It sure would be nice to be preparing to cover a game this weekend, but alas, that was not the hand that the Pittsburgh Steelers were able to deal for themselves this year, which became exceedingly unlikely—and then gradually, tantalizingly possible—after quarterback Ben Roethlisberger went down for the year with an elbow injury.
Since Roethlisberger was placed on the Reserve/Injured List, the Steelers actually posted a winning record of 8-6 with Mason Rudolph (5-3) and Devlin Hodges (3-3) manning the quarterback position. They even managed to raise their record to 8-5 after a 7-1 stretch in the middle of the year, but bookending the season with a pair of three-game losing streaks is awfully hard to overcome.