Steelers Today – A Pittsburgh Steelers blog

The Steelers lost to the Cowboys in overtime, 27-24.  Congrats to the Cowboys.  They’re now tied with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins for first place in the NFC East.

The Steelers, on the other hand, now find themselves in a much more precarious situation.  Their loss, combined with Cincinnati’s win, leaves them in third place in the AFC North with a 7-7 record.  More importantly, a .500 record, and 6 losses within their conference, is not the stuff of which playoff teams are made.

Fortunately for the Steelers, they face the Bengals next week, and may be able to climb out of the hole that they’ve dug for themselves.  If they beat the Bengals next week, they’ll be tied again, and fighting for the final AFC playoff spot.

So how did the Steelers find themselves in this predicament?

Sure, there was the loss to the Cowboys.  And there’s plenty of blame to go around for that.  Mike Wallace dropped a few passes.  Josh Victorian proved that he doesn’t know how to tackle.  Antonio Brown made a critical fumble.  Troy Polamalu hobbled around looking like a shadow of him former self.  Jonathan Dwyer only ran for 22 yards on 9 rushing attempts.  LaMarr Woodley did his best impersonation of the Invisible Man.  And Big Ben threw the interception in overtime that ultimately cost the Steelers the game.  Like I said, plenty of blame to go around.

As in most of the team’s recent losses, there’s plenty of blame to go around.  Fans have even started calling for Mike Tomlin to be fired.  But I don’t think that’s the problem at all.  Tomlin has done as much as he could with the hand that he’s been dealt.

In my opinion, the Steelers’ decline has been attributable to two key factors; injuries and execution.

The Steelers played today without their starting left guard.  Their starting right guard was playing in his first NFL start.  They’ve lost their starting right tackle, and his backup.

They’ve also battled injuries at the running back and quarterback positions.

On defense, the Steelers are playing without their best cornerback.  And his backup is also injured.  So they were forced to start a cornerback who has very little experience.  And their star safety is clearly not himself.  Their starting nose tackle isn’t outplaying his backup.  And their left outside linebacker is missing in action.

To make matters worse, the team has suffered a rash of turnovers lately.  They’ve fumbled the ball, bobbled passes that should have been caught, and thrown interceptions.

That combination of injuries and poor execution is too much for any team to overcome.

If not for the injuries, I think the Steelers have the talent to not only be a playoff team, but to also make a deep run in the playoffs.  It may be too late for that to happen this year.  But I hope that fans won’t call for wholesale changes next year.  I think that would be an overreaction.

The Steelers are a good team.  And Mike Tomlin is a good coach.  But even good teams can’t win if they have to rely too heavily on second and third string players.  And once they have a healthy roster, the execution problems will hopefully disappear as well.

The Steelers still have a chance to make the playoffs this year.  But if they don’t, I’m still highly optimistic about their chances next year……when they’re healthy.  Hopefully, you are too.

Go Steelers!

The Steelers lost to the San Diego Charger 178-24 this afternoon.  At least I think that was the score.  I may be wrong, but it certainly felt like that was the score.

But the score isn’t really what matters.  What I really want to focus on is the Steelers’ annoying habit of playing down to the level of their competition.

This year, the Steelers have beaten the reigning Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants.  They’ve also defeated their arch rival, the Baltimore Ravens, who are in first place in the AFC North.  And they’ve defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, who they’re battling for the final playoff spot.  And they’ve beaten the Washington Redskins, who still have a chance of winning the NFC East.  Overall, the Steelers have done pretty well against the good teams in the NFL this season.  But the same can’t be said about their results against the bad teams.

So far this season, the Steelers have faced 6 of the bottom 10 teams in the league.  And they’ve lost to 4 of the 6, the San Diego Chargers being the most recent.  The two that they did beat, the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, they beat by a total of five points…….combined.  They squeaked out a 2 point victory over the Eagles, and they beat the Chiefs by 3 points.

I’m sure most Steelers fans remember their late season implosion in 2009.  That’s when they lost to the Bengals, Chiefs, Raiders, and Browns during a 5 week stretch.  Those were possibly the 4 worst teams in the NFL that season.  And not only did the Steelers lose to them, but that losing streak cost the Steelers a playoff appearance during a season in which many thought that they should have been a Super Bowl favorite.

So what’s up with the Steelers?

Why do the Steelers repeatedly allow bad teams to beat them?  Is it a player issue?  Is it a coaching issue?  Is it a combination of the two?

