If the Pittsburgh Steelers hit rock bottom last week in a four-day span, what’s below rock bottom coming out of Saturday’s 30-13 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on the road with real AFC playoff implications on the line?
That’s where the Steelers are currently coming out of a pitiful loss to the Colts, dropping to 7-7 on the season. The loss saw the Steelers blow a 13-0 lead, allowing 30 unanswered points and completely folding in the second half on both sides of the football.
At one point, the Colts ran the football right down the Steelers’ throats, and on offense the Steelers pulled Mitch Trubisky for Mason Rudolph in the fourth quarter, signaling just how bad things are for the team.
There’s nothing good coming out of the game. The Steelers are .500 and in dire straits in the AFC playoff picture. Granted, if they win out, they can get in. But chances of that happening appear very, very slim.
Let’s get to some grades.
QB — F
The Mitch Trubisky experience is not a fun one. At all.
That was again the case on Saturday against the Colts. Trubisky was just 16-for-23 for 169 yards, had one touchdown and two painful interceptions, which feels like par for the course with him.
Things started out somewhat promising as Trubisky got George Pickens involved early. On the second drive of the game the two hooked up for two receptions for 30 yards before Trubisky snuck one in from a yard out for the game’s opening touchdown.
Then, after a blocked punt by the Steelers, Trubisky hit Diontae Johnson for a 3-yard touchdown to give the Steelers at 13-0 lead.
It was largely downhill after that.
Trubisky threw off of his back foot a ton and was a bit reckless with the football when taking downfield shots. Both interceptions he threw Saturday were targeted for George Pickens. The throwing off the back foot, drifting from his target is maddening. He has awful mechanics, period.
The interceptions led to him being pulled for Mason Rudolph, who wasn’t allowed to do too much other than throw a couple of screens and check downs. We’ll see Rudolph gets the starting nod next week against the Cincinnati Bengals if Kenny Pickett can’t return from injury.
RB — D
Another game, another poor performance running the football for the Steelers. On top of that, the Steelers turned the football over on a bad fumble from Najee Harris deep in their own territory early in the second half, setting up a Colts’ touchdown.
Harris rushed just 12 times for 33 yards. He started off the game strong and had an impressive 15-yard run in the first quarter, but the Colts tightened up against Harris and shut him down.
Jaylen Warren wasn’t much better. He had 10 carries for 40 yards, but his numbers were a bit inflated by his 11-yard run at the end of the game in garbage time. He had eight carries for 26 yards prior to the final drive. Nothing to truly write home about. As a receiver, Warren added five catches for 28 yards, mostly on checkdowns and screens.
WR — C+
The receivers had a decent day from a production standpoint, led by Diontae Johnson. The veteran receiver had four receptions for 62 yards and scored a touchdown for the third straight game. After going scoreless for more than a year, Johnson is becoming a touchdown machine.
He also had a nice 25-yard catch on 3rd and 20, moving the chains, and had a big catch on 4th and 10 that also netted a fresh set of downs.
George Pickens had a successful night as a receiver, at least from a production standpoint, finishing with three receptions for 47 yards. He had more yards on the second drive of the game than he did the previous game against the Patriots. But all that will be talked about coming out of the game — and rightfully so — is the lack of effort he had on a 1st and goal run play to Jaylen Warren. Pickens stood around, not blocking on the play, leading to Warren getting stopped a the 1-yard line.
Trubisky’s first interception was a 50/50 deep ball that you usually like Pickens to come down with in those situations, but he got outjumped by Colts safety Nick Cross for the pick. Trubisky fired high late in the game leading to his second interception on a ball that Pickens had no shot of catching.
Allen Robinson II had a decent game. Three catches for 19 yards and played well as a blocker. But again, very limited as a receiver.
TE — D
This group is backsliding fast in recent weeks.
Pat Freiermuth had just three receptions for 16 yards and was once again very limited in his route running. Everything was very short over the middle, just a few yards past the line of scrimmage. His longest catch was six yards.
