Entering a four-day stretch at Acrisure Stadium against the Arizona Cardinals and the New England Patriots — two of the worst teams in football — the Pittsburgh Steelers had a real opportunity.
That opportunity turned into a nightmare as the Steelers dropped both games, falling to 7-6 on the season and putting themselves in a very tough spot in the AFC playoff picture.
In the loss to the Cardinals, the Steelers lost quarterback Kenny Pickett for a few weeks due to an ankle injury that required tightrope surgery. The hope was that backup Mitch Trubisky could help lead the Steelers to a win on Thursday night against the Patriots and get them back on track.
That didn’t happen whatsoever.
For NBC Sports’ Peter King, who covered the game Thursday night, he saw a quarterback in Trubisky who is playing with no confidence, was despondent after the game, and really just doesn’t seem like a guy who can make enough plays for the Steelers to win.
“Two things about Mitchell Trubisky. Mike, I don’t know what you saw when you watched the game last night, but what I saw was a quarterback who for the most part is playing with zero confidence. Zero. He’s tentative, he short arms the ball,” King Told Mike Florio while appearing on NBC Sports’ Pro Football Talk. “He was mostly tentative, a little bit tight, and otherwise he just really didn’t seem to play with any confidence at all.
“And you know, Mike, I don’t know about you, but I watched this game last night and I felt like once that happened and the [Patriots] ended up getting up 21-3, it really felt like it was almost garbage time for the rest of the game. And the Steelers were fighting, fighting, fighting uphill, and yeah, they had a chance to win late. They certainly did. But expecting Trubisky to make enough plays to actually make you win is very unrealistic, at least to me.”
Trubisky really struggled against the Patriots, which wasn’t all that unexpected. He might be a better athlete than Pickett and certainly looks to use his legs more, but he’s just not a good quarterback. Neither of them are.
Trubisky doesn’t take care of the ball like Pickett does, and that’s cost him far too many times with the Steelers. That lack of ball security reared its ugly head again on Thursday night. Trubisky was picked off early by J.C. Jackson, but had it nullified by a holding penalty on Jackson. Then, Jabrill Peppers picked off Trubisky when the veteran quarterback threw into triple coverage.
Trubisky was nearly picked a few drives later by Jackson again, though the veteran cornerback dropped the football.
That’s what Trubisky has done more often than not in relief of Pickett during his time in Pittsburgh. He wants to take shots, wants to be aggressive. That’s all fine and dandy. But he doesn’t make smart decisions.
That lack of confidence showed, too, with his hesitancy in the pocket, his uncertainty in making some decisions and his struggles throwing the deep ball.
Trubisky completed just 22-of-35 passes for 190 yards, one touchdown and one interception in the loss. He made a great throw to Diontae Johnson for a 25-yard touchdown in the first half and he fired a bullet to tight end Pat Freiermuth for a 2-point conversion in the fourth quarter. But it was a ton of up-and-down moments for Trubisky, which is what we’ve come accustomed to.
He’ll flash, like he did on the 15-yard run to open the game, and on the 25-yard touchdown to Johnson. But it was too far and few between. He struggled with deep balls, even with the amount of shots he was taking. He rarely used the middle of the field, and he tended to drift backwards and throw off his back foot quite a bit, leading to issues pushing the ball downfield.
Those struggles had fans chanting for the Steelers to turn to Mason Rudolph Thursday night. How the tables have turned.
“A couple of interesting things I thought, being in the stadium, and I’m never sure what people can actually hear at home or whatever, but it did not take that crowd long to turn on Mitchell Trubisky. I walked in the locker room after the game last night, and Trubisky was just kind of staring into space. He looked really despondent,” King said following Trubisky’s performance. “I am borderline kind of stunned at the results, but I don’t think if you actually watch the games, you could be that surprised.
“The quality of quarterbacking by the Steelers is putrid and that really is above all. You can talk about individual players and Diontae Johnson loafing and [George] Pickens not coming through and or such and such on the defense. Yeah, you can do that. This is a quarterback issue for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I don’t think they can recover. I don’t think they’re gonna make the playoffs.”
King nails it.
For all the other issues that people want to pinpoint as the major issue with the Steelers, such as the defense giving up too many yards or attitude problems and effort issues with the wide receivers, it all comes back to the quarterback play.
It’s been putrid, as King stated.
There is no denying that. Pickett has been a mess outside of one game in Cincinnati over the last two months. Trubisky is no better, and he’s more loose with the football. That puts the Steelers’ defense in a bind when turnovers occur, like the short field that led to Patriots tight end Hunter Henry’s first touchdown of the game.
The Steelers have been playing a certain style all season long, being safe and smart with the football offensively, leaning on the defense, keeping games close and making winning plays late. That helped them get to 7-4 on the season. That’s all disappeared in the last four days. It might never return, either.
