The Pittsburgh Steelers return home with a miserable case of jetlag following a 34-32 squeaker of a win over the lowly ranked New York Jets.
What Steelers Nation witnessed, including many thousands showing up in force at the enemy’s stadium, was about 200 million dollars worth of roadkill. Their team’s defense got run over worse than grandma did by those reindeer, and almost as badly as King Henry did them in during their January playoff loss.
The defense of the defense by the team’s apologists said it was a problem with the gaps, but the gaps were so gaping, and tackling was so optional, that it seems highly unlikely an extra long film session will provide enough thread to sew up this patient.
It should be an impeachable offense for national broadcasters to continue to describe the Steelers as being known for their hard-nosed defense.
Really? It’s been more than four years since they’ve had a defense ranked in the top ten. In 2021 and 2023 they didn’t even break the top 20 in terms of fewest total yards surrendered.
All of this disappointment occurred while the Rooneys were funding the steepest defensive payroll in the National Football League.
It’s indefensible.
Fortunately, a 41-year-old future Hall of Famer was there to bail them out, providing a stark reminder of how well football works when you have a decent quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers played better than anyone could have expected, including the Berkeley grad himself, and he consistently pulled rabbits out of his throwing arm, despite being able to sue for non-support by the running backs and the entire offensive line.
Unless things shift around tremendously this weekend, Rodgers is going to spend most of his season trying to move around chairs on the deck of this Titanic. And if Broderick Jones is going to continue to provide all-access passes to his quarterback, the icebergs are approaching rapidly in the horizon of this season.
Didn’t we win, you say? Who cares how stack the “W”s? Why so sad?
It’s because we’ve seen this movie so many times we know all the lines by heart. It’s hard not to start pulling out the tissue already because we know how it ends. Still…we’ll bravely give it a Spin.
Strawberry Fields Forever
As well as Rodgers performed, it was impossible not to notice the other guy. The other dude being former Steelers starting quarterback Justin Fields. Fields ended up completing more than 70% of his passes for the Jets while throwing for a touchdown. Many of these throws were more than impressive. They weren’t dimes…they were quarters.
Oh yeah. He also rushed 12 times for 48 yards and two touchdowns.
The Steelers defense had no answers for a player who they practiced against for the entirety of last season. It was almost as if you could hear them murmuring among themselves, “I didn’t know he could run so fast.”
As incredibly well as Fields played, one could safely argue he was outmatched by Rodgers, who had four passing touchdowns and the win and looked all of his former MVP self.
But there is one stat that Fields beats Rodgers so soundly that you can see it for miles and miles. Fields 26. Rodgers 41.
Pittsburgh had Fields in their strawberry patch last year, and they could have been jamming away with one of the most high ceiling and classy talents in the NFL.
He flashed all that potential while leading the Steelers to a 4-2 start. Coach Mike Tomlin, by my estimation, made the most consequentially poor decision of his long career in Pittsburgh.
As the Steelers season hit the rocks at the end of last year, and Fields was forced to watch a clearly aging Wilson flounder for the last five games from the sidelines, it was clear to everyone except for Tomlin that, “This kid is so gone.”
Foul Or Fair Rankings?
Shockingly, Fox Sports NFL writer Ralph Vacchiano rated the Steelers as the sixth best team in the league in his latest published rankings. My first response was, “Do you even watch the games, Bro?”
But, after looking at the other teams in the top ten that ranked below Pittsburgh including, the Washington Commanders, Los Angeles Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Cincinnati Bengals…you could understand his argument.
Two of the teams ranked above the Steelers in the top five lost their games in the first week. Those were the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, both who displayed some serious flaws in their performances.
Somewhere…I could imagine NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell high fiving the entire marketing department.
Is it possible the NFL’s dream scenario of having 32 mediocre teams in the league is finally coming to fruition?
Revenge Of Big Snack
The Super Bowl defenses of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the early 2000’s followed a simple formula. Stop the run and force the opponent to pass. It takes all the guesswork out of defending an offense. They have no choice other than to chuck and duck.
That allowed the Steelers 3-4 defense to dominate teams in a humiliating fashion as the team’s edge rushers could abandon any motivation in life other than pressing opposing quarterbacks three feet deep into the turf.
