Believe It Or Not, Steelers Still Haven't Reached Their Potential

Even After The HUGE Ravens Win, This Team
Still Hasn't Reached Their Potential

Coming off of a HUGE win over the much maligned Baltimore Ravens, the Pittsburgh Steelers and SteelerNation are enjoying the day when the Steelers are the talk of the NFL landscape...again.  I'm not going to gloat that I almost predicted the score (I said 20-17 Steelers) and that I predicted an ugly game...but this game reminded me alot of the New York Giants victory.  On the road, hostile environment, no one thinks the Steelers can get the job done, and they pull out the victory.  What scares me the most about this team is that they haven't even reached their potential yet.  There has been flashes, but for the most part, this team is operating on only about 4 of the 6 cylinders of their engine.

Take a look at just last night's victory.  The Steelers should have dominated the Ravens, but lack of consistency and miscues let the Ravens take a 10 point lead.  Just think what would have been if: Charlie Batch connects with a wide open Mike Wallace in the endzone, Todd Haley doesn't dial up a gadget play after a Ryan Clark INT that leads to Antonio Brown throwing an INT of his own, if Charlie Batch doesn't throw that disastrous red zone INT to Ed Reed, and if Emmanuel Sanders doesn't fumble to football with nothing but day light in his way from a TD.  Just those 4 plays alone could have completely changed the landscape of the game, and most certainly the outcome would have been much worse than a 3 point game.  These situations are prime examples of how the Steelers are winning and they aren't playing their best football.

Alot of the issues with the Steelers are injury related.  The first is Ben Roethlisberger.  The guy who makes the machine work the way that no one else can (although Charlie Batch in the second half finally started to look like he was getting comfortable as he led the team to victory) is set to return this Sunday if everything goes well with his rehabilitation assignments.  Would Ben have missed Wallace open in the endzone?  Probably not, but beyond those missed plays is the fact that Ben is the creator of the offense...its a different team with him in the lineup.  The biggest part of the team that has been failing is in the turnover category.  Yesterday I compared the 2005, 2009, and the current 2012 Steelers teams, and the biggest glaring difference between the 3 teams was in the turnover ratio.  The Steelers finished last night's game -1 in the turnover ration (3 turnovers, and the defense helped getting 2 turnovers = -1) making their season mark through 12 games a horrendous -11 in turnover ratio.  Troy Polamalu should help with this if he does nothing more than force opposing offenses to constantly account for where he is, and what he is doing.  Put James Harrison finally getting back to health another reason that the defense can get even better than its already performing.  Lamarr Woodley's return will be a welcome sight for SteelerNation as well.

With all of this said, its quite glaring to me that this Steelers team can get hot, and they would be getting hot at the right time.  It doesn't matter what your record is, or who you've beaten...all that matters is getting into the playoffs playing your best football.  This Steelers win last night over the Ravens could be the perfect elixir for some of the issues this team is having.  I look for this win to propel the Steelers into the next 4 games, hopefully winning them all and reserving their seat at the dance...and hopefully starting their accent to Lombardi #7.