Blink and you might have missed the Pittsburgh Steelers falling into a 21-0 hole Monday in the AFC Wild Card matchup against the Buffalo Bills on the road.
Hurt by two turnovers, the Steelers fell behind in a hurry and never came out of that three-score hole, dropping a 31-17 decision to the Bills. That ended a season that saw the Steelers deal with quite a bit of adversity and go through serious ups and downs.
Once again, it was that slow start and a significant deficit that ultimately doomed the Steelers, which has become quite the norm for the Black and Gold in the postseason in the last four appearances — all one-and-done losses.
For Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who made his return to the lineup for the wild-card game after missing the previous three games, the slow start was rather frustrating.
“It shouldn’t have even been in that situation. Too much talent, too much time put in to even start like where we started and put ourself in that situation,” Fitzpatrick said to reporters after the loss, according to video via Steelers.com. “But you know, this team, we’ve been fighting this whole year. We started off slow, and then we’ve been bouncing around and then towards the end we fought. So I know that we could fight. That’s never in question.”
“But like I said, we just gotta stop putting ourselves in tough circumstances like we did today.”
That should go without saying, but it’s important that a player of Fitzpatrick’s stature came out and made that statement following the loss. It wasn’t about not being prepared, either. The players, quite simply, failed at executing.
The fumble from George Pickens is an execution mistake, not a preparedness issue. Same for the Mason Rudolph interception.
Buffalo’s opening touchdown of the game came after a miscommunication between cornerback Patrick Peterson and linebacker Elandon Roberts as was the Josh Allen touchdown pass to Dalton Kincaid one play after Pickens’ lost fumble. Allen’s 52-yard touchdown to go up 21-0? Missed tackle from Damontae Kazee.
Players were in position to make plays; they just didn’t communicate and didn’t execute. That’s painful to think about, especially at this point in the season, but that’s how it goes sometimes. It helped put the Steelers in a huge hole, and it’s frustrating.
They put in too much time and effort to get ready for the playoff game, but that preparation wasn’t enough to have them hit the ground running, and it cost them.
There are a lot of questions that need answered this offseason from the Steelers’ perspective and a lot of holes on the roster that need addressed. But they also need to figure out why the slow starts occur and get that figured out in a hurry.