Such power. Such beauty.
The secondary knew they only needed to cover their fragile, collision adverse opposing receivers for a few seconds.
Three and outs were as common as pierogies in Pittsburgh.
That all changed dramatically in 2013 when Casey “Big Snack” Hampton was told he was irrelevant in the modern age of football. There’s no need for big fellas any more, he was told.
Tomlin essentially took the car keys from beloved Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau and told him he could take his run stuffing mentality with him as he boot-kicked him out the door.
Tomlin has been “Tampa Two-ing” the defense ever since, and it no surprise they haven’t been able to stop the run anywhere close to how they did it before Big Snack left the building.
Any Other Sunday
Should we be so glum after a Steelers victory? What kind of depressing droll is this?
I don’t disagree. I don’t like myself right now either. It’s just that facts are facts. If there was any quarterback on the roster not named Aaron Rodgers who was behind center, we would have been blown out by the Jets.
And can Rodgers be expected to perform like that every week? And with that pass blocking will he even continue to get that opportunity?
In so many different aspects of the game of football last week, the Steelers performed poorly. This offensive line looks incapable of opening up holes, and winning at the line of scrimmage, and what is the solution at the left tackle position other than calling roll right plays for the rest of the year?
The promising rookie running back hasn’t looked that promising and we don’t have Najee Harris to blame anymore.
Typically an NFL cornerback is baked by age 28 and on the Steelers secondary, anyone playing at that age on the team would be addressed as, “Young man.”
Outside of getting a key turnover, special teams struggled on defending kick returns. And, do we have to remind ourselves that the Jets were 5-12 last year?
At Least There’s Boz
Perhaps most remarkable is how ho-hum we are about a 60-yard field goal attempt.
Are you kidding me? A 60-yard field goal? As Chris Boswell’s kick went through the uprights with just a little over a minute left in the game it looked like it easily had another 5 or 10 yards in the engines.
Most critically, it was to win the game! Talk about ice in the veins and steel in the toe.
This was after nailing a 56-yard field goal earlier in the game. Ho-hum.
Yes…it was Rodgers day to shine in the lights of Broadway against his former team. That was according to the show-stopper script. But would you be that crazy if you said that Boz was the game’s MVP?
Uncomfortably Numb
The problem with being a Steelers fan the past decade is that it’s become hard to care too much about the regular season. Back in the day…you had a strong sense that all that Pittsburgh had to do was get into the playoffs…and they would go far.
For the past decade, the opposite has been true. Just getting to the playoffs doesn’t have much value. If they do make it in…they keep getting eliminated…and even embarrassed…in the first game.
So…you can’t fault us too much for being a bit uncomfortably numb when it comes to drafts, new players, new seasons, new expectations. Blah, blah, blah.
We’ve developed a bad case of Eeyore around the Burgh.
If there is one strong ray of hope we can cling to desperately, it would be the performance by Rodgers against the Jets.
He proved that, if necessary, he could single-handedly will this team to victory. There is no doubt either that he could accomplish this feat in any stadium, and in under the duress of any hostile playoffs environment.
“So, you’re saying we got a chance, mister?”
It’s true. I’m feeling a little less numb. I say we put him on ice and thaw him back up in late December. After all, don’t they let all the teams into the playoffs these days?
About Them Birds
How good are the Seattle Seahawks? It’s hard to tell. Was Sam Darnold’s comeback last year merely the result of him playing in a prolific offensive system for the Minnesota Vikings?
Possibly. Or he could be real deal. His rehabilitated career could be on full display this Sunday.
Will Pete Carroll’s personality be missed? Or will Mike Macdonald be the change the long-stalled Seahawks need to take it to the next level?
The Steelers seem pretty pleased to be taking the Washingtonians on. If the Seahawks watched enough game film of Pittsburgh’s performance against the Jets, they should be equally thrilled about facing their upcoming opponent.
For the Steelers, this much is true. Things gotta change. And in a big way and quick like. If they end up having any repeat of what the defense laid down last week, there will be only one word left to sum up the prospects of this season.
Indefensible.
