The most alarming thing about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Arizona Cardinals yesterday wasn’t what happened on the field, but rather in the locker room after the game. While a number of players, and head coach Mike Tomlin, refuted the notion that they overlooked their 2-10 opponent, a number of others hinted otherwise.
Most notable was RB Jaylen Warren, who said that the Steelers may have taken the Cardinals “lighter than we should have”. S Minkah Fitzpatrick also indicated that they may not have given TE Trey McBride “the respect he deserved going into the game. Not exactly things you want to hear.
“We have to go into games like these and realize we have to play our best ball”, Fitzpatrick said, via Amanda Godsey. “I don’t understand why games [unfold] like this. We should be winning by a lot of points, playing great defense. When we don’t play our best ball, it’s like this. These are NFL teams. They get paid, too, so they’re gonna take advantage of us when we don’t play our best ball”.
For the fourth time this season, the Steelers participated in a game decided by more than one possession. They are 0-4 in those games, dropping yesterday’s contest to the Cardinals by a score of 24-10, two full touchdowns. It was 24-3 with under five minutes to play.
Of course, you can look for excuses. Losing your quarterback 20 minutes into the game is never going to do much in your favor. They only had three points on four drives up to that point, though QB Kenny Pickett very nearly scored on the play on which he was injured. They went for the touchdown on 4th and goal on the next play and were stuffed, and that proved to be the turning point for the entire afternoon.
The Steelers never recovered, allowing the Cardinals to score touchdown on three of their next five possessions and then allowing them to close out the final 4:25 of the game, trailing by 14. They played the entire fourth quarter having never touched the ball with an opportunity to take the lead.
And next up is the 2-10 New England Patriots. They have been held to under 10 points three games in a row. Yet they haven’t allowed more than 10 points three games in a row either (to be fair, they allowed 20-plus points in all but one of their prior games).
“Thursday we’ve got to go out there and just play our best ball, not worrying about who”, Fitzpatrick said, they are playing, what their record is, who is on the field that day. “We need to focus on us and play our [brand] of football”.
They say the same things every week, but do they actually mean it every week? Is it possible that they really did overlook this previously 2-10 Cardinals team? And if so, what does that say about this team, this locker room, this coaching staff?