I’d be lying if I said that I knew the answer to that question.  If I did have the answer, I’d definitely make the problem go away.

What I do know is that the Steelers need to run the table against their final three opponents if they want to have any hope of making the playoffs this year.

The good news is that the Steelers have to face the Cincinnati Bengals one more time this season.  And the Bengals are their primary competitor for the final playoff spot.  So in that regard, the Steelers’ fate is in their own hands.

The other good news is that the Steelers also have to face the Dallas Cowboys, a team’s also fighting for a playoff spot, albeit in the NFC.

The Steelers have the exact same record (7-6) as the Cowboys and Bengals.  On paper, both should be tough games for the Steelers.  So I’m not the least bit worried about them.  As we’ve already established, the Steelers can hold their own against good teams.

But the bad news is that the Steelers close the season against the Cleveland Browns.  The Browns are in last place in the AFC North, and they’ve already been eliminated from playoff contention.  That makes them the most dangerous of the Steelers’ remaining opponents.  After all, bad teams are like kryptonite to the Steelers.

If this were any other franchise in the NFL, their fans would be most worried about the Cowboys and the Bengals.  But Steelers fans know better.  History has taught us that for our beloved Steelers, the lowly Browns are the greatest threat.

Go Steelers!

The Steelers needed a win to stay alive in the playoff hunt, and they did exactly what they needed to do.

With Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich both out with injuries, it was up to Charlie Batch to lead the Steelers against the hated Ravens.  And to make matters worse, he had to do it in the Ravens’ stadium.

Batch is 58 years old (or something like that), and some fans thought that this stage was too big for him.  But Batch proved that he still had a few good games left in his old bones.

Batch passed for 276 yards, one touchdown, an interception, and an 89.6 quarterback rating.  Meanwhile, Raven’s quarterback Joe Flacco only passed for 188 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a 61.9 QB rating.  Way to kick his butt, Charlie!!!

But make no mistake.  This was no easy win.  In fact, the Ravens led for most of the game.  And the Steelers seemed to be trying hard to hand them another win.  Charlie Batch started off shaky.  He missed several wide open targets.  Mike Wallace played much of the game like he had soaked his hands in butter.  Emmanuel Sanders fumbled the ball while he was wide open and heading for an uncontested touchdown.  And Antonio Brown threw an interception on a trick play that probably shouldn’t have been called in the first place.

But despite those mistakes, there were plenty of good things that happened.  For example, Heath Miller played an outstanding game, and led the team in receiving yards.  Cortez Allen played an outstanding game subbing for Ike Taylor.  Jonathan Dwyer turned a failed running play into an unexpected touchdown.  James Harrison produced a strip-sack, just when it was needed most.  And of course, Shaun Suisham kicked the 42-yard field goal that won the game with no time left on the clock.

By beating the Ravens, the Steelers held onto their playoff hopes.  If the playoff were to begin today, the Steelers would be the last AFC team to make the playoffs, and they’d face the Baltimore Ravens in the first round.

Next up for the Steelers is the San Diego Chargers.  The Chargers have a 4-8 record, and would seem to be an easy opponent.  But we’ve all realized that the Steelers often have a harder time against the bad teams than they do against the good teams.  So next week’s game is likely to be more difficult than it should be.

Go Steelers!

The final score was 20-14.  That’s not surprising.  AFC North games are usually hard-fought contests.  But what was surprising was the fact that the Cleveland Browns ended up with 20 points, while the Pittsburgh Steelers only had 14.  I’ll bet nobody saw that coming.

The game started off on a positive note.  In the first minute, Lawrence Timmons intercepted a Cleveland pass and ran it back for a touchdown.  The Steelers quickly led 7-0.  But things quickly went south from there.

The Steelers went on to turn the ball over not once.  Not twice.  Not three times.  Not 4 times.  Not 5 times.  Not 6 times.  Not 7 times.  No, the Steelers turned the ball over an amazing 8 times.

Charlie Batch threw 3 interceptions.  And if that weren’t enough to put the nail in the Steelers coffin, fumbles sealed the deal.  Rashard Mendenhall fumbled the ball.  So did Isaac Redman.  So did Jonathan Dwyer.  And Chris Rainey.  And Emmanuel Sanders.  Everyone seemed to want to get in on the fun.

Regardless of how bad your opponent may be, it’s hard for any NFL team to overcome 8 turnovers.  It almost looked like the Steelers were trying to shoot themselves in the leg (excuse the pun, but welcome back Plax).

