Game Prelude

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense faced a depleted Houston Texans offensive line. Both their starting and backup left tackle did not practice during the week. Kendrick Green starting his third game at left guard for Houston. Rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud impressive in first three games. He’d passed for over 900 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. WRs Nico Collins and Tank Dell both dangerous receivers. The Steelers offense has a deceptively strong Texan defense to contend with. While overall mediocre statistically, no opposing player has gained more than 100 yards rushing or receiving against the Steelers.

The Steelers had an opportunity to open with a third victory and were slight favorites to win. Many pundits thought this would be a close game. But gave Pittsburgh the edge to win.

Highlight of the Game

Unfortunately for me, the highlight of the game occurred before kickoff. The Steelers hosted an away game watch party for club seat holders. My friend Ken Sterner joined me at Acrisure Stadium to watch the game. Former Steelers player Vince Williams greeted us and after a few remarks had time to sign autographs and chat with us prior to kickoff. That was it.

Steelers Offense and Defense

I’m dispensing with my usual format. The Pittsburgh and Houston drive charts tell the story:

Pittsburgh Possessions

Pittsburgh had 10 possessions in the entire game.

Just two field goals achieved.

Houston Possessions

The Texans scored on first three possessions. Only one three and out.

Special Teams

Special teams are an underappreciated facet of the game where one big play can shift momentum or even decide the game winner.

I break special teams into three phases: Kickoffs, punting, and field goals including extra point attempts. Here is an overview of the special teams play during the game:

KICKOFFS

Chris Boswell kicked off three times. His first returned 35 yards from four yards deep in end zone to start the game. The other two touchbacks gave the Texans an average start after kickoffs from their 27-yard line.

Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked off six times. Desmond King returned three averaging 23.0 yards a return. King’s best return reached the 28-yard line. But the other two behind the 25 giving Pittsburgh an average start at their own 24 after kickoffs.

THE STATS

Advantage Texans.

PUNTING

Brad Wing in for injured Pressley Harvin punted five times averaging 47.6 yards. Devin Singletary muffed the first but recovered the ball. A 52-yard punt late in the game returned 14 yards to the 22. Wing’s best punt was his last after game out of reach. The 50 yard punt fair caught at the 14 yard-line.

Ty Zentner punted three times. Calvin Austin returned the first just two yards before tackled at the 15. He returned another short 38-yard punt seven yards to the 46 leading to a field goal. Zentner’s final very short 34 yard punt went out of bounds at the 24.

The first Texans muff plus a nearly 10 yard per punt difference give the Steelers the edge.

THE STATS

Advantage Steelers.

FIELD GOALS and EXTRA POINTS

Chris Boswell kicked two short field goals.

Ka’imi Fairbairn converted all three points after touchdowns. Plus, he added three field goals without a miss.

THE STATS

Advantage Texans

Key Observations

Here are several key observations after recovering from my shock.

Ludicrous Play-Calling

One offensive play illustrates the Steelers’ ludicrous play-calling. The Steelers faced a fourth and one. Actually, less than one yard. The Steelers were behind 16-6 and but deep in Houston territory at the 33-yard line. Score a touchdown on this drive and Pittsburgh is right back in the game. We all know what the Philadelphia Eagles would do. Very predictably, they would run their “tush push” play for a first down. Earlier in the game, Kenny Pickett converted a third down on a quarterback sneak. At the very least, it should have been a handoff to Najee Harris who was running effectively in this game.

Instead, the Steelers line up in a shotgun formation. The Texans sack Pickett. And the Steelers’ starting quarterback is injured and out of the game. Normally, I would assign blame to Matt Canada as the offensive coordinator and play caller. Although Mike Tomlin can hear all the conversations with the quarterback there is not time to debate or change the call based on the play clock. That would lead to disjointed communications. However, the Steelers called timeout and had time to discuss the play on the sideline. That squarely falls on Mike Tomlin as the head coach.

