I saw a post claiming that our secondary is the worst ever on the Steelers. I agree that it's looked pretty dismal with Troy out. But I do remember a season where it looked worse: 2002. And that was a year we made the playoffs.

Remember Rich Gannon completing 43 of 64 passes for 403 yards against the secondary of Chad Scott, Dewayne Washington, Brendan Alexander and Lethon Flowers? Relive the nightmare here:

http://espn.go.com/nfl/recap?gameId=220915023

I remember calling for Cowher's head after that debacle. Fortunately, no one on the Steelers ever listens to me.

Later, in the playoffs, the 2002 Steelers gave up 429 yards of passing to the legendary Kelly Holcomb. And we still won.

So, yes, I hope our current secondary improves -- and I think it will -- but the struggles are a whole team effort. Ike Taylor couldn't catch a ball if you coated it with stickum and lobbed it underhanded to him from six feet away -- but he doesn't play offense or call for the shotgun empty set on 3rd-and-1 against the league's worst rushing defense when it's below freezing outside and the star wide-receiver has a tweaked hamstring.

Now if you want to call Bruce Arians the worst offensive coordinator ever on the Steelers, you've got my full support.

We're getting a brutal reminder of what our secondary was like in the post-Woodson, pre-Polamalu days. We've recently won without Ben and without Parker. But our pass defense becomes as porous as Swiss cheese in a mice colony when Troy doesn't play. We're dangerously dependent on just this one guy, which is why I think he is literally our most valuable player.

Missing: "Fast" Wiille Parker. Former contender for NFL rushing title. Once set Super Bowl record. Began season as starter for NFL champs.

Recent Sightings: Briefly spotted on field against Vikings, but after scampering six feet, disappeared from view.

Cut to 4th Quarter: Current starter R. Mendenhall pulled after fumbling while brilliantly diving over a pile in an effort to break the plane of the 4-yard-line. Parker still fails to appear. One M. Moore gets final carries.

Conclusion: Parker's salary this year: $4 million. Next year? Not so much.

1. Jared Allen sacks Ben five times.

2. Adrian Peterson has one run for over 40 yards, then is held to less than 3 yards per rush after that.

3. Heath Miller sets a personal record for most catches and yards in a game.

4. The Steelers jump out to an early lead, as usual.

5. Down by 11 points entering the 4th quarter, Favre leads two scoring drives, the second of which gives the Vikings their first lead of the game.

6. On Favre's final drive of the night, which would put the Steelers down by two scores, he throws an INT to Polamalu, who runs it back deep into Packers' territory. But the refs make a terrible illegal block call against Ike Taylor and give the Steelers the ball inside their own ten, with less than two minutes to go.

7. Ben engineers a final drive that culminates in a long, impossible TD pass to Mike Wallace to end the game. Steelers win! Two dozen fans are hospitalized for cardiac arrhythmia.

8. Three days later, the entire nation gets sick of hearing sportscasters say that this game marks the moment that Favre "passed the torch" to a new generation of QB's.

9. Favre announces that this game convinced him to retire for good. He lies.

I detest no team more than I detest the Patriots. Not the Cowboys, not the Ravens, not the Browns. The Patriots cheated us out of a Super Bowl berth that should've been ours, then suffered a piddly draft pick sacrifice as "punishment."

What compounds insults is that Boston sports fans are the most obnoxious on the planet, making fans in Philadelphia and New York and Oakland look like Gandhi. Their mouths run non-stop, and if only we could harness those lips in perpetual motion, we'd solve all of the nation's energy problems -- although it wouldn't technically be clean energy.

Then the Pats' pretty boy QB gets endless hype because of the woman he dates and impregnates, as if anyone outside of New England cares. This takes up valuable space on ESPN and SI that could be devoted to something more interesting, like slow motion cheerleader videos.

Although I couldn't care less about the Giants, I and millions of others cheered for them in the Super Bowl as they knocked the Pats and their undefeated season onto their self-righteous buttocks.

Alas, tonight, the Bills couldn't follow suit, proving that a bad team will always find a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I feel for the Bills fans, for even though I don't care about the Bills, I'm livid that the Pats were allowed to notch one in the victory column when the Bills came oh... so... close... I feel your pain, Buffalo, and will eat another serving of wings in your honor.

I only have two wishes every football season: 1. The Steelers win the Super Bowl, and 2. The Patriots don't just lose, they get humiliated. Oh, please, gridiron gods, why can't we have both?