Steelers are on an 0-3 Alcatraz with escape unlikely
NSANTA CLARA, Calif. ormally, you would say the team that committed five turnovers deserved to lose.
You would be right, to a point. The San Francisco 49ers played like the Buffalo Bills in a Super Bowl, putting so many balls on the turf you would have thought they were playing croquet.
But what about the other guys?
What about the team that did nearly nothing with five hand-delivered turnovers, made two critical ones of its own, managed just 11 first downs and 241 yards while giving up 26 and 436, respectively, and committed a devastating penalty on the deciding possession?
The Steelers didn’t just look a gift horse in the mouth Sunday afternoon at Levi’s Stadium. They kicked it in the teeth and pushed it off a cliff. How dare you try to hand us a victory!
So please don’t paint this 24-20 loss as a game the Steelers deserved to win or should have won. If James Conner doesn’t fumble, I’m fairly certain the 49ers still get the ball back with plenty of time to ram it down the Steelers throats.
Neither team deserved the win, frankly, but the Steelers deserved it less. They were pushed around for much of the afternoon. Their running game is an embarrassment. The 49ers running game did whatever it pleased in the second half and rolled up 168 yards overall.
When the 49ers needed a yard, they always seemed to get it — whether with a fullback on the field (imagine that) or via quarterback sneak (wait, the quarterback is allowed to propel himself forward?). Their two third-quarter touchdown drives covered 113 yards on 18 plays — 12 of them running plays.
“We gotta find a way to get off the damn field,” defensive end Cam Heyward said, a lament that could apply to many games over the past year or so.
Looking around the postgame locker room, I couldn’t help but think of all those warm and fuzzy training camp story lines and how far away they seemed. This team now finds itself in a football version of Alcatraz, trapped at the bottom of the AFC North Division with the Cincinnati Bengals, desperate to escape but not knowing how.
“To start 0-3 sucks,” said linebacker Mark Barron, who contributed mightily to the defeat, and not just with a holding call that led to the 49ers winning touchdown (on which he was involved in coverage).
“It’s aggravating, man,” center Maurkice Pouncey said. “I’m so frustrated.”
Pouncey then shook his head and wiped his face with a towel. Frustrated about the anemic running game, in particular, or the general state of the team?
“Just frustration all over, man,” Pouncey said. “I’m not a loser. I hate losing football games.”
Pouncey, like his teammates, was complimentary of quarterback Mason Rudolph. But they also know the severity of the situation. They know it’s not easy to win with a newbie at the most important position on the field. They probably know how unlikely it would be to climb out of an 0-3 hole, too.
I asked Pouncey if he still believes the ingredients are there to make a run.
“Yeah, we’re just facing adversity, man,” he said. “Hell, we lost our franchise quarterback. I know that’s not an excuse, but at the end of the day, it’s adversity.”
He then managed an exasperated laugh and added, “You guys know this [stuff], man. You all been reporting too long. Come on now.”
A few lockers away, Conner could barely bring himself to speak about his latest critical fumble. It happened against Cleveland and Denver last year. It happened again Sunday, with the Steelers desperately clinging to a 20-17 lead with 5:30 left in regulation.
“I thought I was down,” Conner said.
Maybe it was close — I never saw a clear replay — but you can’t leave it in the officials hands. That simply cannot happen with the very player entrusted to bury other teams near the ends of games. Conner is the closer.
Barron was asked if it feels almost surreal to lose a game where his team forced five turnovers.
“Yeah,” he said. “It don’t happen a lot.”
Who would have thought, a month ago, that the Steelers would be sitting here at 0-3 and the 49ers 3-0?
“We have many more games to play,” JuJu SmithSchuster said. “To show the world what we’re capable of doing.”
Given what transpired here Sunday, the world may not want to know.