Reasons we lost: Turnovers, flags, bad defense, worse offense Aside from that, Steelers were great in Indy and so on…
With a 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday, the Pittsburgh Steelers have now lost three in a row and have fallen to 7-7. That’s good for just 11th in the conference. They now are last in the AFC North.
The Steelers blew an early 13-0 lead. From that point on, they looked non-competitive. Last Thursday, the Steelers gave up 21 points to a Patriots offense that is historically bad. After their second touchdown early in the second quarter Saturday, the Steelers couldn’t score a single point against a team that ended last week with the most points allowed in the conference.
“We are a fundamentally poor football group right now,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We are playing losing football. I take responsibility for that. We are just not doing fundamental things well enough. We are turning the ball over. We are highly penalized. We don’t play well in situations.”
It is officially Festivus
Mitch Trubisky simply shouldn’t be a starting quarterback in the NFL. And if he can’t be relied upon to start, he really shouldn’t be the Steelers No. 2 either, especially with an injury-prone starter in Kenny Pickett in front of him on the depth chart.
Trubisky had 84 yards throwing the ball in the first two quarters, and play-by-play man Rich Eisen was talking about “positives” going to halftime.
Positives? Where exactly?
Trubisky had one particularly bad third down where he missed a wide-open Pat Freiermuth. It appeared that Trubisky wanted Freiermuth to sit down on the route. But it still looked like he had time to adjust. Meanwhile, NFL Network color analyst Kurt Warner said he also saw Allen Robinson II wide open on the play as well.
Then, in the second half, Trubisky threw a dreadful interception as the team was trying to mount a comeback, missing an open George Pickens crossing over the middle.
Trubisky was replaced by Mason Rudolph after that throw. For the day, Trubisky was 16 of 23 with a touchdown, three sacks and two interceptions. His passer rating was 68.9.
Never forget that the Steelers — before knowing they could draft Pickett — actually thought that Trubisky was their best option to replace Ben Roethlisberger as a full-time starter.
Never forget that.
Downtrodden defense: The defense was really poor. Let’s start with the 215 yards and two touchdowns Indianapolis had before halftime.
That was bad enough. But remember, the Colts also got all the way to the Pittsburgh 31 on the opening drive before missing a field goal.
They also scored a third touchdown, but it got called back via a booth review. The Colts then threw an incompletion on third down, and D.J. Montgomery dropped a touchdown on fourth down. That was a scoreless 13-play, 70-yard drive.
Things didn’t get much better in the second half. Indianapolis ran 65 total plays on the afternoon. Quarterback Gardner Minshew walked away from the game with a 123.4 passer rating. The Colts ended up with 372 total yards in offense. They average 337.5. The Colts also ran for 170 yards.
“They just continued to smash the run. We weren’t able to stop it. They were able to dictate what they wanted to do,” linebacker T.J. Watt said.
Tomlin spoke about “attrition” at safety during a halftime interview because Minkah Fitzpatrick got hurt and Damontae Kazee got ejected for a hit on receiver Michael Pittman.
Sure, that’s a reason. As is the thin depth chart at inside linebacker.
But, c’mon. The Colts were playing without their best receiver (Pittman) who got knocked out by that hit from Kazee, and starting running back Zack Moss. He left the game after a horse-collar tackle from Mykal Walker.
They had plenty of “attrition” at the skill positions, too, Mike.
Back to form: After making significant strides coming out of the bye, the Steelers offensive line has badly regressed.
The Steelers only had 74 yards rushing against a Colts defense that had allowed 147 yards per game over the last seven contests. The Steelers quarterbacks were also sacked four times and had another sack that was erased because of a Colts defensive penalty downfield.
For six games after the bye, the offensive front was quite good in five of them. But ever since the loss to the Arizona Cardinals, they have been going in the wrong direction.
Meanwhile, the offensive line for the Colts was ripping open massive holes for backup running backs. They averaged 5 yards per carry.
Dumb decision: Trailing 24-13 with just over 18 minutes left to go in the game, Tomlin decided to punt from the Indy 39-yard line. It would’ve been a 57-yard field goal. But Chris Boswell is plenty capable of making that kick, especially indoors.
Punter Pressley Harvin followed up with an anemic 22-yard punt, so the Colts started the drive at their own 17-yard line. They ran the ball 13 plays in a row and wound up kicking a field goal to make the score 27-13.
“Not a lot had gone our way to that juncture that made me feel good about banging a 57-yard field goal,” Tomlin said. “Particularly on the down before, I think we’d take a shot or check it down. And we ended up throwing the ball out of bounds. I didn’t like the field positioning.”
I understand all that. I also understand Boswell missed an extra point earlier in the game, but why trust an inconsistent punter like Harvin more than Boswell, one of the most consistent kickers in the league?
Obvious issues: Beyond all that, the Steelers were just flat-out rotten in a pair of important areas.
The Colts forced three turnovers. The alleged big-play Steelers defense had none. T.J. Watt had two early sacks. Aside from that, the defense was pretty much impotent.
The Steelers were also heavily penalized. The team was flagged eight times for 101 yards. Most of them seemed warranted. The Colts were flagged just twice for 10 yards.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are in the midst of a three-game losing streak. They have endured at least one three-game losing streak per season every year since the start of 2018. We need to stop parroting the now-outdated narrative that Tomlin always keeps the ship afloat.
It’s no longer true. There’s a difference between never having a losing season and having a good season. If you have a three-game losing streak in the NFL, that’s a big deal in a 17-game season. The Steelers no longer bounce back with regularity.