Another week, another similar story for the Pittsburgh Steelers. For most of the season they were able to play ugly and win, but today the outcome was a 20-10 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at home. The offense couldn’t get going early and the defense did all it could to keep this team in the game. Ultimately a pair of second-half interceptions and some explosive plays allowed on defense sealed the Steelers’ fate.
Head Coach Mike Tomlin spoke about the first-half offensive struggles in his post game press conference on the Steelers’ website.
“We missed a big play down the middle early,” Tomlin said via the team site. “We missed another corner route early. You know, we just gotta execute better at the early portions of football games, obviously.”
Tomlin is of course talking about the first offensive play of the game for the Steelers where QB Kenny Pickett dialed up a pass to WR Diontae Johnson up the seam in the deep middle of the field. The ball went right through Johnson’s hands on what would have been a huge opening play for this offense. The ball went 25 yards through the air and could have produced at least a few yards after the catch.
That drive then became a three-and-out that included a sack on Pickett. The third-down play was also catchable by Johnson, but it slipped through his hands.
The rain was coming down heavy at the time, so the ball was slick, and Pickett perhaps overthrew that first pass just a little. But it was catchable and a play the Steelers needed to make on a day where the offense accomplished very little.
It wasn’t all bad for Johnson, as he made several difficult catches today. He was targeted 14 times and caught eight passes for 85 yards. He could have had his first touchdown in a long time late in the second half, but Pickett missed him wide open in the end zone.
“The early portions of the game doesn’t decide the outcome. It usually doesn’t. It didn’t today,” Tomlin said in the post game press conference when asked about the early three-and-outs. “Obviously you want more fluid starts, but it didn’t determine the outcome of the game.”
Another week passes by, and the Steelers are approaching the halfway point of the season with no answers on how to get the offense going early in games.
