Though not extinguished, the Steelers’ playoff hopes are slim as of late Sunday afternoon. The shame of it is that the 2009 Steelers, despite the injuries, really did possess the talent they needed to reach the postseason. The injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu hurt, to be sure, but this team was ultimately done in by its inability to preserve sizeable fourth-quarter leads. Some examples:
Steelers A Playoff Shoo-In If They Had Held Fourth-Quarter Leads
↵Week 3 at Bears: Led 14-7 entering fourth quarter, were outscored 10-0, lost 17-14
↵Week 4 at Bengals: Led 20-9 entering fourth quarter, were outscored 14-0, lost 23-20
↵Week 13 vs. Raiders: Led 10-6 entering fourth quarter, gave up 21 points in fourth, lost 27-24
↵The Steelers surrendered a total of five fourth-quarter leads this season. If they had managed to preserve them all, they’d be standing at 14-2 right now. If they had made good on even one of them, they’d be in the playoffs with a 10-6 record. All teams that miss the the playoffs, of course, miss them for a reason, but this has to be among the most painful.
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