Professor

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pitt.../s_535828.html

Outside of offensive line help what do you see as the biggest need in the off season?

- Charles Golden of Fort Worth

What makes you think the Steelers need help along the offensive line? Kidding, of course. Obviously that is their biggest need, especially since the Steelers figure to make quarterback Ben Roethlisberger the highest-paid player in franchise history before the start of the 2008 season.

In no particular order, I think other areas the Steelers need to address through free agency and the draft are wide receiver, cornerback, defensive line and possibly linebacker for depth purposes.

I don't question the third-down call. If Ben takes it to the outside, where the blocking was, it looked like the first down was there. My problem is the second-down call. On first down, Davenport gains 5 yards. The way the running game was going, that was HUGE. WHY NOT RUN IT THERE AGAIN? Run the EXACT same play. Make the defense stop it. The second-down play got stuffed. THAT was the ballgame.

- Bret Brisky of West Covina, Calif.

You may be the only Steeler fan that isn't questioning the third-down call. I'm not so sure running the same play twice would have given the Steelers the first down they needed to close out the Jaguars simply because they hadn't run the ball effectively all night.

I still think the Steelers should have thrown the ball on third down. They had been hammering Jacksonville with underneath passes, and why the Steelers called a quarterback sweep is beyond me.

Nothing quite lends itself to second-guessing than sports, and the Steelers gave their fans plenty of reasons to do just that.

I'm tired of hearing about how Jacksonville is the first team in 75 years of Steelers' history to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh twice in one season. What an absurd stat. How many other times in history has a team even played twice in Pittsburgh? For this to happen, we have to face a team in the playoffs that had already played in Pittsburgh and won earlier in the season, which means (in a 16-game season) there are only eight teams each year that could play twice in Pittsburgh, and most of those will not have won on the Steelers' home turf.

In fact, how many times has this happened for any team -- losing twice to the same team in the same season on their home field?

- Ron Sellers of Phoenix

Agreed that the statistic, if that's what you can call it, is virtually meaningless. If I am correct, there were only two previous times prior to last Saturday night in which the Steelers had lost to a team in Pittsburgh and then played them again in Pittsburgh, 1978 season (Oilers) and 2001 (Ravens).

So, yeah, technically the Steelers had never lost to a team twice at home in the same season before Saturday night. Were you also aware that they have never lost at home when the sky is purple?

Now that you've seen a full season's body of work, what grade do you give Mike Tomlin on his inaugural season and why?

- Chris Jones of Columbus, Ohio

Great question. A "B" turned into a "B-" based on what Tomlin did in his first playoff game. He started going for two points after touchdowns way too early, and he should have overruled the infamous third-and-six call near the end of the game. That the Steelers actually worked on that play is practice seems crazy to me.

For all of the criticism Tomlin has gotten for the AFC wild-card game -- and deservedly so -- he did his share of good things this season. He won over a veteran-laden team and got the players, some of which had openly lobbied for the Steelers to hire Russ Grimm to succeed Bill Cowher as head coach, to play for him.

I also liked how he refused to make excuses, particularly when to came to injuries, and didn't allow his players to do so either. He is a good communicator, and I only expect him to get better as a head coach since he is still growing into the job.

I do think he needs to be a little more hands-on as a head coach. And he has to be held accountable for how atrocious the Steelers' special teams were even though they had two special-teams coaches and spent a lot of time working on that aspect of the game during training camp.

The game was lost when:

You're winning 29-28, your QB is unstoppable, three touchdowns in the last three drives, but you're averaging 1.7 yards a rush. Four minutes to go. You run three straight times, punt, and let the defense hold them. No need to go for a first down here (shades of Bill Cowher). Didn't anybody see the game tape from three weeks ago? What are your thoughts?

-- Jerry Bioux of Ellicott City, Md.

Hard it put it any better than you just have. As well as Ben Roethlisberger was playing and with still plenty of time left on the clock, I am stunned that they did not let him throw the ball during that critical offensive series.

And if they were too worried about an interception or incomplete pass that would have stopped the clock why not do this: give Roethlisberger firm instructions only to throw the ball if a receiver is wide open. If not, tuck in the ball and try to scramble for the first down.

He is much more of a running threat when he is escaping trouble. He is not a running threat when the Steelers call his number off left tackle. Mystifying play call on the Steelers' end, no doubt about it.

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