Steelers on wrong side of fine line
It’s a brutal weekend for the Steelers. They have to watch eight other teams play postseason football. That’s excruciating when you think you belong in the tournament.
“There is a fine line in this business,” Bill Cowher said time and again about the difference between winning and losing.
Don’t the Steelers know that?
They were inexcusably blown out from the start in the first game at New England. Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback that night. They were excusably blown out late in the final game at Baltimore. A man named Duck was the quarterback.
In between, the Steelers lost six games, five of which they easily could have won.
Let’s examine the reasons for their failures:
Injuries
Roethlisberger’s season-ending elbow injury in the second game was the worst, by far. But there were so many others. Stephon Tuitt was done for the year early in the sixth game at Los Angeles against the Chargers. James Conner missed six games and parts of three others. JuJu SmithSchuster missed four games. But a crushing
injury that shouldn’t be overlooked was Mason Rudolph’s shoulder injury early in the third quarter in the Jets game. He played well in the second quarter as Duck Hodges’ replacement before he tripped over B.J. Finney, landed on his shoulder and was crushed by cornerback Maurice Canady. The Steelers would have won the game if they hadn’t had to go back to Hodges.
Fumbles
Two were killers. Conner fumbled on a first-and-10 play from the Steelers 24 with the team leading the 49ers, 20-17, with 5½ minutes left. Smith-Schuster fumbled at the Steelers 45 in overtime, leading to the Ravens’ winning field goal at Heinz Field. Think about those fumbles for a second. The Steelers could have beaten the top seed in the NFC playoffs and the top seed in the AFC playoffs. They maybe even should have beaten them.
Interceptions
Rudolph threw four in a semi-blowout loss at Cleveland and was benched for Hodges the next week after throwing another against the Bengals from the Cincinnati 9. Hodges threw four interceptions in a home loss to Buffalo and two more against the Jets. The most hurtful was Hodges’ interception against the Bills on a first-and-10 play from the Buffalo 43 with the Steelers leading, 10-7, late in the third quarter. He tried to go deep across the field to Diontae Johnson — a throw he can’t make physically — and was intercepted by Bills top cornerback Tre’Davious White. Hodges never should have challenged White.
One more thing about that loss to the Bills: There is no category for it, but Jordan Berry’s 22-yard punt was horrible. It set up Buffalo’s first touchdown.
The wildcat
It worked well in the first game against the Bengals but sabotaged the Steelers in losses in the first game against the Ravens and against the Bills. Jaylen Samuels tried a pass for James Washington on a first-and-10 play from the Steelers 12 and was intercepted. Later in the same game, he lost 5 yards on an end sweep on a second-and-1 play from the Ravens 7, forcing the team to settle for a field goal. Conner, inexplicably, was called on to run the wildcat for the first time on a first-and-goal play from the Bills 10 late in the first half. He didn’t get a clean handoff to Johnson, who lost the fumble. That was almost as hurtful as Conner’s and
Smith-Schuster’s fumbles earlier in the season.
Penalties
A few come to mind. Daniel McCullers’ roughing-the-center penalty against the Seahawks turned a field goal into a touchdown. Mark Barron’s holding penalty on a thirdand-11 play from the Steelers 14 gave the 49ers a chance to score the winning touchdown. Worst of all was a 38-yard pass interference penalty against Terrell Edmunds that led to the Seahawks’ final touchdown. That came after Seattle coach Pete Carroll challenged the non-call on the field. Blame Al Riveron. That was an awful call.
Bad defense
That might seem outrageous as well as the defense played most of the time, but it’s true. There were breakdowns that went beyond the 33 points the Patriots scored in the opener. The Seahawks ran out the final 5:34 of their win. The defense allowed the
Browns to go down the field on their first possession to take a 7-0 lead in Cleveland. It allowed the Bills to score the winning touchdown on a 70yard drive that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass on a third-down play. It allowed the Jets to have an 11-play, 75yard touchdown drive on their first possession. Finally, the defense allowed the Ravens to run for 223 yards in the final game. “It was an avalanche,” Cam Heyward said.
All things considered, maybe the Steelers shouldn’t feel so badly about missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season. Maybe they should be thankful they finished 8-8 and were in the postseason chase until the final weekend.