Dear Santa, If you have an extra lump of coal, could you please drop one in the stockings of Steeler management tonight

... their problems, Santa, start at the top

Dear Santa,

I know that you will be quite busy tonight, and I know that this is a last-minute request, but if you could find a way to do this when flying over Western Pa. tonight I would appreciate it.

You see, the entire area is despondent because its favorite football team, hoping for a chance at their seventh Super Bowl, will probably be staying home this year — absent a miracle of Immaculate Reception proportions.

However, you should not blame just the players. I have been writing on my blog all year that December could be the cruelest month for the Steelers — sort of a T.S. Eliot reference — but hoped that I would be wrong.

And then, just when we were terribly despondent because of losing to probably the worst team in the NFL, we defeated the best team of the 21st Century, the New England Patriots, last week. All of a sudden, we were psyched.

And then, despite playing the team with the best record in the league, we were leading them, 32-28, in the fourth quarter. That was before our coach inexplicably called a fake punt in our territory, which backfired and led to the Saints scoring their winning touchdown.

But Santa, this one is not just on the players. They took the blame after the game and did not blame the horrible officiating.

However, the guys on Football Night in America were not as generous. Let me share some of what they said:

Rodney Harrison, former Patriots player: 

“There were a lot of mistakes on the field, but to me, it goes a lot deeper. A lot of people talk about Mike Tomlin and possibly getting fired. I think that Mike Tomlin is a really good coach. I think that the one thing he has to really focus on is his locker room, and this is coming from an ex-player: He has to do a better job of eliminating all of those distractions. A lot of times you have enough talent to overcome that, but when you have guys getting injured and they’re not focusing on the things that you need to focus on, Coach [Dungy], those things come back to haunt you.”

While he was standing up for Tomlin, he pointed out the problem that Tomlin has had. But, not everyone on the panel was as generous. Dungy, a former Steelers coach and player, said this:

“In the last month of the season, at a point where we thought that they might be battling for the number two seed … Denver, they get a lead in the fourth quarter, they lose that lead. They’re up 16 points on the Chargers, they lose that lead. They were up today in the Superdome and lose that lead.

“As a former Steeler defender, I’m not used to seeing that because they don’t lose those kinds of leads in the fourth quarter. Their defense needs to come through a little bit better.”

Their NFL Insider, pointed out some of Tomlin’s problems, “Mike Tomlin’s a great head coach, and he’s got the hard parts of the job down pat. But, you trip up over the little things, the easy things, the things they should be able to figure out, like not having Antonio Brown doing Facebook Live from the locker room like we saw a couple of years ago after that playoff game against the Chiefs. Little things you should be able to iron out of the game and focus and focus and win.”

Ah ha, a lack of discipline, something about which I as a former coach has been discussing for two years. That is my problem with Tomlin, not his X’s and O’s.

Harrison added, “… the problem is on defense. We saw last week against the Patriots, some confusion. Every single week we see confusion and big plays.

“Today, two fourth-down pass interference penalties, two fumbles going into plus territory. Those are the things that kill you and the mistakes they’ve made over and over again.”

That goes back to a philosophical difference that I had when the Steelers started putting all their eggs on the offensive side. Chuck Noll started the Steeler Nation with his focus on defense. You cannot win a title without a tough defense. He still had great offensive players — five of whom are in the NFL Hall of Fame — but it was the Mean Joes, the Jacks, Lambert and Ham, Mel Blount — that led to this.

And now, we have a problematic defense.

As for the officiating, a good, strong owner would have complained when the Steelers lost to the Chargers in one of the worst faux pas of recent years, when even a middle-schooler could have called a false start on a play that resulted in a TD. A tough owner like Dan Rooney would have been complaining to the NFL front offices. His successor demonstrates the problem with nepotism. As long as Dan was alive, we had a shot.

Now, we do not even have hope. Cannot even get into the playoffs, much less win a Super Bowl.

Now, Rooney and Tomlin deserve lumps of coal. This started with a tie in Cleveland and then blown leads in so many games.

So, Santa, a lump of coal seems apropos. Don’t you agree?

And while you are at it, when flying over New York, could you please take one of the Western Pa. lumps of coal and drop it in Roger Goodell’s stocking.

Merry Christmas.