More photos » by Gene Puskar - AP

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Well, let's take a look at the top 10 single-game performances in terms of passing yards. 

Pretty remarkable. We just witnessed the 10th best passing day in terms of yards by any quarterback in NFL history. And the 5th best performance by any quarterback in a winning effort. Steelers Nation sized salute to Big Ben!

More photos » by Gene Puskar - AP

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Okay, so last night I wrote in a somewhat different fashion than I normally do, retelling my story of watching the Pittsburgh Steelers exciting, entertaining and (hopefully) season saving victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. 

Now on to a few specific football thoughts from this one, a 37-36 barn burner that lasted nearly four hours and featured 852 net yards passing.  

* Let's start with Ben Roethlisberger and his 502 passing yards. During the Steelers five game losing streak, Big Ben had some nice moments and several solid games stat-wise. But he also was making some costly mistakes that we weren't seeing him make earlier in the year. Against Green Bay, Roethlisberger was flat out awesome. 

Ben Roethlisberger: 29 of 46 (63%), 505 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs

On the game-winning drive, Roethlisberger was the franchise quarterback Steelers fans are blessed to have on their side. He was flat out remarkable in the 84 yard game winning march. He converted on 4th and 7, 3rd and 15 and then with just 3 seconds remaining in the game, found Mike Wallace in the corner of the endzone from 19 yards out. Wallace dragged his feet, much like Holmes did in last year's Super Bowl, and the Steelers were just one Jeff Reed extra point away from defeating the Packer and keeping their season alive. Reed converted and Heinz Field erupted.

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More photos » by Keith Srakocic - AP

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At 7:37 pm central time on Sunday evening, my plane form Wichita, Kansas to Orange County, California was schedule to take off. At 6:24, the Green Bay Packers took their first lead of the game, 36-31 on a 24 yard TD throw by Aaron Rogers, his third of the game.

'[Insert expletive]," I mumbled to my girlfriend.  "It's going to be pandemonium in Steelers Nation after this latest late game collapse and loss. I guess the lone bright spot about this mess of a season is it will make finding a central theme for next year's Maple Street Press publication that much easier to identify and stick to. Unbelievable. We better get to the airport."

With my cellphone dead, I wasn't even tempted to check how the final two minutes of the game transpired. I couldn't help but let my mind wander towards thoughts about just how incredible it was that the Steelers kept finding ways to lose games despite (most weeks at least) playing quality and spirited football for large portions of the game. For the most part though, I was focused on spending a final few minutes with my adorable lady friend whom I'd spent had an incredible weekend with.

After saying goodbye, I hustled into the predictably unintimidating and uncrowded Wichita airport with no boarding pass printed and about 35 minutes until departure. My mind's now on my great weekend and thoughts of her. I'm also relieved that it won't take more than 2 minutes to get to the gate. There were maybe 3 people in line and just a few other folks that didn't look like they were traveling anywhere. They had no bags and were just staring intently at something I couldn't see from where I was standing.

Is that the look of men watching football? It is! And it doesn't look like it's a commercial break or a segment where Joe Buck and Troy Aikman are talking judging from the looks of their faces. Steelers highlights on NFL Network!

I hadn't forgotten but my phone was dead and I wasn't expecting to have time to find a bar with a TV, let alone have enough time to wait for what I was looking for. Anyway, I look up and it's the game winner from Big Ben to Mike Wallace! 

I'm really not going to try to describe my elation and astonishment in words. No need either, as I'm sure we all  reacted in more or less in the same ecstatic way - an exuberant (and often really silly) outburst followed by long-lasting satisfaction about the whole experience and future prospects. I suppose I was surrounded by a small group of entertained but still very stoic old men in boots and demeanors that suggested they laughed no more than once a month. So i had to reign in my nerd-tastic celebration dance or ridiculous outburst of any sort to make sure I didn't get my ass kicked and miss my flight.

I sure was thrilled though. 

Had I given up on the Steelers? Not at all. I dutifully showed up to watch and cheer on the team like I do every week. And I was awfully impressed and entertained by the quality of football being played. We were also reminded once again just how much this year's defense is struggling and how unlikely it is at this point that they'll be able to overcome their deficiencies on that side of the ball in order to make another run to the Super Bowl if and it's still a big if they were to sneak in to the playoffs.  

