The Pittsburgh Steelers mustered two first downs and 47 net yards across their first three drives in yesterday’s loss. They even turned the ball over on downs, without picking up a single first down, on their second series. While they started to show some life late in the half, they couldn’t get truly going until the second half. And that’s not at all what the Steelers planned, TE Pat Freiermuth says.
“It’s frustrating, for sure”, Freiermuth said about the Steelers’ continued slow starts, via the team’s website. “We harped on that in practice this week, trying to get it corrected. We’ve got to try something else to make it work, that we start faster. You see what we can do later in the games. We’ve just got to execute that quicker in games”.
In Freiermuth’s own words, the Steelers prioritized picking things up quickly in practice last week. Then they proceeded to utterly fail on doing so during the game. On their first play, QB Justin Fields tripped over his lineman’s foot. He took a sack on third down, but the officials bailed them with a roughing the passer penalty.
Mind you, that 15-yard penalty is part of the 29 yards they totaled on that opening drive. Calvin Austin III had a 17-yard catch on 3rd and 9, but the Steelers stalled after that. Freiermuth ended the drive with a reception for eight yards…but on 3rd and 23. They hurt themselves with an unnecessary roughness penalty on the play before, giving back the 15 penalty yards gained.
Fields connected with Freiermuth for seven to open the Steelers’ second possession, but the Colts stuffed RB Najee Harris on two consecutive runs thereafter. Going for it on 4th and 1, they also stuffed Fields on a keeper, Ryan McCollum reporting as eligible.
Head coach Mike Tomlin talked a lot about the issue of slow starts last week, so it’s no surprise the Steelers placed an emphasis on it in Indianapolis. The only problem is that it didn’t translate at all. James Daniels’ in-game injury early on didn’t help, and the Colts did have a good game plan, to their credit.
But the Steelers still put up 24 points, a season high, despite the slow start, and despite their numerous unforced errors. As Freiermuth says, they should be able to do in the first half what they managed in the second.
It seems as though a lot of Steelers players after this loss talked about not carrying over into the game what they did in practice. That goes for both sides of the ball, with S DeShon Elliott also critical. But what is the answer, beyond simply continuing to work at it?
Fields employed a Tomlinism in his postgame comments in describing the Steelers’ issues as nothing mystical. Some things are obvious—don’t hold the ball loose only to fumble and look when the center is snapping. Theoretically, these are easily correctable. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear about “popcorn” on Tuesday.
