If you are anything like me, a loss like the one the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered today will leave a very bad taste in the mouth for weeks…maybe all season and beyond. After suffering through a last-second 27-24 embarrassment at the hands of the sad, sorry, previously winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I really don’t even want to think about football for a few days. But, alas, sometimes a writer just needs to write and vent a little.
The first month of the 2014 season has been an absolute roller coaster ride of good and bad performance and peaks of emotion for the Steelers and the many loyal fans of the black and gold. A dominant first half against Cleveland was immediately followed by a miserable second half that, frankly, should have resulted in a disturbing loss to the Browns. We got lucky though and had the ball last, able to squeak by thanks to a Shaun Suisham field goal.
Then, with the Baltimore Ravens’ organization in utter shambles following the Ray Rice scandal, the Steelers had a chance to hand them an 0-2 start and perhaps begin to bury a division opponent and hated rival. Sound the buzzer…WRONG! The Steelers were not close in that game, losing by 20 and suffering through a painful 50-9 stretch over six quarters dating back to that second half against Cleveland. Last Sunday night, head coach Mike Tomlin and his team bounced back in the national spotlight, punishing a battered Carolina Panthers team in the spotlight of primetime. An especially strong second half was one big play after another as the Steelers rolled to a 2-1 start with the 0-3 Buccaneers and 0-3 Jaguars up next on the schedule.
Before burying Tampa Bay, let’s give them some credit. Lovie Smith is a well-respected coach and, despite his tough start with the Buccaneers, it should have been expected that he would get more out of his team than we saw in that 56-14 laugher at Atlanta a week ago. Mike Glennon got his first start of the season and played well, showing why he probably should have been his team’s starter all along. They also had Doug Martin (the “Muscle Hamster”) back, healthy after missing two weeks plus most of the season opener with an injury.
All of that being said, yes, the Steelers were banged up during that win at Carolina. No Ike Taylor, no Ryan Shazier, no Jarvis Jones, and suddenly the defense was hurting and requiring young players to step up to the challenge. That is easier said than done, but what is the excuse for the nearly completely intact offense? What about those healthy and able on defense? The special teams? The play-calling and game management? What is the excuse losing to this very poor Buccaneers team in front of the home crowd, let alone anywhere, this afternoon? The head coach calls the 13 penalties “unacceptable”, yet the lack of discipline has been an issue for quite a long time. It was unacceptable then, too. Nothing appears to have changed.
Everyone who watches football with any regularity knows that when protecting a small lead and with your defense struggling, an offense should never play too conservatively. Find a way to move the chains and run out the clock. Did the Steelers come anywhere close to accomplishing that task today? They did not and they sure paid for it when Glennon led the Buccaneers on a winning drive, giving it his all in order to find a way to win when his opponents refused to do so minutes before. Maybe it was Tomlin who was preaching conservatism and playing it safe, maybe it was offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Haley takes a ton of criticism from the fans, probably because he has not been here during a winning season as Tomlin and defensive guru Dick LeBeau certainly have been. I will not defend Haley other than to say that since he has been in town, the quarterback has been healthier. Roethlisberger takes less hits and is able to better avoid injury in Haley’s short-pass, quick-drop offense. Sadly, the overall production has hardly been there with any consistency, making Haley a lightning rod for criticism.
But, my goodness, can we please at least point a finger briefly at LeBeau and the porous, mistake-prone defense? This is a unit that often refuses to take the football from opposing offenses. No clutch plays and the frequent inability to stop a team when it counts have made this once proud “Steel Curtain” defense seem like battered, dusty window blinds. There is hardly any fear in the eyes of the opposition anymore. Troy Polamalu remains dynamic in many ways, but can most often be seen sprinting past a ball-carrier, usually airborne and flailing for a tackle he is not going to make. Cortez Allen, since inking a new and extended contract deal, can only make a play on a pass or pick it off when the guy he is covering comes up lame with an injury mid-play.
Kevin Colbert has missed a lot on recent drafts and has put the team in a rough salary cap situation, making it impossible to sign significant free agents. There have been some bad contracts and wasted dollars flying out of the Heinz Field front office in recent years. This NFL enjoys great parity and the level of competition is fair and enjoyable for the general fan, as any team can win on most Sundays. Competitive balance makes it nearly impossible to have the kind of sustained success the Steelers once had in the 1970’s, winning four Super Bowls so close together. We should expect times of mediocrity, even when it is hard to accept. But we do not have to accept such a flat-footed, weak and pathetic performance like the one we saw today at home to one of football’s worst teams.
Pittsburgh Steelers football appears headed again for an 8-8 kind of season and that may be a generous prediction if today’s enigmatic team shows up again and again throughout the rest of the schedule. Unfortunately, I have every reason to feel as though they will.
