Steelers lose to………Steelers
Sepember 21, 2009
By Donald Starver
The final score read Bears 17, Steelers 14. So technically the Chicago Bears won the game. However, anyone who actually watched the game will probably agree that what actually happened is that the Steelers lost the game.
“What’s the difference?”, you might ask. Well, “winning a game” is when the superior team outplays an inferior opponent. What we saw instead was the superior team finding a way to pull defeat from the jaws of victory.
The Steelers actually finished the game as the statistically leader in most key categories. They had more than double the rushing yards that the Bears accumulated (105 yards versus only 43 yards for the Bears). They forced the Bears to punt twice as often (6 punts for the Bears versus only 3 for the Steelers). They finished the game with a higher time of possession than the Bears. While the Bears did finish with more passing yards, the difference was negligible (236 yards for Cutler versus 221 yards for Roethlisberger).
Unfortunately, the Steelers also led in 2 undesirable categories: Turnovers, and sacks allowed. It’s pretty hard to win a game when you lead in those two categories. Leading in turnovers, in particular, is usually the kiss of death.
The Steelers started the game in dominant fashion. They forced the Bears to punt the ball on their first 3 possessions of the game. The first two of those possessions were “3 and out”. Meanwhile, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger marched his team 92 yards for a touchdown on their very first possession.
The Steelers were so dominant in the 1st quarter, that when the quarter was over, the Steelers had held the ball for 11 minutes and 26 seconds. They only allowed the Bears 3:34 total time of possession in the quarter. When your time of possession in a quarter is 3 times your opponent’s, you’re probably on your way to a win. Or so we thought.
Things seemed to change in the middle of the second quarter when it started raining. Ben Roethlisberger had been so deadly accurate in the first quarter, but once it started to rain, it seemed like Big Ben couldn’t get a good grip on the ball. He started missing receivers on passes that he was making earlier.
While the rain clearly affected Big Ben, the player most impacted by the rain seemed to be Steelers kicker Jeff Reed. With the Steelers leading 14-7 in the fourth quarter, Jeff Reed was called upon to kick a 38 yard field goal. Anyone who has ever watched Jeff Reed kick knows that a 38 yard field goal for Jeff Reed is like a 3 foot putt for Tiger Woods; it’s basically automatic. But on this occasion, it was anything but automatic. Reed’s kick went wide left.
Later in the 4th quarter, Reed had a chance to redeem himself. With 3:23 seconds left in the game and the score tied 14-14, Reed was called upon to kick a 43 yard field goal that would have given the Steelers the lead. Steelers fans knew that they are far more likely to see a unicorn than they are to see Jeff Reed miss two kicks in a row, so Steeler Nation’s confidence was pretty high. Unfortunately, the near-impossible happened. Reed missed yet another field goal, as his kick sailed wide left……again.
So the Chicago Bears got the ball back with just over 3 minutes left in the game. Jay Cutler proceeded to march his team down the field, but time was not on his side. So with 20 seconds left in the game, the Bears called upon their kicker, Robbie Gould. Most Steelers fans were probably thinking that if Jeff Reed was unable to make two field goals in the muddy mess at Soldier Field, there was no way that Gould would be able to make an even longer field goal. But make it he did.
Gould's kick is.......good!
So despite being the dominant team for most of the game, the Steelers ended up losing the game. The Bears didn’t win the game. No, that would be giving them too much credit. Anyone who watched the game knows exactly what I mean. In this case, the Steelers really did lose the game.
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This victory was definitely lost by the Steelers but to everyone’s surprise this time it wasn’t the fault of the o-line. They played much better than last week which allowed for the running game to peak its head out a little during the game and show all a little bit of hope. I think the reason we lost this game was obviously the the two missed kicks but also Ben seemed to be throwing the with a little bit too much umph. It seemed like there were quite a few plays were Santonio could have made the catch but the balls were slick combined with Ben’s high velocity. But all in all for a loss I thought the game went pretty well and we should be able to fine tune things against the Bengals next week.
1I was wondering why we didn’t just go for the short 1st down in our last drive. Ben threw to Santonio in the end zone when he had been dropping passes all game. I think we needed 2 yards for the 1st. Being a woman, I have never played football and sometimes don’t understand why certain choices are made. The logical thing to me would have been to just get the easy 1st down and give ourselves 4 more chances to score. The missed catch led to a string of bad plays (missed field goal, bad defense on Bears’ drive, Bear’s TD.)I was highly disappointed at how the game ended. I guess Reed had a lot on his mind or something. 2 missed kicks- very uncharacteristic of him.
