Sunday afternoon, early in the third quarter, things looked pretty bleak for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ostensibly the favorite to win the AFC, Pittsburgh trailed the woebegone Indianapolis Colts, 17-3.
This result was not unexpected. For one thing, the Steelers have upheld a very confounding standard of incompetence against sub-.500 teams on the road since 2011 or so. This can be blamed on a lot of things. Ben Roethlisberger’s play, for example, takes a palpable and startling nosedive beyond the friendly confines of Heinz Field. It’s hard to maintain a winning edge when your primary catalyst morphs from Joe Montana to Mark Sanchez after a brief plane ride.