The Arizona Cardinals strung together a 15-play, 99-yard drive toward the end of the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers that resulted in a touchdown to give Arizona a 10-3 lead at the half. Arizona benefitted from TE Trey McBride matched up against ILB Mykal Walker that drive, as McBride had four receptions for 49 yards on the drive, with three of those catches coming on third down. Walker told reporters after the game that he blames himself for the drive.
“I put that all on me. There were a of couple plays I had, I think two or three of them that drive that we could’ve got off the field, and I missed those plays. That’s something you can’t do in this league, it’s an unacceptable performance by me first and foremost, and I got to be better,” Walker said via video by 93.7 The Fan on Twitter.
Walker was the guy the Steelers put on McBride, so he has to be better and help the Steelers get off the field. But it was a poor decision to have Walker on McBride, who’s been one of the better right ends in football this season. It’s a mismatch that never should’ve happened, as the Steelers should’ve had S Minkah Fitzpatrick lined up against the second-year tight end.
The blame falls more on the coaching staff, particularly Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin, for not making the move sooner to put Fitzpatrick on McBride and continuing to roll with Walker, even though it was abundantly clear it wasn’t working. Walker isn’t absolved of blame, because it was his assignment and he got beaten badly, and it wasn’t a very good day for him overall. But in this particular matchup, a lot of the blame goes to the coaching staff for not making the necessary adjustments.
The fact of the matter is the Steelers need to be better from top to bottom. They were a mess today in all phases of the game, and the coaching wasn’t great, either. The Steelers were flat, undisciplined and didn’t seem ready to play. The players didn’t execute, and the coaches didn’t have the players ready to go against a bad Cardinals team. It’s an indictment on everybody that the Steelers are now 7-5 after losing to the 2-10 Cardinals, and it’s something that can’t happen again.
The Steelers and Walker will have an opportunity to correct what went wrong in a matchup with the New England Patriots on Thursday.
