FanHouse Pittsburgh Steelers

If you're a Steelers fan, there were a lot of things in Sunday's loss to the Chiefs that would drive a man to drink, but in rewatching the game with an eye on the offensive line play, there was one disappointing aspect that may have been missed when watching the game live.

After not getting any sacks in the first 55 minutes of the game, Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger was sacked three times in the final three minutes of regulation. The first sack came on a third down, forcing the Steelers to punt while the third sack, also on third down, ended Pittsburgh's chances of keeping the game from going to overtime.

Now the frustrating part was that both of those third-down sacks came on the exact same blitz call by the Chiefs, both of which took advantage of a flaw in the Steelers' blocking scheme.

Charlie Batch's 2009 season isn't over yet, but it's fair to wonder if his Steelers' career is almost over. Hopefully for Steelers fans, his replacement Dennis Dixon's career is just beginning.

When Batch somehow broke his wrist during his four-play, no-sack stint against the Chiefs it marked the second time in two seasons that he's suffered a serious injury -- he missed all of the 2008 season with a broken collarbone he suffered in the preseason. As a 34-year-old quarterback who's starting to break down, there have to be questions about whether Batch has much left.

The Steelers aren't putting Batch on injured reserve yet because there's a hope that he could be back in a month or so after surgery to fix a plate to his broken wrist. In the meantime, the Steelers are showing enough faith in Dixon to not sign a veteran backup. If something happens to Ben Roethlisberger this week (and he is coming off of a concussion), Dixon will be getting his first real game action.

Every week, NFL FanHouse hits the lowlights from Sunday's action, looking at those players who did the most to move their head coaches that much closer to returning to the Bed and Breakfast business.

You're the Pittsburgh Steelers. You won the Super Bowl last year. You're a big-game-ready team that has matched up against the likes of the Patriots and Colts in recent history. The Chiefs are the very definition of a rebuilding project, with 29 players on the active roster having three or less years of experience. Before you stepped on the field with them, they had only beaten two teams -- the Redskins and Raiders. You just lost to the Bengals. You were angry and had something to prove.

So to walk off the field at Arrowhead, 27-24 in overtime to a team far less talented, is not the sign of one player or one coach bringing the team down. It's the sign of an organizational fail.

When you're giving up a kick return for a touchdown every week, sitting still and hoping everything will get better isn't really an option.

So for the second consecutive week, the Steelers are shuffling the last couple of spots on the roster in an attempt to improve their coverage teams. Linebacker Donovan Woods, the guy the Steelers added last week to try to fix the problem, was cut along with cornerback Keiwan Ratliff. In their place the Steelers signed ex-Raven defensive back Corey Ivy and well-traveled linebacker Rocky Boiman. Both have plenty of experience on special teams, which is the only place they will be expected to play in the short-term.

The Steelers have had a great decade. Two Super Bowl titles, two more AFC Championship appearances and six playoff berths is a record most teams would love to have.

But there have been some bad losses along the way as well, few worse than the loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. Here's a look at the worst five losses of the decade.

It was a rough day around the AFC North. A day when all four teams lost games they should have won.

Baltimore came into Sunday with more to gain, and more to lose, than anyone in the division -- beat the undefeated Colts, and Baltimore would stay right in the middle of the AFC playoff race. Lose and the Ravens would be in danger of falling out of the mix altogether.

Halfway through the fourth quarter, Baltimore looked ready to give Indianapolis its first loss. But with Baltimore needing only a field goal to take the lead, quarterback Joe Flacco was picked off inside the Colts 20 in the final three minutes of the game. The Ravens had one more chance, but Ed Reed lateraled into a fumble in the final 30 seconds. Now Baltimore sits at 5-5 with two games left against the Steelers and time quickly running out.

It's fair to blame the Steelers defense for Sunday's shocking loss 27-24 overtime loss to the Chiefs -- Kansas City simply shouldn't be able to drive the length of the field in overtime to beat Pittsburgh. It's also fair to point fingers at a Pittsburgh offense that piled up over 515 yards of offense, but squandered all of it with two interceptions, a fumble and three costly sacks.

But as the Steelers' fans try to figure out what happened in one of the more embarrassing losses in recent Steelers history, the group that once again is most to blame is Pittsburgh's kick coverage unit -- easily one of the worst group of special-teamers in NFL history.

In fact, only one of the Steelers' four losses -- their first loss to the Bengals -- can not be blamed, at least in large part, on poor special teams play.

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After nearly throwing for 400 yards for the third time in his career (he hit on 32 of 42 passes for 398 yards and two touchdowns), quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had to leave the Steelers game in overtime with what appeared to be either a right shoulder or head injury. The Steelers would eventually lose to the Chiefs without him, 27-24.

On a sack in overtime, Roethlisberger was sandwiched between Kansas City's Derrick Johnson and Andy Studebaker and laid on the ground for a few minutes before being helped off the field. He was replaced by Charlie Batch, who did help the Steelers gain one first down before Pittsburgh had to punt.

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Pittsburgh has several easy games on the schedule over the final seven weeks of the season, but it's hard to think of a better week for strong safety Troy Polamalu to miss than this week's game against the Chiefs.

Polamalu will miss the game with a knee injury, although the Steelers are saying he should be back before too long. But even without Polamalu, the Steelers' secondary should be able to handle the Chiefs.

Kansas City is without wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who was suspended four games for violating the league's performance-enhancing drug rules. Without Bowe, Kansas City lacks a viable No. 1 or No. 2 receiver. Chris Chambers, who becomes the team's No. 1 receiver, has only been a Chief for three weeks--he was picked up off the waiver wire when San Diego waived him. No. 2 receiver Lance Long was promoted to the active roster until three weeks ago as well. Tight end Sean Ryan is a true journeyman--he's playing for his fourth team in the past two years.

If you're a Steelers fan, you know that the Steelers kick coverage has been putrid, but considering how bad the Steelers coverage teams over the years have been, it's easy to not realize just how rank this year's special teams are. Thankfully, the Football Outsiders are able to give it some perspective.

In the 15 years of stats the FO guys now have data foor, the Steelers are coming up on a very dubious record. The 1995 Bills have the record for the worst kick coverage unit of all time--they are so bad that the difference between them and the second worst team is as much as the difference between the second worst and the 53rd worst unit.