Somehow, things are getting worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
If Sunday’s 24-10 loss to the lowly Arizona Cardinals wasn’t bad enough, Thursday night’s 21-18 clunker to the woeful New England Patriots made it even worse.
Now, the Steelers are sitting at 7-6 on the season with way more questions than answers on both sides of the football. The fan base is fed up, players are frustrated, and the season is quickly spiraling out of control.
For Steelers standout defensive tackle and team captain Cameron Heyward, there is no sugarcoating the performances the Steelers have put on the field in the last four days. There is no real message that can come from head coach Mike Tomlin, either.
“I think Mike T likes to absorb the film before he really makes a judgment. And I think that’s fair. Obviously players are ticked off and mad about the game, but it’s just about being smart with your words and getting back in the lab and absorbing what’s really going on,” Heyward said to reporters after the loss, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “You can’t put a mask over this. This has been two ugly games that we have to be accountable for.”
The Steelers certainly do need to be accountable for this four-day stretch, one that realistically might have torpedoed their season.
Injuries piling up can be an excuse, sure. But it’s just that — an excuse. All teams deal with injuries. The Steelers are no different there. The lack of execution, the inability to play smart situational football, the inability to consistently line up properly…all of this in Week 14. It’s been a continuation.
The players keep saying it’s not the coaching that’s the problem, it’s the execution. Heyward, to his credit, said that personnel changes might be needed, himself included. We’ll see if any personnel changes are made. At some positions, there’s not much the Steelers can do. Their backs are up against a wall.
But something has to change — and fast.
The Steelers made some dubious NFL history Thursday night, becoming the first team with a record over .500 to lose back-to-back games to teams eight games below .500. That’s not an NFL record any team wants to make, and yet the Steelers now stand alone there. They have to own this. There has to be accountability. There is no sweeping this under the rug, forgetting about it and moving on.
You can’t flush a four-day stretch like this quickly. The drain is clogged. Time to find a fix.
