Stay Golden Pony Boy

"We will unleash hell in December."

Yes, Tomlin. Yes, we will.

It was a dismal weekend for Pittsburgh football fans. Many are starting to throw in their terrible towels on the season and start planning for next season.

Hang on here. Let me remind you all of something. Remember Super Bowl XL? Yeah, the ONE FOR THE THUMB? Let's recap that season briefly, maybe it will shed some positive light on all you doubters out there.... Follow along with me now:

2005 - The season began with a win over the Tennessee Titans. A solid win at that.

2009 - The season began with a win over the Tennessee Titans. Not quite as solid as in '05 but, as I like to say, a win is a win is a win.

2005 - The next four games following the home opener victory went as follows - win, loss, win, loss. Followed by a four game winning streak and then a three game losing streak, bringing us to week 14.

2009 - Flash forward with me, are you keeping up? Following the home opener victory over the Titans, the rest of the season progressed as follows - Loss, loss, five game winning streak, three game losing streak. Which brings us up to date.

Do we see a pattern here? Case and point, we have been here before. This is familiar territory for most of the veteran players.

In 2005, the Bengals won the division championship.

Remember in the first round of playoffs when Kimo von Oelhoffen fell on Carson Palmer, tearing his ACL and putting him out of the game that we ended up winning 31-17?

Remember the next game against the Indianapolis Colts when, with less than two minutes remaining in the game, Jerome Bettis fumbled on the goal line? And Big Benny Boy nabbed Nick Harper, who recovered the fumble and was well on his way to a game winning TD, by his shoelaces, dubbing the play the "Immaculate Redemption" ? The 'lers would go on to win by a nail biting 21-18.

They then went on to defeat the Denver Broncos 34-17 to seal the deal on an AFC Championship and a trip to Super Bowl XL.

The rest is history. And I can about bet you remember the story as we went on to win Super Bowl XL in Detroit against the Seattle Seahawks by a score of 21-10. Despite his worst passing game of his career, Big Ben became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl.

His claim to fame in 2009? Becoming the chubbiest quarterback in the NFL, dare I also say...to win a Super Bowl??

Rarrrrr!

Sorry, not sure how that snuck in there.

C'mon, though. Let's face it. He does look somewhat like Wookie's offspring lately.

Family resemblance? Mayyybbeeee.

In 2005, it seemed improbable that we would be Super Bowl champions that season. We were sixth seeded in the AFC heading into the postseason. After the three game losing streak during the regular season the Steelers surged ahead and "unleashed hell" for the last four games to finish 11-5.

Moral of the story? We like dramatics.

Hines likes to talk a little smack on his teammates, stir a little controversy, light a fire under some of the players beehives and get the team going. We could have beat the Ravens. I know, I know, coulda, shoulda, woulda, but didn't and needed to.

But, we had our third string quarterback starting, who prior to the game had thrown one...ONE NFL pass in his career. Hats off to you Dennis Dixon, I'd say you did quite well going 12-26 for 145 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception. Compared to Big Bens first (full-game) start when both Tommy Maddox and Charlie Batch got injured, against the Miami Dolphins in 2004. He went 12-22 for 163 yards, 1 TD and 1 interception. (Technically Ben's first game was, ironically, against the Ravens, the week before the Dolphins, when Maddox was injured late in the third quarter and Ben was the next go-to man.)

This week against the Ravens, Bruce Arians made an awful play call when he decided to pass the ball. It resulted in an interception to set up the game winning field goal. Not your fault Dixon...okay maybe a little bit your fault since you threw the ball to the other dude. Keep your head up though, we still love you. (most of us)

Dennis: "Hey, Brucie? You up there? Cus you definitely pulled that call from out of your ass in order to burn mine."

Am I disappointed in our current situation? Absolutely. Do I think they made the right decision not to play Ben Sunday? You bet. Am I confident this season is not over and there is still plenty of hope for a postseason rally?

YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT.

"We will unleash hell in December."

Yes, Tomlin. Yes we will. Why? Because we are the Pittsburgh Steelers. It's what we do.

Yah baby.