Connor Heyward had a bad holding call on a screen pass that set the Steelers back and wasn’t a threat in the passing game. He made an impact elsewhere, but he was a mess offensively.
Darnell Washington was largely invisible again and isn’t much of an impact as a blocker right now.
OL — F
An awful showing for the Steelers’ offensive line, plain and simple.
The Steelers ran for just 74 yards on 24 carries and had largely no chance at winning the line of scrimmage, especially in short-yardage situations. A putrid 3.1 yards per carry. No balance, no ability to impose their will, nothing.
Mason Cole was called for a terrible hold on an explosive Warren run, James Daniels had a holding call, and Dan Moore Jr. did, too.
The Steelers allowed four sacks and nine quarterback hits on the night. They were no match for Indianapolis’ front seven.
Things will be even harder down the stretch against Cincinnati, Seattle and Baltimore. Good luck.
DL — D
This group absolutely folded against the run. It was embarrassing.
The Colts had a drive in the fourth quarter that saw them run the football 13 times for 70 yards, completely taking the fight to the Steelers and dominating them at the point of attack. Pittsburgh had no answer. Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi were pushed around on the drive, as we were Montravius Adams, Keeanu Benton and Armon Watts.
It was ugly. Prior to that the Steelers didn’t have much of an answer, either.
Heyward had five tackles and a tackle for loss before being placed in concussion protocol. He looked rough Saturday.
Ogunjobi had four tackles and a sack but disappeared in the second half. Watts, Benton and Adams combined for just five tackles and one quarterback hit. Not good enough.
LB — C-
T.J. Watt had a decent night, recording two sacks in a key matchup against rookie right tackle Blake Freeland. He added two quarterback hits, too.
But he was really the only impactful one. Alex Highsmith had four tackles but wasn’t much of a presence rushing the passer and struggled at times against the run. Markus Golden bounced back after being a healthy scratch last week and had three tackles and a pass deflection.
Inside, Elandon Roberts led the Steelers with nine tackles, but he was part of the problem against the run. He struggled to get off blocks quickly and didn’t play with his usual downhill force. Mykal Walker had issues against running backs in coverage again, losing Zack Moss on the Colts’ first touchdown of the game. Teams are learning to attack him like that.
Mark Robinson got the start at inside linebacker next to Roberts and had three tackles, but he wasn’t all that impactful overall.
DB — D
The numbers aren’t all that eye-opening from Gardner Minshew II — just 215 passing yards — but he carved up the Steelers’ secondary.
After Damontae Kazee’s ejection and Minkah Fitzpatrick’s knee injury on back-to-back plays, the Steelers had no answers in the secondary.
Trenton Thompson had seven tackles in extended action, Joey Porter Jr. had another penalty that put the Colts in scoring position, and Patrick Peterson was largely invisible at safety with the Steelers very thin in the secondary.
Practice squad signee D.J. Montgomery had a big day against the Steelers with two catches for 48 yards and a touchdown. He should have had a second touchdown but dropped it in the end zone on fourth down.
It was a bad day all around from the Steelers’ secondary.
Special Teams — C-
It was a strange day for the Steelers’ special teams unit.
Connor Heyward had a huge blocked punt and Nick Herbig recovered it at the 1-yard line to set up a touchdown that put the Steelers up 13-0. It was a massive impact play, one that the Steelers have become accustomed to on special teams under Danny Smith.
About the only positive was Godwin Igwebuike having a strong day on kick returns, bringing back two kicks for 65 yards — one a 34-yarder and one a 31-yarder. He was solid.
But Chris Boswell missed an extra point for the first time all season, and then the Steelers didn’t even allow him to attempt a 57-yarder indoors in an 11-point game. They called on punter Pressley Harvin III, who was awful.
Harvin averaged 40 yards per punt on the day with a long of 55, but his situational punting was terrible. He had a 22-yard punt and then a line-drive 42-yard punt that allowed the Colts to return the ball to their own 31 after the first drive of the game, giving them great field position. Might be time for the Steelers to go shopping for a new punter.
