ESPN analyst and former Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark was among those disgusted with the team’s performance today against the Houston Texans. He took to Twitter to vent his frustration at the conclusion of the team’s 30-6 loss.
“I held this tweet all day, but WTF Steelers?”
It was a horrific performance from start to finish. The Texans took the opening kickoff and marched downfield to open up the scoring, and the Steelers just had no answer for the C.J. Stroud-led Texans offense. Offensively, they might have been even worse, unable to find the end zone and more importantly, losing QB Kenny Pickett to a knee injury that knocked him out for the remainder of the game.
The Steelers managed to throw for just 111 yards all day, while giving up 306 yards through the air to Stroud. They also let the Texans run all over them to the tune of 139 yards, while Nico Collins continued the season-long trend of receivers burning Pittsburgh, with seven receptions for 168 yards and two touchdowns.
No one was good enough, and no excuse makes up for the truly pitiful performance the Steelers put on the field on Sunday. They sucked on both sides of the ball and suffered some key injuries on top of that with Pickett, TE Pat Freiermuth, OT Dan Moore Jr. and DL DeMarvin Leal all going down and not returning to the game. It’s hard to imagine things going any worse for Pittsburgh on Sunday afternoon.
The future doesn’t look much brighter, with the Baltimore Ravens due up next week before what’s looking like a much-needed early bye week. The Steelers have far too much talent to be as bad as they have been on both sides of the ball through four weeks, and while the 2-2 record isn’t awful, the actual execution and performances have been pretty awful, especially on offense.
Mike Tomlin said after the game the Steelers need to make changes. He better mean it this time. There needs to be real, meaningful change made somewhere in this organization to turn the results around. With Pickett down and potentially missing some time, the Steelers can’t afford to have their season end by Week Four. They have to figure out a way for things to get better and need to do it soon. The season is hanging in the balance.
