It’s hard to quantify heart. How much a player is trying, how much a player cares. There are so many factors and variables that make those heavy inferences tricky. But the product the Pittsburgh Steelers displayed Sunday afternoon made it undeniable. The Steelers did not play with heart. They weren’t the more physical team. They didn’t bring it. It was brought to them.
After the game, even Steelers players admitted as much. Speaking to reporters following the team’s 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans, QB Mitch Trubisky said the team must show more heart, via the PPG’s Ray Fittipaldo, who tweeted the comment after the game.
“We gotta show some more heart,” Trubisky said via Steelers.com post-game. “More heart will help this offense.”
Pittsburgh came out flat and Houston jumped on the visitors early with a touchdown to make it 7-0. The Steelers’ offense continues to get off to awful starts. Routinely, they were put in third and long with zero running game. The passing game had no rhythm to it and Pickett was consistently under pressure. He also didn’t help his cause with mistakes and poor decisions, picked once and missing TE Connor Heyward, who was open in the end zone, for a would-be touchdown.
Despite a run game that found traction in the second half, the Steelers’ drives stalled out. Instead of being aggressive and going for it on fourth down, Mike Tomlin routinely opted to take the “safe” route by kicking field goals and punting, even in situations where it felt obvious to go for it. The one time he did go for it, Pittsburgh dropped back out of shotgun on fourth and 1. No one got open and QB Kenny Pickett was sacked, injuring his knee on the play.
Defensively, the Steelers allowed 139 yards on the ground. Houston ran and passed the ball effectively, converting 50 percent of its third downs and controlling the clock. The end of the first half showed how lackluster the Steelers were playing, allowing back-to-back chunk plays after the catch to WR Nico Collins, getting the Texans in field goal range to extend their lead to 16 at the break. It marked the first time Pittsburgh had been shut out at the half since Week 16 of the 2021 season versus the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Steelers will have to find their heart – and their soul – next Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. They are now clear leaders of the AFC North after walloping the Cleveland Browns 28-3 Sunday, though the Browns were without QB Deshaun Watson and turned to rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson instead. If the Steelers can’t beat the Ravens, they’ll fall to 2-3 and be looking up at Baltimore in the AFC North for potentially the rest of the season.
It’s obvious the Steelers have lots of problems. If they want any chance of fixing them, they’ll need to dig deep and find themselves. That’s nothing that scheme, technique, or coaching can do. That’s something that, to a man, has to be addressed.
