They had arrived in South Florida late Saturday afternoon as a 4-1 team that, while not without its flaws, was finding ways to win despite a list of injured players growing numerically and also in terms of the significance of the names on it. They were overcoming some inadequacies and compensating for others by taking advantage of some of their unique strengths. And overall, the 2016 Steelers had the look of a contender.
By the time they got out of town, they didn’t look to be any of those things. Their record was 4-2 after a head-scratching 30-15 loss to the Miami Dolphins in which they were outplayed in decisive fashion in every aspect of the game. Their injury list suddenly looked insurmountable as it expanded to include Ben Roethlisberger, and after studying the particulars of this defeat – coming as it did just a few weeks after 34-3 in Philadelphia and with reports that Roethlisberger would undergo surgery to repair the meniscus in his left knee and be out an indefinite time as a result – that look of a contender was feeling like a mirage.
