In the sea of pain and frustration that is this Steelers’ season, especially the last 4 weeks, my mind has been wandering here and there about possible causes, outcomes and scenarios.

My hope is that the talent in the secondary isn’t as bad as it looks. Maybe it is that bad, I don’t know. But I trust our front office, if for no other reason than they’ve rarely let me down before. But any time an All World safety is taken out of the mix, the drop off in talent is nothing less than substantial. Couple that lack of depth with the relative inexperience of a first-year starter at cornerback, and it’s really not much of a surprise that the unit is giving up more big plays and TDs than last year.

Another thought is that stud DE Aaron Smith has been out for most of the year, which affects not only the line, but the linebackers and secondary, and likely the schemes as well, especially on passing downs. Are we getting the pressure we did last year?

Did losing Larry Foote hurt more than the FO thought it might? And the same could be asked for McFadden as well, I suppose.

We’ve lost some real defensive talent to Free Agency. And we’ve lost Pro Bowl and All World talent to injury and the Madden curse. The standard of expectation may not change, but the standard of talent and depth and cohesiveness as a unit most certainly has changed.

But I see a silver lining behind this black cloud of the imperfect storm. It’s called The Big Picture. We’ve not been blown out of any game, and are losing games by the skin of our teeth. We do have some talent! And that young talent is out on the field, getting valuable gameday reps with the established veterans. The experiences will almost certainly translate into better football, possibly as early as later this year, and definitely next year. Timmons will have a full year as starter under his belt, Fox will have had substantial playing time, Willie Gay will have a full season as starting #2 CB, and the guys behind him on the depth chart will also have had more playing time. Rookie Hood too, is getting on the field much more than he would have had Smith not gotten hurt. The depth is coming!

Here we go Steelers!!!