i've been a Steeler fan for 40 years...I've lived through the highest highs(6 rings) and the lowest lows(Neil F&*%#@@in O'donnell).  Because of the Steelers and since I was never good enough to play football beyond high school, I have been coaching youth football the last 15 or so years. 

Reading all the poast each and everyday and lately hearing all the gloom and doom, brings me to this point.

My youth football team was undefeated last year(my first championship ever).  We run the 3-4 FZ very similar to Coach Dad's..Scaled down of course.  We too came into this season with high hopes of another title.  We won our first game(yeah) but lost our last 2.  As I reflect on why/how we lost, it was very simple...we didn't stop the run!  Upon further investigation into the how's and why's, we discovered it is very simple...a couple of the kids are new to our team and still 'thinking instead of doing'. we also have a few 'vets' that 'try and do too much' putting themselves out of position and lastly we have a few kids not using good judgement or proper angles.  At first glace, we coaches thought 'this is a lost season' but after taking emotion out of it, we realized our shortcomings and are working with the kids to get things working again...Our offensive line is having issues with injury, continuity and flat out bad play.  Upon further analysis, we discovered teams are bringing more bodies than we can block...Some of these same issues are happening with our Steelers IMHO. Several folks on this site are of the 'gloom and doom' mantra.  I say, take the emotion out of it, as I believe our coaches are doing, analyze the problems and come up with solutions that can be put into action.  Just like in youth football, it's very hard to add bodies once the season starts, you have to work with what you have, scale back a few things and get back to fundementals.  This is the approach we're taking with our team and I sure our Steeler's are too.  I wish us both luck and await the turn around.  Every season is a marathon not a sprint....GO STEELERS