Steelers didn't seem to start season until it was almost over

PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers didn't seem to start their season until it was nearly finished.

Bothered by distractions, beaten up by injuries and looking lost for half a season without a leader like Jerome Bettis to guide them, the returning Super Bowl champions didn't begin playing like a championship team until it was too late.

"A lot of things went wrong," wide receiver Hines Ward said.

Maybe they experienced a case of the dreaded Super Bowl hangover. Maybe Ben Roethlisberger's motorcycle crash and coach Bill Cowher's uncertain future caused them to lose focus. Or maybe they simply forgot how to win.

Whatever it was, no NFL championship team of recent vintage looked as off its game or as ungrounded as the Steelers did during a miserable first half of a season in which they went 2-6. They rallied to win six of their final eight, but that surge only got them back to .500 at 8-8.

Curiously, it was the same record the 1980 Steelers had the season after that team won the fourth and last of its Super Bowl championships. The difference is many of those Steelers were nearing the end of their careers, while this team seemed to be at its peak.

"It feels horrible," defensive end Brett Keisel said. "I felt like teams we played gave us their best shot and maybe we didn't give them our best shot, and that's why we are where we are."

For some reason, the Steelers never found the rhythm and consistency they had while going 26-6 the previous two seasons.

Roethlisberger was the most visible example, following up the unprecedented success of his first two seasons -- when he won 27 of 31 starts and a Super Bowl -- with a belly flop of a third season.

Slowed by an appendectomy that he needed four days before the opener, Roethlisberger looked more like a rookie than he did as a true rookie in 2004. His 23 interceptions led the NFL and were three more than he had in his first two seasons combined.

His misadventures, poor decisions and lack of big-play ability set the tone for a team that uncharacteristically led the NFL in turnovers most of the season. The Steelers repeatedly gave away games they could have won, including a 41-38 overtime loss at Atlanta and an inexplicable 20-13 defeat at Oakland, which won only one other game.

"I feel a lot of it is my fault, and we could have played better if I played better," said Roethlisberger, who had seven interceptions before he threw his first touchdown pass.

Cowher also became the very kind of distraction he himself hates by buying a luxury home in North Carolina, where his family lived this season, and failing to sign a contract extension.