Have the Pittsburgh Steelers finally been run down and out in the AFC North? The Steelers have gradually been falling apart before our eyes and have been struggling drastically, especially towards the end of the 2012 season. Their new team leader, Heath Miller, 31 TDs in his career, and puny average of 4/ season and 3864 YDs receiving. After being considered a blocking tight end for the majority of his 8 year career, has suddenly become their most consistent receiver on the team, with 8 TDs and 800+ receiving YDs, mutually career highs. The Steelers running game and their running back situation has been nothing short of a mess in the backfield. Led by 23 year old John Dwyer and his team leading 571 YDs on the ground. Redman has been nowhere to be found, and injury and attitude riddled Mendenhall has been unproductive to say the least. Even their big home run burner, Mike Wallace still only has 836 YDs receiving on the season after 15 games, and 8 TDs. He will become an unrestricted free agent in the off season and surely will be looking to get paid, disbelieving he will be back next year in my opinion. Wallace, Brown and Sanders were believed to be the new direction for Pittsburgh this year, with only 13 TDs between the 3 in 2012. They were projected to make big plays when called upon, and really haven’t. Big yards were expected from them, and certainly more than 13 TDs total between them was anticipated. Potentially the trio could be good for 20+ TDs and 2600+ YDs among them, one would think. Getting turnovers in their pass coverage has unquestionably not been very good, with only 9 ints on the season, their CBs, Keenan Lewis and Ike Taylor have been fine for the most part, but don’t cause turnovers. Except against the better QBs in the NFL, they have given up 341 in the air to Tony Romo, 278 to Andy Dalton, and 253 to Peyton. Not getting any serious pressure on opposing QBs, with 33 sacks on the season, 17th in the NFL, hasn’t helped either. James Harrison and the rest of the LBs for the Steelers have been tolerable at best, led by 5 sacks by James Harrison, his lowest in the last 5 years in Pittsburgh. The defensive line has been shabby in 2012, they have not executed extremely well either. In particular the terrible end of the season slide, where they had lost 5 of their last 6 games, after starting off 6-3, and looking like it would be back to business and be a 11-12 game winner, yet again in Pittsburgh. But everything had turned around after their loss to Baltimore on 11.18, in Pittsburgh, where the Ravens were in fact dominated most of the game, and the Steelers were with Byron Leftwich as their main man in the pocket. Expectations for the Steelers are always high, every year; they are a staple in the NFL as always being one of the top ended teams. Nothing less is expected from the gold and black. They are a giant draw wherever they play, with a zealous fan base, carting around proudly their 6 Super Bowl titles. Fans have expected the playoffs every year, if not, a strong playoff run. The AFC North has certainly gotten much tougher, with the Bengals and their young high octane team and the Ravens with their supple running back becoming prime time teams over the last few years. Is this the new normal for the Steelers; is this at the present, the Steelers, or just a bad season? With terrible late season failures, scoring just 17.5 / game and giving up just 21.1/game over the last 6 games, they couldn’t close out the close games. Big Ben has been first-rate on the season, with 23 TDs and only 8 picks; he has been fabulous really, just not behind in games. It was a quick sudden drop off that took the team and fans alike by surprise.