I'm seeing quite a few negative articles being written about the Steelers across the Nation, and I must say, most are pretty damn disappointing. Like this slash and burn review. Everyone gets a dismal grade, presumably because the Steelers lost. Was the team at its best? Of course not. Were there mistakes made? Certainly. Does anyone else disagree that "the intensity was a joke"?
I thought the intensity was there; it was the execution that wasn't. There's a big difference, and to confuse the two doesn't help. The linked review does a reasonably good job highlighting some of the critical mistakes from last night's game, but the manner in which it was done - extreme hyperbole and player trashing - smacks to me of excess bitter from the sting of defeat.
Look, I know how difficult it is to lose when you're coming off of a championship. Losing sucks, period, but it sucks especially when you've just won it all. Still, we've got to be thoughtful in our evaluations. No one, save maybe Holmes - who I also singled out - played like a total bum. Everyone else was a little off, but mostly just beaten.
It happens, and I guess I have a stylistic bone to pick with the reviewers who are throwing out the babies with the bathwater.
Let's all calm down, take a breath, and take it for what it was: a subpar game against a team that was primed to perform.