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While Michigan started off with shocking loses, the Pittsburgh Steelers have played consistently well for three weeks. They started off with a shellacking of the Browns and followed that up with a nice win against Buffalo. Today they pulled away from a quality San Fransisco team.

The Steelers have their typical hard hitting and tough defense and they run the ball like always. But they also have a balanced passing attack with good receivers and play-making tight ends. They have speed with "Fast Willie" Parker and a bruiser with Najeh Davenport. They have the rock steady Hines Ward and their up-and-coming youngster in Santonio Holmes plus reliable Cedric Wilson (and talented but sometimes inconsistent Nate Washington). They not only have Heath Miller as a quality pass catching tight end but rookie Matt Spaeth is a great athlete as well. And their old school, and Michigan grad, TE Jerame Tuman caught a TD today. Ben Roethlisberger looks in sync and more in control of the offense. He continues to use his athletic abilities to keep plays alive and make something happen down field.

They even look good on special teams; a critical problem last year. The addition of Allen Rossum has paid dividends. He had a 98-yard kickoff return touchdown today and has been running well all year. Jeff Reed has been nails.

All of this adds up to a solid football team. Balanced and tough but capable of putting up points. They scored in all facets of the game today: special teams, offense, and defense. They kept plugging away and made the big plays when they needed to and put the opponent away.

They now head on the road to face former coaches at Arizona Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm. Then they have Seattle at home before a bye week. Being 5-0 or 4-1 would be important because they then face back to back road games against Denver and Cincinnati .

Ahh, there is nothing like reviving your sagging football spirits quite like a trip to Cleveland. The Pittsburgh Steelers gave me a boost by demolishing the Browns yet again.

The defense harassed the QB - no matter who it was - and the offense looked good. Ben Roethlisberger had four touchdown throws, including a beautiful deep ball to Santonio Holmes, and Willie Parker had a hundred yard rushing. Work for me.

The Steelers did look a little out of sync in the second quarter, but came out after half-time and put the game away for good. Of course it helped that the Browns were their usual hapless selves. They simply couldn't protect the QB long enough to get an offense working or hang on to the ball and force the Steelers to put together long drives.

I know Browns fans want Brady Quinn but it would be foolish to put him back there right now and force him to run for his life. Better to suffer and let him learn the offense and get a handle on the speed of the NFL game. Rushing a franchise QB into an ugly season isn't going to help in the long run

Next up for the Steelers: the Buffalo Bills who gave Denver everything they could handle. Should be a better test of this team. For once this year, I am looking forward to a football game.

A belated congrats to the Indianapolis Colts on winning the Super Bowl. I was glad that at least a couple of good friends of mine from high school and college were happy last night. Having suffered through many years of bad Colt teams, and good teams that couldn't finish, that had to be a great feeling. I remember the Steelers Super Bowl victory very well.

The Colts proved to be much tougher than I imagined them to be. I guess Tony Dungy's hard work and toughness paid off. Peyton Manning - as overexposed and annoying as he can be - played well and won the big game. I was surprised at how he was able to shake off rocky starts in post-season games and play big when everything was on the line. But the real stars of the game were the offensive and defensive lines. They played physical and allowed the Colts to run the ball which allowed Peyton to run the offense. It is hard to think of a team that looked more vulnerable heading into post-season but who turned it around in such remarkable fashion.

The Bears executed their game plan in many ways. They got a big special teams play and the defense held the Colts to field goals on a couple of key occasions. They were very much in the game in the fourth quarter. But Rex Grossman - Sexy Rexy as he is known on the Internets - just couldn't manage to hit his open receivers. When his mechanics are bad - happy feet and throwing off his back foot - his throws are highly inaccurate and have a tendency to sail on him. Against the Saints he put together a key drive or two and this allowed the running game to get going. Last night Grossman couldn't hit his receivers to save his life. One a couple of key plays he had open targets for potential big plays but his throws were jump balls. When the Colts got the pick-six in the fourth quarter it was over. If Grossman could have found a way to hold on to the ball or complete a decent pass downfield, the Bears were positioned to win the game much like they had won their last couple. But it was not to be. The soggy wet ball just hung in the air like some kind of sick duck and came down in the hands of the Colts defender. Grossman' stats might like half decent but he gave the game away.

Peyton gets the MVP even though it looked pretty clear to me that Dominic Rhodes deserved it (if not Rexy). Grossman has to be on the shakiest ground a super bowl QB has been on heading into the next season. Despite Lovie Smith, and his teammates, faith in him I find it hard to be confident about his job prospects

So congrats to the Colts and the Indy fans. They found a way to keep winning and that is really what it is all about.

Congrats to the Colts and Bears on impressive wins yesterday. Interesting Super Bowl for me in that I have lived in both team's city/state at one point; and have thus cheered for them in some capacity.

