Things are going from pretty bad to much, much worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers here in December.
They have unleashed hell, no doubt. Just on themselves, thanks to a three-game losing streak in which the team has seemingly completely spiraled and watched the bottom fall out.
Coming into December, the Steelers were 7-4 and had a great opportunity in front of them with a two-game stretch against poor teams. That great opportunity turned into a nightmare for the Steelers as they lost to the two-win Arizona Cardinals and two-win New England Patriots in a span of five days at home. Then they were bullied on the road against the Indianapolis Colts in primetime.
The Steeler are collapsing right before our eyes. That is refelcted in a trio of NFL Power Rankings, too. The Steelers plummeted outside of the top 20 Tuesday morning in power rankings from CBS Sports, The Athletic and NFL.com, summing up just how bad it has been the last three weeks for the Black and Gold.
In The Athletic’s power rankings compiled by Josh Kendall, the Steelers fell to No. 20 overall after the loss to the Colts, falling behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
For Kendall, the biggest surprise of the season is the fact that second-year receiver George Pickens still remains on the team.
“The second-year wide receiver’s attitude has been enough of a problem that coach Mike Tomlin felt the need to tell the team’s official website that he and Pickens had ‘a great meeting’ last week,” Kendall writes. “It must not have been that great because Pickens had two embarrassing clips surface from Saturday’s game — one on which he put hardly any effort into a run block and one on which he seemed to run away from the opposing ball carrier after an interception.
“He leads the team with 52 catches for 814 yards, but it might not be worth all this.”
Frustrations are mounting with — and for — Pickens. He’s a talented young player with great physical tools. He’s had some “wow” moments in the NFL, too. But too often we’re talking about his attitude on the sidelines, his effort on the field, or his social media usage off the field.
It’s getting rather tiresome. He let a great rookie season go to his head and it’s cost him in his second season.
Now, coming out of the loss to the Colts much of the attention is on Pickens’ effort on a run play, and rightfully so. Diontae Johnson was crushed for a lack of effort against the Cincinnati Bengals a few weeks ago. It’s only right that Pickens feels that same heat, too.
But it’s not a surprise at all that Pickens is still around. What were the Steelers going to do, cut him or trade him immediately? Come on.
Maybe moving him is something that’s discussed in the offseason, but right now that’s just not going to happen.
In CBS Sports’ power rankings from Pete Prisco, the Steelers fell to No. 21 overall. The slide simply continues for the Steelers.
“Three straight losses has them in big trouble in terms of the playoff race,” Prisco writes. “They aren’t good right now on either side of the ball.”
That seems like a bit of an understatement from Prisco, but it is true.
The Steelers are awful offensively. Not much has changed there, besides the inability to run the football consistently in the last few weeks. The passing game still stinks, and the offensive line is a mess in pass protection. Pittsburgh had just 216 yards of total offense in the loss to the Colts. Hard to wrap one’s mind around.
Defensively, Pittsburgh is dealing with so many injuries, and to key guys at critical spots, too. Now, down Damontae Kazee due to a season-ending suspension and Minkah Fitzpatrick to injury, the Steelers will be calling on Trenton Thompson and practice squad elevation Eric Rowe at safety against Jake Browning and the Bengals.
Fun times!
What a mess this has become in the Steel City.
Finally, in NFL.com’s power rankings from Eric Edholm, the Steelers dropped to No. 20 overall after the loss to the Colts, falling six spots.
“Saturday’s loss was pretty much a death blow to their season, even if we should have known which way the wind was blowing after back-to-back home losses to 2-10 teams,” Edholm writes regarding the Steelers. “This might temporarily boost Kenny Pickett’s stock; after all, everything started really spiraling out of control after he got hurt. But I don’t think Pickett was going to rescue this team because his limitations were part of the Steelers’ offensive issues to begin with. The defense might have carried this team to the seven wins, but it’s falling apart at the wrong time, especially in the secondary.
“This season started with playoff hopes, but there was always a smoke-and-mirrors quality to the wins and a stark reality in the losses, including three early-season beatdowns and three late-season breakdowns.”
A great summation there from Edholm.
Saturday’s loss to the Colts felt like the final nail in the coffin, but if anyone was surprised by the loss and the way it played out, they hadn’t been paying attention all season, and they certainly weren’t paying attention when the Steelers dropped back-to-back games to the Cardinals and Patriots, two teams set to pick in the top five of the 2024 NFL Draft in April.
Sure, Pickett’s stock gets boosted a bit with the way the Steelers have fallen apart without him, but like Edholm wrote, he was part of the issue on offense even when healthy. And then, leaning on the defense all season has taken its toll from a health perspective. The defense is gassed and is down to its last line of defense at some positions.
Just an unsustainable way to play football in the NFL in 2023, and the Steelers found it out the hard way. Hopefully they take some major lessons from this season.
