bengals, the Steelers made things look difficult for most of the game until Antonio Brown snagged a pass from Ben and showed the nation why he has become perhaps the team's most dangerous, if not speediest, WR.

I know this game will be analyzed quite a bit in the coming 10 days before we face San Francisco, but here are my players of the game and some thoughts about the near-loss of our QB.

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On both sides of the ball, the Steelers totally dominated and out-hustled the Bengals at Heinz Field on Sunday. In the first half, we kept our foot on the gas, even after the Bengals scored a TD to make the score 21-7. In the second half, we entirely thwarted any notions the Bengals might have had about staging a comeback. The Steeler D was its normal smothering self, while Big Ben stepped up with a huge game, racking up 35 points in slightly more than 3 quarters of play. Our D put big-time pressure on Andy Dalton and, for the second week in a row, we got some key TOs.

Nobody can ask for a better showing than this by Steeler players and coaches. We took care of business and showed a very good, young Bengals team the kind of focus that it takes to be a champion. 5 game balls coming after the jump.

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Nothing worth dwelling on in Sunday night's sleepwalking performance by the Steelers in KC. Time to move on and maybe pretend we didn't see what we thought we saw. Like many of you, I watched the earlier game between the Bengals and Browns in order to assess our opponents in 3 of our final 5 games. Not exactly an impressive showing by either team, but the Bengals walked away with a narrow victory.

One tendency of the Bengals offense really stood out that the Steelers will do well to prepare for this Sunday at Heinz Field. Using essentially the same tactic, QB Andy Dalton grabbed some big chunks of yardage, including a huge game-clinching pass in the 4th quarter that A.J. Green snagged by out-jumping the Browns' Joe Haden.  

The Bengals seem to prefer Green and TE Jermaine Gresham to drive their coverage downfield, then peel off, stop and play jump-ball with the DBs.  Dalton frequently puts the ball up high to these guys even when the coverage is tight, but he's been completing a high percentage of these throws. This includes the TD pass to Green against the Steelers, which made some of us question whether Troy can still jump.

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Suddenly, it has become fashionable to pronounce Hines Ward a washed-up NFL player and to suggest that #86 is occupying a roster spot that might somehow be better used.  The emergence of younger talent at the WR position, plus an offensive scheme that exalts the deep pass above all else, gives some people the idea that it's time to put Hines out to pasture.  Some even say this should have happened at the end of last season.

Those harboring such thoughts might need a little reminder of Ward's incredible body of work and, more than that, of his incomparable leadership value to this Steelers team that we know and love.

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As usual, the Steelers didn't make it easy for themselves after jumping out to a 14-0 lead in the 1st quarter. Surrendering an odd-looking "Hail Mary" TD pass combined with an untimely bobble by Heath Miller that the Bengals intercepted, the Steelers allowed Cincinnati to hang pretty close until late in the game. But the final 24-17 score didn't begin to represent the difference between these two teams on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium.

As others have noted, however, most of the time you're not going to enjoy any style points in division rivalries of this nature. And while winning ugly might make you feel like putting your head through the drywall at times, it's far better than losing ugly. If you don't believe me, just ask the Baltimore Ravens. 

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Here they go again folks. The Ravens are sucking against doormat Seattle on the West Coast and Seattle just kicked another FG to make the score Seattle 16, Ravens 7.  Get on board and we'll hopefully root the Ravens to another embarrassing defeat. Hard to believe how bad they're playing against some of the bottom feeders of the NFL this season. Are you ready for some Flacco?? He's having one of his more forgetable games.

One of my favorite old movies is "Unforgiven," the 1992 film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. In the person of ex-gunslinger William Munny, Eastwood paints a sobering portrait of a world that never allows you to quite escape the consequences of your previous actions.  Personal redemption clearly wasn't on Eastwood's mind when he wrote this screenplay which chronicles the descent of a seemingly rehabilitated killer back into the monstrous depths from whence he came.

My favorite line from the movie is when Munny's young sidekick, the Schofield Kid, asks him about how many people he has killed.  As Munny recounts his murderous past, the kid's eyes fill with fear and finally he asks, "You wouldn't shoot me would you?"  To which Munny replies, "No kid, I wouldn't shoot you; you're the only friend I've got."  

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One of the great things about living in the Burgh is that it's one of the few places in the U.S. where you can still get your hair cut by a barber named Joe who was born in the U.S. and who has been cutting hair in the same shop every week for more than 30 years. I've lived in other cities (e.g. Tampa, D.C.) and you can't talk to most of the barbers there because they're mostly recent immigrants who speak little English.  Nothing against immigrants, of course, because Joe's parents came here speaking Italian about 1900 and mine came from Scotland and Ireland in the 1800s. But I have to admit that it's comforting to spend a relaxing 30 minutes or so in an old-time American barber shop trading stories. I call this the "Mayberry experience" and it can be very good therapy at times.  

But I digress. Joe is a heckuva guy who really knows his football, whether it be the local high schools, college or pro teams. But alas, Joe is no fan of Ben Roethlisberger.

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In the wake of a gut-wrenching, last-minute 23-20 loss to the hated Ravens, some might say that there's nothing good to talk about this week. But this game was a typical, hard-fought matchup between two teams that know each other only too well. We went right down to the wire again with Baltimore, but this time we came up short.

The good news is that the Steelers played a solid game for the most part, especially when you consider that we had just defeated the Patriots last weekend. We certainly played well enough to beat the Ravens, but in the end, we let Joe Flacco and company off the hook. So I'm taking Mike Tomlin's advice and I'm not riding that emotional roller coaster this week.

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Most of us breathed easier when we learned that Jeremy Kapinos was available after it was reported that injury-prone punter Daniel Sepulveda had, once again, been placed on IR with a knee problem. But what do we really know about the Steelers' new punter?  I thought I'd do some research and what I found is a pretty interesting story that appears to bode well for this guy's future with the Black and Gold.

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As a frequent critic of NFL parity and everything it implies, I reviewed the NFL standings at mid-season and found five shining examples of teams that have no business, based on their mediocre records, in competing for the playoffs. But each one is currently within easy striking distance of a division title.  On the theory that, if a team can't score more points than they surrender, they've got no claim whatsoever to post-season honors, I'll present my infamous five teams after the jump:

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