Coming off a 16-10 win on the road over the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12 in which the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense had quite an impressive showing, racking up 421 yards of total offense, the vibes were high for Black and Gold entering the stretch run.
Maybe too high.
The Steelers crashed back down to Earth in Week 13, falling in embarrassing fashion to the Arizona Cardinals Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, 24-10, losing quarterback Kenny Pickett to an ankle injury in the process.
One week after looking like a competent offense in today’s NFL, the Steelers’ offense failed to do much of anything against one of the worst defenses in football.
For former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, who appeared on the 102.5 WDVE Morning Show Tuesday, he thinks the Steelers’ performance on Sunday against the lowly Cardinals was a case of the Steelers “reading their own press clippings” in the week leading up to it.
“I think they started reading their own press clippings and thinking that they were better than what they actually were,” Batch said to the DVE Morning Show crew, according to audio via the show’s podcast page. “Of course, coming off the Bengals game, you’re confident, you’re putting up points, you shut ’em down and you win. But ultimately you need to now prove it again. And when you have an opportunity to do so at home, it’s just unfortunate because you really have squandered an opportunity because you could potentially be a half game out of first place.
“Now, best-case scenario, you’ll be two games out before Baltimore plays on Sunday. So this is gonna be something that they’re gonna be kicking themselves later on as they go back and review the film. And then ultimately, however it shakes out at the end of the season, this may be one game that they’re gonna be paying attention to.”
Some players said after the loss that they may have taken the Cardinals too lightly. The performance on the field Sunday showed that might be the case.
Though head coach Mike Tomlin downplayed that Monday in his press conference, stating that it’s the NFL and that you can’t take anyone lightly, there’s a problem there with the players that seems to be bubbling to the surface.
The Steelers’ offense looked as good as it had in three seasons against the Bengals, but it was more of the same against the Cardinals. There were some good components that stood out in the run game, but it was too inconsistent, and when the game got out of hand the Steelers became one-dimensional offensively.
The Steelers needed to prove that the Week 12 showing offensively against the Bengals wasn’t a one-week fluke. They didn’t exactly prove that, and now another major test is coming in the form of the New England Patriots’ defense, which has been one of the best in football the last month.
