Offense, all of sudden, is worse than 2019

My memory isn’t what it used to be. I’ll admit that. But I don’t remember the Steelers offense being this bad last season.

You know, when Mason Rudolph or Duck Hodges was the quarterback.

Ben Roethlisberger was supposed to solve all the problems for a team that scored 10 or fewer points in four of the final eight games last season with all four games resulting in losses and no playoffs. He did just that for much of this season, leading the Steelers to a 10-0 start and putting his name in NFL MVP conversation. But all that talk has stopped. Now, the national pundits are asking if Roethlisberger is washed up.

Roethlisberger and his offense were barely good enough to score 19 points and beat a Baltimore team to go to 11-0 on Dec. 2. But they’ve been awful in the past two games. The 23-17 loss to the Washington Football Team last Monday night was bad. The 26-15 loss to the Buffalo Bills Sunday night was worse.

Just like that, the Steelers are 11-2 and looking up at the Kansas City Chiefs in the race for the top seed in the AFC playoffs. The Steelers clinched a playoff spot earlier Sunday when the Miami Dolphins were beaten by the Chiefs, but that didn’t do much to ease the agony associated with this latest defeat.

It was bad enough that the Steelers scored just two touchdowns, one on a short field after Marcus Allen and Mike Hilton

forced a Buffalo fumble at the Bills 30. It was much worse that Roethlisberger gave Buffalo its first touchdown and a 9-7 lead by throwing an interception that was returned 51 yards for a touchdown by cornerback Taron Johnson with 0:52 left in the first half.

“That pick-6 was the significant play,” Mike Tomlin said.

“That’s 110 percent on me,” Roethlisberger said. “You can’t do that at the end of the half. Not just a turnover, but they get points off it.”

It was clear early that the

Steelers offense was in for another rotten night.

On the first play after Ray Ray McCloud made the horrible decision to return the opening kickoff from 5 yards deep in his end zone and brought it back to just the 10, Diontae Johnson dropped a pass. The Steelers punted after a three-and-out.

On the second series, Johnson dropped another pass and was benched for the rest of the first half. The Steelers punted again.

On the third series, Roethlisberger had yet another pass batted away by cornerback Tre’Davious White at the line of scrimmage. The Steelers punted after another threeand-out.

On the fourth series, Eric Ebron dropped a pass. Yep, you guessed it. The Steelers punted again.

So much for solving the major problems from the Baltimore and Washington games.

The Steelers run game was no better, either, despite the return of Maurkice Pouncey and James Conner from the COVID-19 restricted list. The team had just 40 rushing yards on 14 carries in the first half when the game still was in doubt. It had 7 yards on three carries in the second half, mostly because the Bills carved up the Steelers injury -depleted defense with two long touchdown drives to open the third quarter. That defense had to be frustrated from getting so little help from Roethlisberger and the offense.

The Steelers put together just one good drive, late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. Roethlisberger completed 8 of 9 passes for 72 yards, throwing a 3-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster and then a 2point conversion to Ebron to cut Buffalo’s lead to 23-15. It wasn’t nearly enough. “The way we’re playing right now is unacceptable,” Roethlisberger said. “It starts with me. I need to play better football because the ball is in my hands every single play. Right now, I’m not playing good enough football for us to win.”

There was a report by Jason LaConfora of CBS Sports earlier Sunday that the Steelers are concerned more about Roethlisberger’s ailing knee than they are letting on. That was offered as a reason Roethlisberger is struggling to connect on his deep passes. He had James Washington open deep late in the game and underthrew the pass, which was intercepted by cornerback Levi Wallace.

Roethlisberger didn’t mention his knee after the game. It was clear that, if anything is really bothering him, it’s his pride.

“If I don’t play good enough football, then I need to hang it up,” Roethlisberger said. “I still feel like I can do enough things to help this team win football games. I’m going to do everything I can to get us back on track.”

I’m guessing Roethlisberger and his offense will play better next Monday night in the game at Cincinnati for two reasons.

One, the Steelers always beat the Bengals.

And two, they can’t possibly play worse.