Having spent some time in Chicago, Da Bears have allays been my favorite team in the NFC. I predicted they would win yesterday and was surprised that none of the so called experts questioned whether a dome team could win outside in January (no one has done it since 1970). I have to admit I was nervous when the Bears settled for field goals instead of touchdowns early on. Grossman's mechanics seemed off and his passes were sailing on him. On the key drive of the game, however, he found a rhythm and connected with his receivers. When Berrian made that amazing catch for the touchdown, that seemed to break the game open. The Bears cruised after that.

As I mentioned above, I went to high school and college and Indiana and considered myself something of a casual Colts fan for many years. But something funny happened after college, I grew annoyed with Peyton Manning. I was tired of his seeming endless commercials, the constant attention his family gets, and his poor play when it mattered.

What a disappointing feeling it is to watch the playoffs and have it driven home that the Pittsburgh Steelers followed up winning the Super Bowl with an 8-8 season and are home for the playoffs. Now to add to that sad feeling we have the resignation of Bill Cowher as head coach after fifteen years.

It is hard to fault Cowher for wanting to spend time with his family and take a break from a harsh and time consuming profession. Fifteen years is a long time to coach one team in the NFL. And once he had achieved his dream and brought another Lombardi Trophy to the city he was born and raised in, why not take some time off and spend it with your family.

But there is a sense of frustration that Cowher is leaving on a down note and that the Steelers will suffer as a result. There is a sense of the unknown. There have only been two Steelers coaches in my lifetime: Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher. It is weird to think about having a new coach for the team I have cheered for my whole life. Weirder yet would be to see Cowher come back and coach another team. The taint of wanting more money down the line also hangs in the air.

Salvaging a little pride, and inflicting pain on a division rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-17 in overtime. The Steelers have now beaten the Bengals six straight times at their place. Last year they beat the Bengals in the first round of the playoffs and this year they keep them out of the playoffs.

Steelers played rather typical. They looked quite good at times, but gave up big plays and again turned the ball over in the red zone. The Bengals' special teams let them down for the second straight week. Last week they missed the game tyeing extra point, this week they missed a 39-yard field goal that would have won the game. The Bengals returned to the ways of the Bungles losing three straight games to miss the post-season. Ha, ha! Misery loves company. And Cowher loves the Bengals as he is 21-9 against them, his most victories against any team.

The question now is whether the coach wants to come back for another season.

The Pittsburgh will not get the chance to defend their Super Bowl Championship. Once again the Baltimore Ravens dominated the Steelers and this time ended their playoff hopes. The Steelers defense came up with a couple of turnovers, but looked out matched for most of the game. The offense never really looked in sync. Turnovers, mistakes, and tendency to get pushed around at the line of scrimmage doomed the Steelers today as it has all season.

Now we will have to see if coach Cowher is coming back to coach the Steelers again next year. If he is, he will have to try and regain the toughness and cut out the mistakes. The Steelers have talent but they led the league in red zone turnovers and in turnover margin. You just can't win a lot of games when you give the ball up like that. It will not be a merry Christmas for the Pittsburgh Steelers or their fans.

The Steelers have finally made it back to .500. After another beat down of a struggling team the team is hanging to a mathematical chance to make the playoffs. The realist in me, is trying not to get too excited about beating teams you are supposed to beat (4-10 Cleveland, 3-11 Tampa Bay, 6-8 Carolina). But after losing to 2-12 Oakland earlier in the year, I will take what I can get.

The Steelers have cut out the turnovers and silly mistakes and look a lot like the team that got hot at the end of last season and went on an improbable run to the Super Bowl. Willie Parker had another big game, rushing for 132 yards and a TD in a return to his home state of North Carolina. Ben Roethlisberger threw for a score and ran one in as well. In what has to be a heartening development, Santonio Holmes returned a punt for a touchdown. Having plagued the Steelers with muffed punts and minimal returns all season, nice to see the rookie run one back. Strong running, solid defense and special teams? Yup, that is the Steelers of old.

Whenever the Steelers need a pick up you can always count on the Browns to help out. Coming off a victory over the pitiful Buccaneers, the Steelers applied another can of whoopin' to the Cleveland Browns last night at Heinz Field. The win is their seventh in a row against Cleveland.

Fast Willie Parker broke the Steelers single game rushing record with 223 yards and added a touchdown. Ben Roethlisberger threw for a touchdown and ran for another to lead the Steelers to a 27-7 win. The Steelers now have a shot at avoiding a losing season. If they can find a way to win the next three games they could finish at 9-7 and salvage a little pride (not to mention exact some revenge on Baltimore and Cincinnati). The Black and Gold now have a long week to get ready, and get healthy, for the Carolina Panthers. Back to back wins against crappy teams may feel good, but the real test will be the next three weeks. But there is no need to look ahead. One game at a time has to be the mantra. The playoffs seem out of reach at this point, but the Steelers just need to find that consistency they have lacked all season. They can play out there games and see where things end up.