The rhetoric will continue as the Steelers fumble with mediocrity

This is the part where I'm too negative, right?

There's really no answer for this. I had the trifecta. In the span of four minutes after the game, I had an email from Bud, the guy who's been emailing me after Steelers losses for the last four years, a tweet from at least five smartasses who seem to think I work for the team and owe them something and multiple messages from fans of the opposing team laughing at me for "guaranteeing" a Steelers win in the "5 reasons the Steelers will beat the (insert team name here)" column.

Those things are all part of the territory. People who don't use their real name or state a reasonable and educated opinion are pretty confident in their opinions. But this was more connected. Far more embarrassing.

Radio host Colin Dunlap of 93.7 The Fan sounded off on Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer saying he was "a little bored" at the end of the game. Dejan Kovacevic of DK On Sports sounded off in an epic rant about the loss and the current state of the organization. Things are bad when a team is losing. This team isn't just losing anymore. It's taking haymakers straight on the chin, and its only defense appears to be standing up and preparing to take more.

We're past rhetoric. Actual moves need to be made here, and not to placate a suffering fan base that knows little of patience or suffering. Moves must be made for the sake of no longer being embarrassed as an organization. This doesn't go down to simple play calling, although that's a problem. It doesn't go down to simple discipline, although there's a lack of that (happy to see Kelvin Beachum throw a few punches at the end of that game).

They'll work on it, though. They'll watch the film, as DK pointed out. They'll do all the things a team should do to improve, although none of that will put a W back in the respective column last week. There's only the notion of improving for the future.

We've been hearing that ever since the whipping this team took in Week 1 of 2011. And 2012. And 2013. And some of of 2014. The rhetoric now rings hollow and we're left with nothing more than a team mastering their cliche post-game interviews than mastering technique.

This team is sloppy, it's undisciplined and it has a long way to go before it gets anywhere significant. It teases you with stretches of decent play and then drops an anvil on your head when you dare to allow dreams of it winning more than one game at a time.

There's a reason this team is the very definition of the middle ground over the last two seasons and six games; .500. 19-19. One out of two. Fifty percent.

Flip a coin, you don't know what you're going to get. But rest assured, they're going to watch the film and review what happened while that coin rotated in the air.