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How the mighty have fallen. The previously undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers had one of their key players skip out on the media in the aftermath of a loss. And head coach Mike Tomlin called his team sloppy. But here are the Steelers most to blame for the 27-24 loss to the Colts in Week 4.
The Steelers fell behind 17-0 against the Colts and looked like they were headed for a blowout loss. However, they regrouped and had the ball in the final minutes with a chance to win or tie. But they still fell short.
At the head of the class on the non-honor roll is George Pickens.
Steelers WR George Pickens avoids media
Despite having a good overall game — his best so far this season — Pickens had nothing to say after the game. He caught seven passes for 113 yards after coming into the contest with only 171 yards for the season.
But instead of facing the media, like his teammate Justin Fields did, Pickens ducked away. Perhaps he didn’t want to talk about his untimely fumble that cost the Steelers early in the game. After an eight-play drive put the Steelers in a first-and-10 situation at the Colts’ 15-yard line.
Pickens caught a shot pass and ran toward the sideline. At the end of a 10-yard gain, Pickens appeared to carry the ball loosely and got it knocked away. The Colts recovered and the Steelers lost a chance at either three or seven points — in a game they lost by three points.
Head coach Mike Tomlin said the Steelers made too many mistakes, according to steelers.com.
“Just on the surface level, you can look at the turnover game,” said Tomlin. “There's a reason why we were unsuccessful today. I think we were plus four coming into this game. It had been a silver bullet in our pocket, if you will. But today we dropped interception opportunities. We had a fumble on the ground defensively that we did not get on. And then we turned the ball over offensively, one time in the red zone.
“And so, you can look no further than some of those instances, but obviously there's more to comb over. We were just generally not as sharp as we need to be in order to function with the level of fluidity that allows comfortable victory to take place.”
But Tomlin said his team will grow and gett better.
“We’ll learn from it,” Tomlin said. “We'll learn obviously with an L. And that's a component of this business that we have to absorb. And we will.”
QB Justin Fields shares the blame
Looking at Fields’ numbers, they simply don’t add up to victory. Yes, he threw for 312 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions. And he rushed 10 times for 55 yards and two scores.
But this is the NFL, an unforgiving place. And Fields’ late-game miscue overshadowed his statistics.
Trailing 27-24 and less than two minutes remaining, Fields scooped up a first-down misfired snap. It turned into a 12-yard loss. Fields followed with an incomplete pass, an 11-yard completion, and a fourth-down incompletion that sealed the outcome. But at least Fields owned the play.
“It was my fault,” Fields said. “We were on the first leg kick, and (center) Zach (Frazier) was IDing stuff. I felt the DBs rotating a change in the back-end picture. So, when he was IDing stuff, telling the o-line where to go, I was trying to get that final picture before the snap came. At the end of the day, it’s from the first leg kick. So after I kick my leg, I gotta be ready for the ball. It’s doesn’t matter when it’s gonna come or not. Yeah, it’s on me.”
Fields said his team needs to get going earlier in the game and not have so much ground to make up at the end, according to steelers.com.
“It's something we can control,” said Fields. “Just come out and execute. Block the right guys. Get the ball out when I need to get the ball out. It's just execution, (and) it's no mystery. It's not mystical, (and) it's just doing our jobs, everybody doing their jobs. This is the greatest team sport there is, so if we get all 11 guys on offense doing their job, then we won't be in the position we were in.
“Especially when they come out in a hot start. We have to be able to respond in that manner, So, we got to be better on the offensive side of the ball for sure.”
RB Najee Harris and offensive line didn’t get it done
The ground attack, minus an OK performance from Field, didn’t hold up against the Colts’ defense.
Cordarrelle Patterson carried six times for 43 yards before getting injured. Main running back Najee Harris managed only 19 yards on 13 carries. It’s going to be hard to beat NFL teams with that production from the top running back.
Overall, the poor rushing attack could be blamed for the Steelers’ slow start, according to Tomlin’s comments to post-gazette.com.
“Offensively, we didn’t start with the level of fluidity I would like,” Tomlin said. “We gotta get that solved and get it solved quickly. I think particularly at the early stages of the season, you better work on things that could be trouble for you as you continue through your journey.
“(Bad first-quarter offense) just doesn’t tee us up to play the type of ball that we desire to play. Thankfully, we were in our home venue and our defense was playing really good at the early stages of the game to minimize some of that.”