There's all offseason to think and talk about those kinds of things though. For another week at least, the Steelers proved why they're the defending champs and how they're not going to go quietly this year.  It just so happens that certain key Wild Card hopefuls fell on their face today, including my favorite fraud, the Denver Broncos.

We'll get in to some of the particulars of the playoff picture and more thoughts about this game itself, but for now, I rest. Happy.

Go Steelers! 

A very entertaining 1st half has the Steelers ahead 21-14. 

Can the Steelers finish and keep their slim (but bigger after today's action) playoff hopes alive?

Pardon my absence this last week. Been in Wichita, Kansas at my girlfriend's family's house. Frankly, there's not been much on my mind other than disappointment with this Steelers team. But there's still three games left and the Steelers have actually gotten some of the help they'd need to sneak in to the playoffs if they were to win out. But thats certainly no guarantee considering how they've looked during their five game losing streak. Something tells me they'll play well today. We'll see. I sure hope so!

Go Steelers!

More photos » by David Richard - AP

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On to our weekly red zone update post. Many thanks to Comcast for sponsoring BTSC and the other SBNfootball blogs this season. Their Red Zone Channel continues to received rave reviews so if you find yourself frustrated watching out of market games and are missing more football than you should each week, check out the channel and consider at least catching each and every play league wide inside the 20 yard line.

Week 14 Red Zone Efficiency:

1 trip, 0 TDs, 1 FG

2009 Cumulative Red Zone Efficiency:

42 Trips; 20 TDs; 16 FGs; 1 missed FG, 5 turnovers...47.6 % TD efficiency (-1.2%), 85.7 % scoring efficiency (+.4 %)

What's of course sad is the Steelers weren't able to breach the Browns red zone on more than one lone occasion. It certainly was not the best of conditions to execute in, and in the end, Cleveland was able to make just a few more plays than Pittsburgh in all three phases of the game. The lone bright spot I suppose is that on the Steelers single RZ possession, they were forced to kick the field goal due to time running out at the end of the half. They looked pretty good in that series and I think they would have punched it in had there been a few more ticks on the clock. But that's neither here nor there. The Steelers need to get inside teams' red zone more frequently before they need to start worrying about how they perform once there.

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It was a dark day in Steeler Nation on Friday. The beloved Steelers had lost the previous night to the win deprived Cleveland Browns. For as bad as the Steelers had been during their four game losing streak prior to Thursday's game, there was at least a small glimmer of hope that they could get back on track with a win against Cleveland. That's what happens when Pittsburgh and Cleveland meet up recently. The Steelers had won the previous 12 games against their longtime divisional rivals. The streak was snapped with the loss, and with it, Pittsburgh's 2009 playoff chances most likely.

"There's nothing fun about losing games, especially five in a row. We're better than that. We should play better than that. With three games left, you're going to see who really wants to go out here and play for the pride of this organization and this city and who doesn't want to be around here."

-- Hines Ward

That's right. These last three games are all about pride for the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers.  In 2007 and 2008, the Steelers had everything to play for leading up to their final game of the season. In '07 that was the playoff loss to Jacksonville in the Wild Card round. In '08, the season ended in Phoenix at the Super Bowl. In '09, the season essentially ended last Thursday night when they fell to 6-7. Of course, there is still a number of scenarios in which they could still very much make the playoffs, but at this point, it's becoming as unlikely that they'd get all the scoreboard help they'd need as it is that they'll win their final three games.

What will we see from the team in those three games? Will they be feeling too sorry for themselves to compete for a full 60 minutes.  They better be for their own safety, because the Packers, Ravens and Dolphins are all still alive and kicking for a coveted playoff berth. 

Regardless of how this final three weeks plays out, we'll learn something about this collection of players and coaches. Hopefully it's for the better, and we're celebrating their resolve and looking forward to seeing what the 6 time champs have in store for 2010. If not and we see a team not live up to what the organization - the ownership, fans, and winning tradition - stands for, then it will be equally interesting to see what changes might be in store this coming spring and summer.

I'm off the road now and will be back writing regularly tonight and throughout the week.