Steelers refuse to give up on season after setback in Oakland

By Alan Robinson

They keep saying it right. They keep playing it wrong.

The Steelers lost in Oakland — stop if you've heard this one before — to fall to 2-5, the kind of record that, normally, ceases all playoff conversation from even the most optimistic of believers.

Overall, they are 14th in the 16-team AFC. They are 29th in the NFL in scoring — with only 125 points in seven games, they trail Denver by a whopping 218 points. They're 29th in giveaways/takeaways, tied for 30th in sacks.

Oh, and that 21-18 loss Sunday to the Raiders put them 31⁄2 games behind the first-place Bengals in the AFC North before midseason.

But perhaps still not quite believing the season is unraveling faster than a Terrelle Pryor length-of-the-field run, the Steelers keep talking as if this is any normal year — which, of course, it isn't. Lose Sunday to the Patriots* (6-2), and they'll be 2-6 for only the fourth time since the 1970 NFL merger.

Listen to them speak in a subdued but certainly not somber locker room, and it's almost as if one win or one good performance would repair what is fast becoming the worst season of the Kevin Colbert-Mike Tomlin partnership:

Marcus Gilbert: “We're the type of team that when we face adversity, we answer it. ... We've got to come back swinging. We wanted to win this quarter of the season. We wanted to be 3-1, and we can still be 3-1.”

Even if the Steelers go 7-2 the rest of the way, there is no assurance that a 9-7 record would get them into the postseason.

Ben Roethlisberger: “We felt like we were doing some good things and we were getting better. We just weren't there in all phases.”

Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/steelers/4957934-74/steelers-season-record#ixzz2j5JNkd3K

I'd be VERY concerned if they were giving up on the season already. Things are bleak, but not over. We need the Bengals to start losing while we start winning. We can cover that spread quickly.

Um...pretty much over.