Where have we seen this before? A good Pittsburgh Steelers’ team heads into a contest against an inferior opponent only to be left heading to the airport with a loss hung around their necks.
The idea that the Steelers losing to poor teams under Mike Tomlin is no longer just a theory; it’s a fact. Whether it’s losing on the road in Oakland or Cleveland or Tennessee, Tomlin’s Steelers share an overwhelmingly obvious trait in that they completely fail to show up against teams they should beat.
I know, I know…. But Landry Jones was the quarterback! Ask yourself this question; were you one of those this week that said you were glad Jones was starting? Were you claiming that because Jones was so good last week in less than two quarters of action that Ben Roethlisberger should sit?
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
Tomlin has proven time and time again that his team leaves us wanting more when they lose to teams with lesser records. Today’s loss in Kansas City is yet another example. The Chiefs entered with a record of 1-5. They were without their two best offensive threats in Jamaal Charles and Jeremy Maclin yet their offense fared far better then our own.
Alex Smith was sacked twice but was rarely in harm’s way as his offensive line did a solid job of limiting the pressure on him. He didn’t turn the ball over and kept his offense moving against a Steelers’ defense that continued its’ bend-don’t-break mantra. The problem today was the defense did break.
The tackling was atrocious and the inability to cover tight ends was again at the forefront of this unit’s problems. Perhaps worst of all was the fact that following a field goal to pull the team to within three points they let the Chiefs march right down the field to put the game away with a touchdown.
That was something we saw a lot of under Dick LeBeau and it appears it’s now continuing under Keith Butler. When the offense scores, the defense gives it right back.
This was far from a loss all on the shoulders of the defense however. If anyone can pinpoint what Todd Haley’s game plan was for the offense please raise your hand.
He came out letting Jones throw, then proceeded to turn into a ground and pound machine. Suddenly in the third quarter, Le’Veon Bell found himself with no touches for almost the entire quarter. Perhaps the most head-scratching moment of Haley’s day came with five minutes to play when his unit was down by 10.
In an instance where the hurry-up offense was a must, the offense acted more like they were walking in the park on a nice fall day. There was no urgency and there was no hurry-up whatsoever. If you were wondering why then join the club.
I tweeted out earlier this week that when you have the quarterback situation the Steelers have then your defense must travel well. The defense didn’t do that today and it got little help from the offense to boot.
More alarming however is the fact these types of losses under Mike Tomlin are mounting and it appears he doesn’t have an answer for how to stop the negative momentum.
5 comments
Marc, you’re stop on, but Tomlin doesn’t live in his fears, which apparently excludes worrying about proven tight ends roaming free down the seams. It also means that regardless of the good PR ‘appreciation’ of the team for Steelers Nation, Tomlin ‘outside his fears’ reality doesn’t include considering the merits of criticism concerning examples of his boneheaded coaching. This, like the Ravens game, was winnable but wasn’t. How? You said it! Kelce was a known force the Steelers HAD to respect, and yet they didn’t. They could have battered Kelce off the line every play and provide back up help with a safety…making the Chiefs’ unproven WRs prove they could beat us. Instead, Kelce burned us again and again when it mattered. Cut his receptions in half and the Steelers win this game.
Thanks for reading James… You touched on something I believe often gets overlooked. For as much as the Steelers get beat by opposing tight ends it is beyond me as to why they never jam or chuck them at the LOS. When TEs line up in the slot, it does become more difficult but opposing OCs also take advantage of how the Steelers play their DBs which is “off.” Therefore receivers rarely get jammed.
I believed i mentioned covering the middle was important and,They refused to do it, for what reason i don’t know. More importantly was the predictable play calling by Haley [run up the middle and bubble screen]. Like i said in other posts if you are going to play scared don’t play at all. We haven’t to been able to effectively run up the middle for a very long time but we continue to pound it. Why, i could see if we ran play action off it but we don’t. As said before Haley’s offense is not what makes this thing roll, it is Ben’s talent. We could have Ronald MacDonald as the O.C. it doesn’t matter, if we were to totally drop the run up the middle and the bubble screen. we would be even better.
Eh, the drop off from Ben to Vick/Landry is palpable and the drop off from Tuitt to CFT is almost as steep.
Could the Steelers have coached a better game? Yes.
But, could the WRs and DeAngelo caught a few more balls that they didn’t? Could Landry Jones have stopped trying to force the ball to Martavis, ignoring open receivers in the process? Could the run D have done a better job clogging lanes for a RB in West who averaged less than 3.9 YPcarry coming into this game? (22 carries for 110 yds Sunday) Could the Steelers’ D have done a better job tackling and limited a team who came into this game converting less than 28% of their 3rd downs to something better than Sunday’s 9 of 16 on 3rd?
A RESOUNDING Yes to all of those things and it wasn’t all coaching. Not even the majority of it in fact. Sometimes your team just doesn’t execute. Sunday was one of those games for the Steelers and they let a very winnable game get away from them because of it.
The offensive play calling was horrible, period. It pains me to say it but Heath Miller is only a very good blocker at this point in his career. We have very good talent on this team on both sides of the ball but our coaching and player evaluation is below par. I’m still going to root for my favorite team but the drivers of this race car are losing it.