And this is not an isolated incident in short yardage. The Steelers faced a third and short in Week Two while trying to keep the lead against Cleveland. In that game, they had Kenny Pickett run out of the shotgun formation. Just symptomatic of overall poor play-calling.

Canada Hate Masking Deeper Issues

Observe how open the Houston receivers were compared to Pittsburgh’s receivers. And how an average Houston defense dominated the Steelers’ offense. The noise from fans for Canada’s removal building up over three seasons is now at a crescendo. There are still 13 games to play. At this point it is unlikely Pittsburgh will renew his contract without an epic offensive transformation. But fans want Canada gone now. The Canada well has gone dry.

While firing Canada might be satisfying to fans. It is not a panacea. A coordinator’s job is to develop a scheme that accentuates the talents of individual players while masking their weaknesses. Houston gave a great example of this on both sides of the ball on Sunday. On offense, the Texans masked an offensive line made up of third-string players and a left tackle called up from the practice squad. Kendrick Green, aside from an early penalty, was not the liability he was when playing in Pittsburgh. The Texans took advantage of Pittsburgh’s aggressive overpursuit by changing direction. Pittsburgh has extremely talented players. But undisciplined pursuit time and again led to Texas runners gaining positive yardage by changing direction. Alex Highsmith grasped air as he did not protect the backdoor and chased the play as a runner just cut back and ran by him.

Teryl Austin has avoided much criticism. But this is a mediocre, soft defense that relies on individual efforts. On paper this should be a top-five defense. Even with Can Heyward out, the defense has enough talent to be top tier. But the reality is that opposing offenses have run and passed on this defense almost at will. Even in Steelers’ wins, the defense gave up triple-explosive run plays. Opposing receivers get ridiculously open. That is not a sign of an elite defense. The sum of the player’s talents does not match the defense’s performance. Individual effort, not team play, keeps the Steelers in games. If anything, Austin’s game planning is no more effective than Canada’s.

Mojo and Clarity of Action

Then there is execution, which falls on players. Kenny Pickett throws to a double-covered receiver while just beyond in the corner of the end zone is a completely uncovered Connor Heyward, who should have been within his range of vision. Linemen fail to deliver a block as defenders get into the backfield untouched. It’s like the Steelers players are confused because their plays do not work. Confusion slows down reaction time. Hence the Texans looked like track stars while the Steelers players seemed to jog. Maybe mojo and clarity of action are related.

Tomlin Quit

Steelers teams are known for not quitting. They may lose but will play to the final whistle. Not this game. Mitch Trubisky entered the game in the fourth quarter with Pittsburgh down 23-6. He completed his first pass to Calvin Austin III, who ran out of bounds after an eight-yard gain. Two straight incompletions targeting George Pickens followed. And the Steelers punted from their 36. The Texans scored again on a jogging Steeler defense to go up 30-6 with 3:39 to play in the game.

At this point, I told Ken Sterner, “If the Steelers run on this play, they quit.” Sure enough, Jaylen Warren ran four straight times to get to the two-minute warning. Pittsburgh ran three more plays after the two-minute warning keeping two timeouts unused. Mike Tomlin anxiously waited for the last 43 seconds to tick off so he could trot out to the middle of the field, shake hands, and get out of there.

Well, why not? By the time I got out of my seat at the final whistle, the UPMC Club was empty of fans. Just a few staff stragglers like me. Hundreds already gave up and left. The Steelers had no chance of staging a comeback on that last drive. Why risk injury on plays that won’t affect the outcome of the game? Because you have an upcoming game against a division rival and your starting quarterback may be out. It’s time to give the backup quarterback every opportunity to prepare for a key game. Handing off or dumping a pass to a running back against a defense stacked to prevent a quick score doesn’t help prepare Trubisky.

My message to the players would be let’s go out there and get one drive to finish this game. And then go home. I played a lot of individual and team sports in my day. Got my butt kicked more times than I care to remember. But I always went down swinging. I hope I never witness a Steelers team quitting before the final whistle ever again regardless of the score.

