Not much went right in what was an eyesore of a game for the Pittsburgh Steelers against the New England Patriots on Thursday night. They lost 21-18, dropping to 7-6 on the season and out of the current playoff standings. The Steelers were outplayed on both sides of the football as the offense again looked overwhelmed for most of the game while the defense struggled to keep New England’s bottom-ranked offense in check for most of the game, allowing QB Bailey Zappe to throw for three touchdowns.
WR Diontae Johnson said after the game that he thought the team had a great week of practice and that the result once again fell on a lack of execution by the players on both sides of the football.
“You practice how you play, and I felt we practiced great this week,” Johnson said to the media via video from Amanda Godsey’s X page. “We came in with the right mindset and didn’t think nothing different of the whole situation…of the whole week or whatever. It’s just a matter of us going out there and executing the plays that they call. That can’t be making excuses on this and that. That’s not helping.”
The Steelers need to own up to the fact that they are not playing winning football in the games as Johnson mentioned above. Many thought that getting rid of OC Matt Canada would improve this offense, but it still has struggled with him gone the last three games. Others thought QB Kenny Pickett was the problem, having regressed in his second season, posting terrible stats regarding his passing yards and touchdowns on the year. However, QB Mitch Trubisky didn’t hold up any better. He threw for 190 yards on 35 attempts with one touchdown to Johnson as well as an easy interception directly thrown to S Jabrill Peppers.
The issue of Pittsburgh needing to execute better has plagued this team at least the last three years, having dealt with plenty of execution issues last season, and even while going 7-2 down the stretch. Those execution issues are rearing their ugly head right now as the Steelers have gone from being in the driver’s seat regarding their playoff destiny at 7-4 to dropping two-straight games to teams with 10 losses, putting them in a spot where they may need to win out to secure a playoff berth.
DL Cameron Heyward mentioned that players must start playing better or that personnel changes may need to be made to improve the execution on the field. Given the state of this team and how bad the Steelers have played in recent weeks, perhaps making some changes to the starting lineup may be the message that head coach Mike Tomlin needs to send. Johnson agrees that the players aren’t in position to make excuses and that execution must improve…by any means necessary.
