Steelers Fans Should Stop Whining And Move On

It’s inevitable. It hasn’t been a good 48 hours, and the whining is starting. The cries can be heard from the banks of the Allegheny River to the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. Pittsburgh Steelers fans and media are shedding tears over the loss to the Broncos. Stop making excuses and move on. The season is over. Better luck next year.

It all seemed to start Wild Card weekend. That’s the consensus from hordes of Steelers fans that just can’t seem to move on. January 9, 2016, is the day that snatched away the Steelers chance at another Super Bowl victory. In fact, the blame is directed at the Cincinnati Bengals.

Most of the anger and disappointment is directed at Bengals WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict. The consensus is that he’s the main reason for the loss in Denver. You’re joking, right? It’s no joke. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, you need to look no further than Mr. Burfict. His hit on Antonio Brown caused the star receiver to be in concussion protocol. That’s the bottom line. His absence caused the loss.

That truly doesn’t hold air. The Steelers lost six games during the 2015 regular season. Per the ESPN game-log, Brown played in every game. With the latest reasoning, the mere presence of Brown means the Steelers should have gone 16-0. They should have dominated every game and have no need to find excuses.

In the Wild West shootout against the Seattle Seahawks, Brown was held to 51 yards receiving. The star and media darling that day was Markus Wheaton. He hauled in nine receptions for 201 yards. Sadly, the result was the same. The Steelers lost with Brown in the game. Does that make sense? If you’re a Steelers fan, it probably doesn’t. Didn’t Wheaton play in Denver?

Nothing else mattered, on a brisk sunny day at Sports Authority Stadium. Antonio Brown was sidelined. The game was lost from the start. It didn’t matter that the Steelers couldn’t finish on the majority of the drives started. On three of the thirteen drives, the Steelers settled for field goals. Seventy-five percent of the scoring drives were for three points. If that’s flipped around, Pittsburgh wins 24-23.

It was clearly Vontaze Burfict’s fault. Somehow he was able to knockout Bradley Roby, slip into his uniform and cause that French bread guy – Fitzgerald Toussaint – to fumble. That crazy linebacker from Cincinnati is everywhere.

With the game on the line, Peyton Manning begins a 13-play drive that will eventually win the game. The march eats 6:52 off the clock and the Steelers defense doesn’t make a big play to stop him. Get to Manning and get the ball back. But that’s a common sense issue.

This is where more excuses surface. It was the thin air in Denver. The defense was tired and trying to suck air. The cameras were on French bread man, the entire time Manning moved the Broncos towards victory. But it still comes down to the supposed savage hit on MVP Brown, eight days earlier. When Black and Gold are the colors of choice, it may cause moments of delusion.

Ben Roethlisberger’s arm looked just fine. It also looked fine to Denver corner Aqib Talib. He let his feelings fly, after the game.

“Ben was healthy as h***. He didn’t fool anybody.”

The Steelers had Big Ben and Martavis Bryant. The speedy receiver burned Denver for 154 yards. Roethlisberger was able to pass for 339 yards, a TD and passer rating of 94.3. He even posted a 53.2 total QBR in the loss. It was his highest QBR in any of his five postseason losses in the last 10 seasons.

But the ghosts of the Bengals and Burfict are the demons that robbed Pittsburgh of a Super Bowl season.

It’s time to embrace the loss and move on. That’s the mantra heard by Bengals fans since January 9. Take the karma, learn from it and stop whining. It makes you look like sore losers.

[Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images]