U mad, bro? Steelers loss has readers anything but merry during holiday season

So much for the idea of Christmas spirit.

A Steelers loss to the Buffalo Bills has turned just about everyone on my Twitter feed and in my email into a Grinch.

Understandable. Anyone who sat through four quarters of watching that offensive quack-fest from Devlin “Duck” Hodges probably didn’t walk away feeling very jolly.

That much is evident as readers spouted their Black-and-Gold holiday blues in this week’s “U mad, bro?”

Daryl posted on the TribLive Facebook page during the “Madden-Benz Unfiltered” live stream that I host with Mark Madden of TribLive and 105.9 the X (Mondays, 9:30 a.m.).

He hated the “Steelers Doomsday” scenarios I advanced for the NFL playoffs.

In case you missed them, they were:

1. The Steelers fight, claw, scratch to make the playoffs, only to get rewarded by having to travel to New England.

2. The Steelers fight, claw, scratch but miss the playoffs because they lose to Le’Veon Bell and the New York Jets or the Baltimore Ravens backups. Or both.

Daryl didn’t like those possibilities.

“You two are drama queens. Doomsday scenarios?? Drama much?”

Yes, Daryl. I “drama much.” It kinda goes with the job description. If there is drama, I write about it. And this Steelers season has been nothing short of dramatic, with head-scratching storylines every week.

But if that is too much for your delicate sensibilities to handle, I’ll offer you a “best-case scenario” instead.

The Steelers fight, claw, scratch and make the playoffs as the 6th seed.

Then they probably have to go to Kansas City to play Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in the first round. Or maybe Deshaun Watson, DeAndre Hopkins and the Texans in Houston.

There. That’s the best-case scenario.

Feel better? Denial much?

Mark tweeted me in anger over the failed wildcat play in the red zone last Sunday during the loss to the Bills.

Horrible call and pouncey keeps rolling his snaps like he’s bowling.

— Mark Elliott (@Mrkll26) December 16, 2019

Yeah. But can he bowl a 251 while sick like Le’Veon Bell?

I’m with you, Mark. Wrong play call. Wrong time. Wrong guys handling the ball.

Aside from that, it was an awesome decision.

This is from Richard, who emailed me after the Steelers lost to the Buffalo Bills.

“Now you can go back to what you do best — criticize and second guess (Mike) Tomlin.”

What do you mean, “go back”? I’m so good at it and enjoy it so much that I gladly do it even when they win.

You saw how the fake punt in Arizona got into the game, right?

Look, Rich, Tomlin has done a splendid job holding this team together through its injury chaos. But in just about every loss and even in some of the wins, he has had some truly indefensible coaching errors and decisions.

I have the ability to separate praise from the first point and criticism of the second point.

If you don’t, that’s your problem.

Here are a pair of tweets about Tomlin with a slightly different tone.

Coach of the year? He remains a bafoon

— Joe Miller, DPT (@imyour_PT) December 16, 2019

"Duck didn't kill us.... That's my job"

— KickSmark My Heart (@TP7187) December 16, 2019

Hey, fellas, I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, Richard. I’m sure you guys will really hit it off.

I’ll let you three talk. It doesn’t appear you need me involved.

Steven tweets me. And he’s frothing mad over offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner’s pass-heavy play calling against the Bills last Sunday.

@TimBenzPGH how does Randy Fichtner still have a job as an offensive coordinator?

— Steven Hvozdik (@SHvozdik) December 16, 2019

Because Ben Roethlisberger just got him one last year.

It appears @Wojciechjano on Twitter wasn’t wild about my “Airing of Grievances” after the loss to the Bills. He sent me this tweet.

“Yes Duck looked like a camp arm last night! Offense line is not as good this year! Defense is pretty awesome! We got a boatload of rookies playing. Still the 6 seed! I can’t complain. The season was over Week 2. So it’s been fun as it can be.”

Well, Woj, I see it a different way. You can be appreciative of the effort that the team has made to stay in playoff contention, even though we all thought they were cooked back in September.

I’m with you there.

But if we aren’t willing to debate individual moments and be critical of individual games, why bother writing or talking about them?

Isn’t that part of the “fun” you are talking about? The outcome can’t be interesting if the moments within aren’t worth discussion.

If the details and the journey to how they got there shouldn’t matter so long as the effort was sound, just check the standings at the end of the year and see how things turned out.

That’s boring.

And to a greater point, indeed, the Steelers are good enough to be in the playoff bracket through 14 games. So if they blow it with two games remaining for a second straight year, that shouldn’t be ignored without criticism.

I don’t care how banged up they are and how many rookies are in the lineup. If they are good enough to applaud for being in the playoff hunt this deep, they are good enough to be worthy of a few slings and arrows if they blow a chance at the postseason.

Which may happen if they lose again this Sunday.