The Pittsburgh Steelers looked at the schedule and saw a winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers team come to Heinz Field on Sunday and had to feel good about their chances after a big win on the road at Carolina last Sunday.
Instead the Steelers turned in another less than spectacular performance and showed why they have been an 8-8 team the past couple of years in a 27-24 loss to the previous winless Bucs.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how the Steelers graded out after another disappointing loss in another edition of my Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card.
Quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger played good enough to win. He was under a lot of pressure, but completed 29-of-40 pass attempts for 314 yards and three touchdowns, finishing with a quarterback rating of 120.2. He also should have had another touchdown, but Antonio Brown dropped what would have been a 58-yard touchdown pass. He didn’t throw a pick for the second game in a row, but did fumble on the first series, although he didn’t have much of a chance. That led to seven Tampa points, which proved costly. Grade: B
Running Backs: The Steelers and Le’Veon Bell were running the ball so well and were facing a team that the Atlanta Falcons just hung 56 points on. Yet Bell got only 19 carries and gained only 63 yards and LeGarrette Blount had only four carries. At the end of the day they combined for only 88 yards, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. Bell made a couple of big plays in the passing game and finished with 109 yards from scrimmage, but took a stupid taunting penalty, one of many Steelers penalties. Grade: C-
Wide Receivers: Brown had a big day with seven catches for 131 yards and two touchdowns and became the first receiver in NFL history with 20 consecutive games of at least five receptions and 50 yards or more. Heath Miller had a career day with nine receptions and a touchdown. Markus Wheaton had four receptions, but the rest of the receivers were non-existent in the passing game. Brown’s big drop was also a momentum changer. Grade: B-
Offensive Line: One week after turning in an outstanding performance, they allowed five sacks and averaged only 3.1 yards per carry on the day. Tampa had only four sacks on the season coming into the game, but abused the Steelers offensive line, most notably Kelvin Beachum, who had a real bad day giving up at least two sacks and taking a costly holding penalty that wiped out a touchdown. The Steelers ultimately scored on that drive anyway, but the offensive line was bad and when they needed to be good on the game’s final drive, they couldn’t get a first down to put the game away. Grade: D-
Defensive Line: Tampa rushed for only 63 yards and didn’t have a rush longer than nine yards on the afternoon and averaged only 3.2 yards per carry. But other than one Cameron Heyward sack, the Steelers front got next to no pressure on Mike Glennon and Glennon was rather comfortable in the pocket down the stretch. Grade: D+
Linebackers: Missing Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier was a bigger deal than anyone may have anticipated. There was no pressure from the outside and no big plays from the Steelers defense. Lawrence Timmons had 10 tackles, but while Arthur Moats wasn’t terrible replacing Jones, he had a costly offside penalty on third-and-5 on the next-to-last drive. Other than a couple hurries, Jason Worilds was invisible most of the day. James Harrison got more snaps than anticipated, but didn’t find his way onto the stat sheet. Grade: D-
Secondary: A brutal performance to say the least. Glennon had 245 yards of his 302 passing yards in the second half, including three completions of 31 yards or longer. The Bucs were able to move the chains 16 times through the air in the second half. Cortez Allen got a gift interception, but was torched a few times again, which is starting to become the norm. No play was bigger in the game than allowing Louis Murphy to find holes in the Steelers’ zone for a 41-yard completion with 35 seconds remaining. Grade: F
Special Teams: It wasn’t a good day for the Steelers’ special teams either. They gave up a 25-yard punt return which set up a Tampa field goal. Shaun Suisham ended his streak of 24 consecutive field goals made. And Brad Wing had a costly 29-yard punt that gave the Buccaneers possession at the Steelers 46 with 40 seconds remaining. Grade: F
Coaching: Mike Tomlin said after the game that his team is undisciplined. That’s an understatement after the Steelers were flagged a whopping 13 times for 125 yards. It’s not bad officiating. Like it or not the Steelers aren’t adjusting to the rules of the game. Even worse, there were three personal foul calls on some of the Steelers best players after the whistle. That kind of stuff can’t happen. But at the end of the day, penalties or no penalties, the Steelers lost to another bottom feeding team, which has become a trend under Tomlin. Dick LeBeau’s defense can’t get pressure and was torched by a backup quarterback. And Todd Haley had some head scratching play calls in the red zone and couldn’t muster a first down when they needed one. Things have to change. Grade: F
Photo Credit: ESPN
