The Cleveland win was pretty much what I expected most of our wins to look like this year. The D shuts it down and the offense does enough to eek it out. The O-line is poor but improving. Harris is excellent, but not if he’s getting hit behind the line of scrimmage. Run blocking is improving. Pass blocking is still sketchy; there’s no time for anything to develop downfield because Ben doesn’t have the time in the pocket and can no longer move to make more time.
I have to say that since the beginning of last year, our crew of young wide receivers has underperformed. I expected more out of the talent we have. A lot of that is probably on the O-line and Ben’s age. Ben’s not completely washed up yet, but he’s close.
Watt is a beast, Heyward is solid. I haven’t heard Bush’s name called in weeks. Once again I expect the Steelers to finish with a middling record, maybe squeek into the playoffs but lose early, and wind up with a mid-first round draft pick. Next year starts with the same questions this year did.
Apparently the word got out that there needed to be some make-up calls for the Chicago game (which actually wasn’t as bad as all that), but fortunately the Detroit kicker can’t kick.
So, a tie. Mason Rudolph wasn’t the worst, wasn’t the best, pure vanilla offense with two major fumbles that would likely have earned winning points in overtime, a defense that forgot how to defend the run and lost Haden and Watt during the game…
It could have been worse. It should have been better. Weather is the great equalizer, and it variably helped and hurt all day.
That was not pleasant. They missed Joe Haden quite badly today, James Pierre had a good bit of hype on how much he improved so far this year. They picked on him like a fat kid in high school carrying a tuba. The whole defense seemed unprepared, and Ben isn’t the old Ben that can bring the team back from huge deficits by himself anymore.
There are still 4 division games left, and they almost beat the Chargers sans 5 defensive starters, so it is possible, but if Ben keeps turning the ball over it definitely won’t happen. They have everything they need to win out, they just have to do it.
In any case, more and more I’m convinced that it’s time for Ben to retire. He’s still good, but they built around him being great. They need to do whatever they have to in the draft to get a promising quarterback this year. They don’t need to trade into the top-5, but they do need to do some serious due diligence and get someone who suits the style they want to play. Rudolph is a decent backup, but I don’t see him taking over. Haskins is useless. Free agency has potential but man, it’s so expensive now and they don’t need to find themselves in total cap hell.
But they’ll figure it out. They always do. In any case, the season isn’t over, but it’s not promising when the Bengals sweep the season and lay a FortyVomitChili on them.
They took down the Ratbirds today, coming from behind and still almost blowing it on a 2-point conversion, but it’s still a win. And it was as violent as it usually is, though I don’t think Pittsburgh got as hurt as Baltimore did. Word is that Marlon Humphrey is out for the rest of the year, which will make passing on Baltimore even easier.
TJ Watt came off the COVID list snd had himself a game. Aside from that stupid taunting penalty he had 3.5 sacks and double-digit pressures, the last of which helped them win. Diontae Johnson redeemed himself for blowing that perfect pass early on with 2 touchdowns.
Now, the big news: word is that this is Ben’s last year with Pittsburgh. Will he retire? Will he go somewhere else? Would anyone take him? And more to the point, what will Pittsburgh do for a quarterback? Rudolph? God help us, Haskins? A trade? A pick? This day has been coming for a long time, and nobody knows anything. I guess we’ll find out.
The Vikings game has this far been an absolute disaster. The Steelers’ defense has been token at best and the offense is nonexistent. The Lions look better than the Steelers do this week.
Not that it takes a genius to notice, but man the Steelers offensive line is putrid this game. You dont need a stellar offensive line, but you cant have a horrible one.
And I’m grooving on Ben barking at Tomlin. Makes me smile.
Heartbreaking, really. I had no hope for this team, which is why I’ve been absent from this thread, but every time I’m out…they pull me back in! Now the fantasy is that they sneak into the playoffs, have a crazy playoff run, and then finally Ben gets one over Brady in the Super Bowl. If you’re going to dream….
Someone needs to tell the Steelers that every quarter is the fourth quarter. Almost every week they fall behind and look utterly hopeless, and then they pull out a monster comeback and, more often than not, a victory. In doing so they’re trying to murder their fans, because we are all having heart attacks watching these games.
Next, the Chiefs. It’s hard to be hopeful for that game, but anything can happen, and recently it has been happening. Maybe if they start with a pulse they’ll have a better chance.
I have to say that Ben and Tomlin have both impressed me this season, as I expected more of a 7-10 season. The one good thing about being the only team in the conference with a tie is that you don’t have to worry about any of the playoff tie-breakers. But did it have to be versus the Lions? That said, the Lions don’t appear as bad as they once were.
The Lions were never as bad as people were saying. They lost several games by one score and only truly got blown out once. More than anything else, they were unlucky.
From the new NFL power rankings here: (Steelers ranked 18th)
Comes this:
"I think we still have a pulse in this thing.” Ben Roethlisberger’s postgame comments seemed to bolster our theory that the Steelers are a zombie that doesn’t know it’s dead yet. Mike Tomlin’s team continues to lumber mindlessly through the NFL landscape. These Steelers crash through barricaded doors, feast on the occasional arm, tumble down the unexpected hillside – only to get back up in their eternal quest for … not brains, but an unlikely playoff bid.
The Chiefs are down some important players due to COVID so it could happen, and they’ve already beaten the Rats and Browns once each this year. But someone has to tell them that while letting a team stake out a big lead and trying to come back in the fourth quarter makes for exciting football, it’s not a viable strategy for success.
If they played the whole game like it was the fourth quarter they’d already have clinched a playoff spot.
