The Pittsburgh Steelers dropped their Week 13 game to the Arizona Cardinals, 24-10. The game featured many injuries, multiple weather delays, and some very sloppy play by the Steelers. QB Kenny Pickett exited the game toward the end of the second half while attempting to scramble for a touchdown. The Steelers ended up getting stuffed that drive with 4th and goal from the 1-yard line.
Mitch Trubisky was lined up in shotgun and handed the ball off to Najee Harris. C Mason Cole got blown off the ball, which doomed the play to be a turnover on downs. The score was 3-3 at that point in the game. From there, the Cardinals would put together a 99-yard touchdown drive to take a lead into the half prior to the weather delay.
Head coach Mike Tomlin, while addressing the media following the game, was asked whether he considered kicking the field goal after Pickett got hurt.
“No, we were gonna go for that,” Tomlin said in the postgame press conference posted on the team’s YouTube page. “We gotta score points in order to win football games, and so, not gonna question our aggression there. We gotta be able to get a yard.”
The Steelers struggled on possession downs throughout the game. Most of their third downs were five yards or longer, so they obviously weren’t doing a great job staying on schedule. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren rushed for 63 and 59 yards respectively, but most of that was in the first half on drives that came up empty.
After gaining 421 yards of total offense last week, but only scoring 16 points, there was an emphasis going into this game of finishing drives and scoring points. Interim offensive coordinator Eddie Faulkner discussed in his Thursday press conference the need to focus on the details in the red zone where it is much tougher to advance the ball. The Steelers were lacking in those details this game with too many miscues to count.
Up next the Steelers have the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football. With the quick turnaround, they have a lot to figure out in the coming days. Short-yardage and red-zone situations have got to be at the top of that list.
