Sunday was a must-win situation for the Pittsburgh Steelers if they wanted any hope of hanging on to their slim playoff chances. Instead of playing with must-win intensity, the Steelers were embarrassed by the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, dropping to 2-6 on the season with a 55-31 loss.
Sadly the Steelers had momentum and tied the game at 24 in the third quarter, but the Pats scored on five consecutive drives in the second half and scored 31 of the game’s final 38 points.
At the end of the day, the double nickel the Pats scored turned out to be the most points the Steelers allowed in franchise history. They also allowed a franchise record 611 yards of total offense.
There wasn’t much to be happy about on Sunday, but let’s take a look at how each position graded out after this embarrassing loss.
Quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger bounced back very nicely from two early turnovers to have a pretty nice game, throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns. He did turn it over three times though although all three turnovers came as a result of New England pressure. However when your defense can’t keep up with Tom Brady and the New England offense, you can’t afford any mistakes. Overall though it was a productive day for Big Ben. Grade: B
Running Backs: Against the next to last run defense in the NFL, the Steelers rushed for 108 yards on 20 carries and a nice 5.4 yards per carry average. But half of that came on two plays, a 30-yard run by Jonathan Dwyer and a 25-yard scamper from Le’Veon Bell. The rookie did put together a decent day, with 74 yards rushing and 65 yards receiving on four catches, but struggled at times in pass protection. Grade: C
Wide Receivers: Jerricho Cotchery had a big day with seven receptions for 96 yards and three scores. Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders combined for 11 catches for 169 yards and a nice 27-yard touchdown catch from Brown. Heath Miller had a quiet afternoon and there was some confusion among the receivers when it came to route running a couple of times, especially on Roethlisberger’s final interception when two guys were in the same spot. Overall though the Steelers top three receivers were productive. Grade: B
Offensive Line: On the road and without their best lineman in David DeCastro, it wasn’t a terrible day for the offensive line. It wasn’t a good day, but they have been worse. Roethlisberger was under a lot of pressure again and was sacked five times, but a couple of those were coverage sacks. They did gain 479 yards of total offense and averaged over five yards per carry. That should be good enough to win. Grade: C
Defensive Line: There were a couple of bright spots. Steve McLendon had a big stop on Stevan Ridley on a fourth-and-goal play and Cam Heyward continues to make plays, getting a sack and getting pressure on Brady a couple of times. But at the end of the day the defense allowed a franchise-record 611 yards, including 197 rushing. It was as bad of an overall performance as imaginable. Grade: F
Linebackers: Jason Worilds had two sacks, but one was forced by Heyward and Brady gave himself up on the other. Worilds like all of the other linebackers were pretty awful. The Patriots averaged 5.6 yards per rush and scored three rushing touchdowns. This Steelers defense has allowed as many rushing touchdowns (12) as they did in the 2010 and 2011 seasons combined. Grade: F
Secondary: Brady had 432 yards, four touchdowns and a near-perfect 151.8 passer rating. The Pats had three receivers over 100 yards and the Steelers secondary allowed five plays over 27 yards. They couldn’t find anyone to cover Pats tight end Rob Gronkowski early and Troy Polamalu turned in his worst game in a long time as he continues to be a liability in pass coverage. Grade: F
Special Teams: Brown had a nice punt return to set up the Steelers tying touchdown in the third quarter, but the Steelers came right back and allowed Julian Edelman to return a punt 43 yards to the Steelers 34, setting up a touchdown that gave the Patriots a 34-24 lead. That may have been the biggest play of the game at the time. Felix Jones had a 40-yard kickoff return but overall they didn’t get much from that unit either. Grade: D+
Coaching: The Steelers took a struggling Brady coming in and made things easy for him. The end result was the most yards and points allowed in franchise history. At the end of the day a 2-6 record is more about not having enough talent than the coaches but this team is turning out embarrassing efforts week after week. Something has to be done about that. Grade: F
Photo Credit: ESPN