2Yeah, this was kind of a freak loss.But it was preventable. What is disturbing is the Steeler’s inability to score touchdowns. It seems like every week we struggle to put up 20 pts. Live by the field goal, die by the FG. Also, play calling was baffling. Why go for it all (endzone pass to Holmes) on 3rd and 2 with 3 min. left? I’m thinking this had to be an audible. But not the right time for a risk. How about running some time off the clock? Especially since the run game was going pretty well (compared to last week at least.)
3We have identified the short comings of our performance. We are so used to the Steelers coming through in those situations. We come to expect it! We are all about execution-right? We know that it should never have been that close. Since we are getting it out of our systems, I was disappointed to see Wallace catch a pass on that last drive and NOT get the first down. It seemed like he didn’t realize how close he was. One first down and that might have been it. Don’t mean to pile on but he looked like he could have easily made it. No one else is bringing it up though? Execution!
4Benny,
Good points. The offensive line definitely looked competent yesterday.
I also thought the rain affected Big Ben much more than it did Jay Cutler. Ben just didn’t seem to adjust to the wet ball very well.
5Stephanie,
6You make an excellent point. I also wondered about the play on third and 2. However, I think the answer is one that none of us wants to admit. The Steelers don’t have confidence in their running game. That is why they are throwing on obvious running downs.
John #21,
7Interesting point. I actually don’t remember that particular play. However, I think Wallace is going to learn from it, and I think he is going to be a heck of a receiver for a long time. I can forgive him for a small mental error this early in his career.
donald,
ive been away for a while. but had to comment on this article. I have always had a problem with the statement, or excuse,”we beat ourselves”. It is simply not true. let me explain.
The reason the bears beat the steelers is they did not have the game killing mistakes. That is what a good team does, they don’t make killer mistakes. Just because the steelers shouldn’t make them does not negate that they did and the bears did not.
i guess what i am saying is this: it is equally important to avoid mistakes as it is to make big plays. both go into the making of a good team.
is a QB that throws 25 picks in a year a QB that has beat himself or simply a QB that is not playing as well as others?
Also, we had less punts because one possession ended on int and another ended on kneel down.
And finally, if the steelers cannot fix the run game or find a runner to stick with we will be in for a long season.
However, give it up for Bruce Arians for calling the bootleg instead of 3 striaght run plays that gain 1/2 yd and a FG. Maybe he sees the writing on the wall now as well.
8Tony,
I understand where you’re coming from. A win is a win, and a loss is a loss. Yes, mistakes are a part of the game. Yet, as a fan, it is normal to give your team the benefit of the doubt when they have a bad game.
Last year in the NFC championship game, the Carolina Panthers were the #1 seed in the NFC. Jake Delhomme threw 5 interceptions in that game, and the Panthers lost to the upstart Arizona Cardinals. You would be correct to say that the Cardinals won the game. But it would also be correct to say that without those 5 interceptions, it might have been a very different game.
But of course, that didn’t happen. Nevertheless, Panthers fans probably took solace in thinking about what might have happened had the team not “beaten themselves”.
9I’m kind of in the middle of both of the previous comments where yes the Bears game would have turned out differently if we didn’t miss two field goals or throw an INT but there have been games where we played badly and still won the game because our opponent didn’t take advantage of mistakes that were given to them. But I still think that game is about as positive as a loss could be due to the much improved o-line play and slightly better running game.
10donald,
did we win against the titans or did the titans beat themselves?
I understand the fan aspect, I really do. We know what tey are capable of. Unfortunately, we also know what they are capable of. LOL
If you remember, I agreed with the last article I commented on. I just felt it was time to return to devil’s advocate. Keep up the good work.
Hey, I want to give props to the O-line this year! They are protecting much better. Most sacks are Ben’s fault (which I have come to accept…he does make big plays holding onto that stupid ball). However, the only running lanes open are those the defensive front seven are running through!!!
11If the o-line continues to play the way they just did I think most fans will be able to live with just two sacks a game. But I am getting tired of the argument that Ben holds on to the ball too long. Yes it would be cool if he threw it out of bounds a little more but you have to look at the whole field not just where the camera is pointing. A sack can also come from good coverage in the secondary, as well as Ben being unwilling to want to throw an interception. Now if Ben is continuing to get sacked and is fumbling at the same time then I will be more than happy to join that holds the ball too long party. But I think Steelers fans need to give Ben a little more slack and accept that this is the way he wins games.
12