The Steelers started off the game with a very conservative game plan.  They handed the ball to the running backs early and often.  And the running backs fumbled the ball early and often in return.  When the Steelers finally let Charlie Batch start passing the ball, it seemed as though they did it out of frustration over the recurrent fumbles, and not because they really trusted Charlie.

And Batch didn’t give them any reason to trust him.  When he wasn’t throwing interceptions, he was missing targets, sometimes badly.  For example, he proved that he just doesn’t have the arm strength to run the fly pattern with Mike Wallace.

Batch ended the game with a QB rating of only 38.7.  That’s a JaMarcus Russell level QB rating, and that’s not a good thing.  Batch completed 20 of 34 passes with 3 interceptions and no touchdowns.

Some Steelers fans were calling for Charlie Batch to get the start last week instead of Byron Leftwich.  But I doubt that those same people are nearly as enthusiastic now that Batch has actually started a game.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like Charlie Batch.  But Batch will be 38 years old in a week and a half.  He’s easily the oldest player on the team.  And with a 32 year old Byron Leftwich as the backup, I wish they had a 20-something third string quarterback on the roster instead of one who is almost 40 years old.

Despite the team’s offensive woes, the defense actually played a pretty good game.  They sacked Browns’ quarterback Brandon Weeden 4 times, intercepted him once, and rushed him many more times.  They also held him to only 158 total passing yards.  They also held the Browns to only 108 total rushing yards.  Ordinarily that would have been a fine defensive performance.  But it wasn’t enough to overcome 8 turnovers.

The Steelers now find themselves with a 6-5 record.  That’s the same record as the Cincinnati Bengals.  However, if the playoffs were to start today, the Steelers would earn the final AFC playoff spot (the 6th seed) due to a better record against conference foes.

The Steelers must travel to Baltimore to face the Ravens next week.  It goes without saying that a win in that game is crucial.  So Baltimore, here we come.

Go Steelers!

%#@$#&@%$&!!!!!!!!!!

That basically summarizes my thoughts on the Steelers/Ravens game last night.

For those of you who live in a cave and don’t know what happened, the Steelers lost to the hated Baltimore Ravens 13-10 last night.  %#@&%$@#!!!!!!!

What makes the loss even more unbearable is the fact that the Steelers probably should have won.  After all, when you hold your opponent to only 47 rushing yards, and hold their quarterback to only 164 passing yards, you should probably win the game.  Right?

The Steelers didn’t allow the Ravens to score an offensive touchdown.  Their offense only managed 6 points on two field goals.  And one of those field goals was due to an interception deep in Steelers’ territory that the Ravens couldn’t even convert into a touchdown.  So the Steelers should have won, right?

Unfortunately, the Steelers allowed Jacoby Jones to return a punt 63 yards for a touchdown.  That score was the only time the Ravens saw the end zone.  But it was enough to give the Ravens a victory.

So instead of being tied with the Ravens for 1st place in the AFC North (as they would have been if they had won), the Steelers now find themselves trailing their rival by 2 games.  Fortunately, the two teams will meet again in 2 weeks.  Hopefully, the results will be different.

Despite the results of the game, I liked several things about the game.  For example, I loved the fact that the Steelers called a deep pass to Mike Wallace on the very first play of the game.  In my opinion, that showed that they were planning to be aggressive on offense.

I also loved the touchdown run by Byron Leftwich.  I never saw that coming.  After all, Leftwich isn’t known for being swift of foot.  Butl he showed a lot more mobility than I expected during the game.  Good job, Byron!

And of course I loved the sacks by LaMarr Woodley and James Harrison.  It seems like it’s been a long time since both of them have recorded a sack in the same game.  Hopefully, we’ll see more of that before the season is over.

But despite these positive aspects of the game, there were also things that I didn’t like.

For example, was it my imagination, or did rookie right tackle Mike Adams get beat 346 times during the game?  I don’t mean to be hard on the kid, but is he capable of blocking anybody???!!!!  Geez!

And I’ve already mentioned that special teams error.  You just can’t allow an opponent to return a punt 63 yards for a TD.  When you do that, your team will likely lose 13-10.

So the Steelers will now have to travel to Cleveland to face the Browns next week.  Then, it’s on to Baltimore for another meeting with the Ravens.  To quote Bart Scott; “Can’t wait!”

Go Steelers!