(Sports Network) - The bold proclamations about the Steelers' ability to defeat the mighty New England Patriots in a few weeks' time have been replaced by silence.
It's not only that Pittsburgh found a way to lose, 19-16 in overtime, to a formerly 1-8 New York Jets team on Sunday.
It's how Mike Tomlin's team did so little well in the defeat, looking lethargic throughout and ultimately falling to a Jets team that simply seemed to place a higher value on the win.
"All three phases we fell below the line of what's acceptable," said Tomlin. "We didn't tackle well. We didn't protect our quarterback on offense. We didn't run the ball, and didn't establish any kind of rhythm in terms of running the ball. That performance speaks for itself."
Tomlin wasn't exaggerating.
The non-tackling portion of his argument is right there in Thomas Jones' 30- carry, 117-yard day, the first 100-yard rushing performance the Steelers had allowed in nearly two calendar years.
The lack of protection spelled a bloated seven sacks of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger by a Jets team that had a grand total of nine sacks through its first eight games. Roethlisberger threw for 195 yards with a touchdown on 15- of-25 passing, but also turned the ball over twice on a less-than-memorable day.
Finally, the dearth of any semblance of a running game was very much in evidence when Willie Parker rushed for 52 yards on 21 carries against arguably the weakest run-stopping unit in the league.
Despite the overall shoddy nature of the performance, it's not as if Black and Gold nation is going to go panicking. The Steelers are still very much in control of the AFC North, and aren't going to lose their grip on it with home games against 0-10 Miami and 3-7 Cincinnati coming up the next two weeks.
But even the most ardent Pittsburgh apologist has to be concerned about this team's seeming inability to answer the bell away from Heinz Field.
The Steelers are 2-3 in road games under Tomlin, and the three defeats have been compiled against Arizona, Denver, and the Jets - none of which can claim a winning record at the moment.
For a team facing the very real prospect of two trips to New England - one on Dec. 9, the other a distinct possibility in the AFC Playoffs, the consistent lack of road fire is worth addressing.
"Historically, we have been a good team on the road," noted guard Alan Faneca, part of the group that allowed those seven quarterback sacks. "We have always played well in that environment. I don't know why. It is something different."
FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY...
Despite their many missteps on the day, it looked as if the Steelers would escape with an ugly win after kicker Jeff Reed booted his third field goal of the game, a 48-yarder to stake Pittsburgh to a 16-13 lead with 8:41 to play.
Given the fact that the Jets had displayed little offense in the second half up to that point and were playing a quarterback, Kellen Clemens, making his third career start, the Steelers' prospects looked shiny and bright at that stage.
And, the Pittsburgh defense would get the ball back for its offense on two subsequent New York drives, with Deshea Townsend intercepting a Clemens pass on the Steeler-32 at the 8:02 mark, then forcing a Jets turnover-on-downs with 4:15 to play.
But the Steelers failed on two attempts to put together the drive needed to ice the game, going three-and-out on two consecutive fourth-quarter series to give the second-year-pro Clemens yet another opportunity to bring his team back.
The third time was a charm for the Oregon product, who led the Jets on a 13- play, 76-yard drive culminating in a 28-yard game-tying Mike Nugent field goal with 23 seconds left in regulation. Clemens was 5-of-9 for 58 yards on the drive, registering more than one-third of his afternoon totals in completions (14) and yards (162) on the march.
After heading to overtime, the teams traded punts, with Jets return man Leon Washington making the play of the day on a 26-yard return that took New York all the way to the Pittsburgh 26 and setting up Nugent's game-winner.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
A matchup against the porous Jets defense looked like a golden opportunity for Parker to position himself for the NFL rushing title, something his 21-carry, 52-yard day didn't quite accomplish.
Parker entered Sunday in second place on the league rushing chart, 208 yards back of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who is out for an undetermined length of time with a knee injury. Following the Jets loss, Parker now has 925 yards, still a considerable distance from Peterson's 1,081.
The North Carolina product has now been held to less than four yards per rush in four of his last seven games, also struggling to maintain momentum against Arizona (19 carries, 37 yards), Seattle (28 carries, 102 yards), and Baltimore (23 carries, 42 yards).
Still, with 75 more yards, Parker will have broken 1,000 for the third straight season, becoming the first Steeler to achieve that feat since Jerome Bettis did it in six straight years, from 1996 through 2001.
NEXT UP
The Steelers will have a primetime forum from which to rebound this week, as they face 0-10 Miami in a Monday night showdown from Heinz Field. Pittsburgh is 12-0 in home Monday night games since last losing such a contest in 1991. The main storyline in the tilt will likely be the return to the Steel City for linebacker Joey Porter, a three-time Pro Bowl pick while with Pittsburgh between 1999 and 2006 before being released this past offseason.
The all-time regular season series between the Steelers and Dolphins is knotted, 9-9, with Pittsburgh evening the series by virtue of a 28-17 home win to kick off the 2006 season. Miami is 0-2 in the series since scoring a 21-0 home victory over the Steelers in 1998, and is 0-2 in Pittsburgh since last winning there in 1990.
Miami holds a 2-1 edge in the postseason series with Pittsburgh, claiming AFC Championship wins in 1972 and 1984 while dropping an AFC Divisional Playoff in 1979.
The Steelers' Mike Tomlin and Dolphins' Cam Cameron will be meeting each other, as well as their counterpart's respective team, for the first time as head coaches.
