On paper, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked better. Heck, they looked good. And for the summer, become your-favorite-analysts trendy pick to shock the AFC.
Through one week, the Steelers look the same. Blown out by the San Francisco 49ers in Sunday’s opener, the Steelers’ offense was held to just seven points. For most of the game, they did little to move the football, ending in punts or turnovers. Offensively, the 49ers also controlled the game from start to finish, racking up nearly 400 total yards and taking their foot off the gas over their final few drives.
Talking with the media after the 30-7 loss, a frustrated Minkah Fitzpatrick told reporters Pittsburgh’s a better team than it showed today.
“It’s really frustrating because I know that we’re a way better team than what we put on display today,” he said via Steelers.com. “San Fran played a great game. We beat ourselves in a lot of areas. Like I said, we’re a talented team. With the talent that we have, it’s is very frustrating.”
Pittsburgh’s talent was hardly on display Sunday. The 49ers marched down the field, scoring on each of their first four possessions. A pair of field goals by rookie kicker Jake Moody and a pair of touchdown catches by WR Brandon Aiyuk, beating CB Patrick Peterson each time.
Up front, the Steelers’ defensive line failed and suffered injuries along the way, losing Cam Heyward early to a groin injury while DeMarvin Leal suffered an arm/triceps injury that’s being evaluated. Larry Ogunjobi also came into the game less than 100 percent, working through a foot injury since training camp. Running back Christian McCaffrey ran for 152 of the 49ers’ 188 yards on the ground, finding the end zone from 65 yards out to start the second half. Speaking to reporters, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Ray Fittipaldo, Fitzpatrick said someone tried to “do too much” on the play and got out of his gap.
As we wrote earlier, Fitzpatrick centered the team’s concerns on its execution instead of the play-calling. But as Mike Tomlin noted after the game, both aspects must be better going forward.
Pittsburgh will have to show that talent Monday night against the Cleveland Browns. In its opener, Cleveland dominated the AFC North favorite Cincinnati Bengals 24-3, shutting down Joe Burrow and company. Pittsburgh can ill-afford to start the season 0-2 with a divisional loss.