“Hell Yeah, We Gotta Make Some Changes”

The words that caught many people’s attention during Mike Tomlin’s postgame remarks were, “Hell yeah, we gotta make some changes.” What exactly does that mean? Is it just another throwaway line like his “We got to find our mojo” that got so many sensitive Pittsburgh sports journalists indignant not so long ago?

Is it just tweaking the game plan for Baltimore? Or do the changes go deeper? Folks say that the Steelers do not fire staff in-season. And that the offensive and defensive schemes installed during training camp are difficult to revise once the season starts. But just two quick examples.

In 2011, Kyle Orton started the first five games for the Denver Broncos winning just one game. Head coach John Fox benched Orton and replaced him with Tim Tebow just before their bye week. Fox reconfigured the Broncos offense around Tebow’s style of play during the break saying, “We can’t do that other crap.” The Broncos won seven of the remaining 11 games to make the playoffs and beat the Steelers in an AFC Wild Card game in overtime. By the way, offensive coordinator Mike McCoy was not fired. He remained in his position until the following season.

Baltimore Ravens heads coach John Harbaugh fired offensive coordinator Marc Trestman after the fifth game of the season due to a moribund offense. The Ravens were sniffing the playoffs at 8-6, when Antonio Brown’s dramatic Christmas Day “Immaculate Extension” sealed a Steelers come-from-behind victory and eliminated Baltimore from the playoffs. I witnessed that play in person, just 30 yards away from my end zone seat.

Words into Deeds

The Indianapolis Colts fired their offensive coordinator midseason just a year ago. So, either replacing the coordinator or changing the offensive scheme can be done in the midseason. But is that what Mike Tomlin meant? Maybe it’s a matter of giving young players like Joey Porter Jr. an expanded rule from just dime packages. Neither Keeanu Benton nor Broderick Jones impressed me on Sunday. Is playing the young talent enough?

I anxiously await Tomlin’s press conference on Tuesday to see if he expands on his comment. But more importantly, the next game against Baltimore and any news during the bye week will demonstrate if Tomlin’s words are reinforced by deeds.

YOUR HOT TAKES DURING THE GAME

Thank you, Ross McCorkle, for keeping us up to date on the game’s first and second half Live Update and Discussion Threads. Steelers Depot respondents contributed 1,776 first-half comments. Respondents added 1,827 more second half comments. Here are the top three comments from each half. I don’t know the algorithm used by Disqus but here is how they stacked it up:

The top three first half comments covered a variety of topics.

The top three first-half comments dealt with the Steelers’ performance or lack thereof.

Torsteel had the best of the first-half comment with “This team couldn’t score in a brothel.”

JJH9 scored second with, “I’m so tired of watching this lazy, poorly coached, soft, unskilled team play every Sunday. They aren’t entertaining at all.”

And Chris92021 got third, “Steelers getting outplayed by a rookie QB and outcoached by a rookie head coach.”

The Steelers did not improve in the second half and the commentary didn’t get any more forgiving.

Chris92021 saw the open man that Kenny Pickett missed. “Pickett flat out missed Heyward. Texans make a mistake on defense, and we can’t capitalize.”

Taylor Williams was underwhelmed with Pittsburgh’s short game, “So Tomlin called timeout to give Canada the greenlight to call shotgun on 4th and 1. You just need 1 yard.”

And CoachCot captured the prevailing opinion of fans, “Matt Canada is the dumbest MFer to have ever called an NFL offense. F him.”

Not many bright spots in a gloomy game.

CONCLUSION

Mike Tomlin needs to make whatever changes he was talking about. They better be significant since this team has significant flaws. Both coordinators have developed schemes that fail to exploit the talent on both offense and defense.

No better time than now for a players-only meeting. Player execution on both sides of the ball is unacceptably prone to lapses.

What more can be said? Pick up the pieces. Patch them together. And let’s see what transpires against Baltimore. Here we go.

Your Song Selection

I always like to include a bit of music. Where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from Cotton-eyed Joe? The 2023 Steelers came from training camp looking good. Now where did those 2023 Steelers go? Here is Cotton-Eyed Joe performed by Rednex.