Just when it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to get back on track and win an ugly game late at home on Sunday Night Football against the Dallas Cowboys, the rug was swept out from underneath them.
Dallas scored on a 4th-down play from inside the 5-yard line with 20 seconds to go, going on to win the game 20-17. The Steelers fell to 3-2, giving them back-to-back frustrating losses against a team that they certainly looked better than on paper.
For that reason, former NFL defensive lineman Chris Canty is out on the Steelers.
“I just wanna say, I’m sorry. I am sorry for thinking that the Pittsburgh Steelers are a good football team,” Canty said on ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike Conduct radio show Monday morning, according to audio via ESPN.com. “I am sorry for putting you in a position to trust what you were gonna get from Justin Fields and what would’ve been a bounce-back performance after a disappointing loss to the Indianapolis Colts when they were playing their back quarterback.
“So, America, I wanna start the week by apologizing to you for asking you to wrongly put your trust in the Pittsburgh Steelers.”
Just like that, after two losses by a combined six points, the bottom has seemingly fallen out and the criticism for the Steelers is ramping up.
Such is life in the NFL and the media landscape, I guess.
Yes, entering the matchup against the Cowboys, the expectation was that the Steelers were the better team and should be able to take advantage of a Cowboys defense missing Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. That wasn’t the case, though, as the Steelers struggled throughout the game on the offensive side of the football.
The offensive line wasn’t very good in the run game and had issues protecting Fields. The fourth-year quarterback missed some throws, and there were some unfortunate drops from pass catchers. In the end, the offense couldn’t take advantage of three takeaways and a blocked field goal by the defense.
The defense doesn’t get a pass, either. Pittsburgh allowed a 16-play, 90-yard touchdown drive in the third quarter and then a 15-play, 70-yard touchdown drive late in the fourth quarter, Dallas capping it with the 4th-down scoring strike from Dak Prescott to Jalen Tolbert for the win.
While the defense largely did its job with the three turnovers and the blocked field goal, giving up 445 yards of total offense to the Cowboys and allowing Dallas to convert 9-of-15 third downs simply isn’t good enough.
Canty is focused on the quarterback play though coming out of Sunday night. He might have a point, too.
“He [Fields] underwhelmed. And for my money, this is the second week in a row where that’s happened. Forget about what the numbers actually say with the box score, the Colts game. There were a lot of negative plays in that game that cost the Steelers as an opportunity to win that game. And then it was much of the same last night,” Canty said. “Productivity was not there for Justin Fields. And beyond that, just looking at it from a macro view, that was a game where your defense had three takeaways and a blocked field goal and a few of those takeaways happen to be in the red zone and you still lost. How does that happen?
“Those are the types of things that are mind-boggling. And to me it, it takes a little bit of steam away from the crowd that says Justin Fields is the way this team should go [with], both for the short term and the long term. Because if that’s the case, then Justin Fields should help you figure out a way to win a football game like last night.”
Fields completed just 15-of-27 passes for 131 yards. Though he had two touchdowns, the production felt largely empty, especially on a night when the Steelers’ offense couldn’t do much of anything. Fields missed some throws, held onto the football a bit too long, and when some throws were seemingly there, he wasn’t confident enough to let it rip.
Last week, Fields played with confidence and was loose and free. This week, he just never seemed right. Maybe the delay messed with him. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good enough for the Steelers, and now sitting at 3-2 the noise for a potentially healthy Russell Wilson is going to get loud.
