Steelers highlights, lowlights 2012

Steelers football 2012 was mostly lowlights, but there were a few high points, too. Here's a look at the good and the bad.

By Chuck Finder

Jan 2, 2013 at 11:59 am ET • 2 min read

Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers had more lowlights than highlights in 2012. (US Presswire)

There just might be too many lowlights to mention. After all, a team believed to possess playoff potential lost to four teams with four victories or fewer at the time: Oakland, Tennessee, Cleveland and San Diego. Those four teams combined to win 22 games total. Lose to teams you’re supposed to beat, that’s how you miss the postseason.

Highlights:

Coming back to beat the Giants post-Sandy: With the host Giants fueled by Hurricane Sandy and the Steelers arriving on gameday morning, the visitors registered the emotional 24-20 victory to make them 5-3 on their way to 6-3 -- and their playoff destiny seemed controllable. Ben Roethlisberger directed his 22nd career fourth-quarter comeback and 30thgame-winning drive . . . and that was his last in a season that brought him three more chances.
Fourth-quarter rally past the Eagles: On one hand, the Steelers blew a 13-7 fourth-quarter lead, one of three times in four games at the beginning of the season when they muffed an advantage. On the other hand, after Michael Vick and the Eagles took a 14-13 lead, Roethlisberger in the fourth game of a 1-2 season directed a 6:33 drive to the game-winning field goal.
Charlie Batch leads a late triumph in Baltimore: Just when the Steelers fell to 6-5 with back-to-back losses that included that eight-turnover horror show in Cleveland, the NFL’s oldest quarterback steered them to a game-winning field goal on the final drive, stealing a page from the playbook that Roethlisberger immediately thereafter misplaced.

Lowlights:

Fourth-quarter failure against Cincinnati that cost a playoff spot: This loss ranks as the low point, closely followed by two other fourth-quarter failures -- at Oakland and at Tennessee in September. Hard to believe they all outrank an eight-turnover embarrassment at Cleveland on the lowlight list, but they do. The Cincinnati loss was their fifth in six games and tossed them from the playoffs that almost seem a Steelers birthright.
Fourth-quarter failure in Dallas: An Antonio Brown fumble in the Steelers’ end in the fourth quarter didn’t help. But just the same as in the final minute at home against Cincinnati the next week, Roethlisberger threw a bad interception in the Dallas overtime. Two picks, two back-to-back losses -- each decided by a game-winning field goal.
Getting blown out by lowly San Diego: Still and all, the season may well have been lost against San Diego in the 13th game, the same week Norv Turner reportedly lost that coaching job and Roethlisberger returned from injury. The Steelers afterward admitted they weren’t mentally ready to play; perhaps they expected a 4-8 Chargers bunch to be in the bag. Instead, their season got bagged.

Follow Steelers reporter Chuck Finder on Twitter @CBSSteelers and @cfinder.