Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
That’s exactly what the Steelers did last night in one of the more devastating losses in recent memory as a late 13-point lead turned into a shocking 23-20 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens. With the opportunity to effectively put the Ravens season on ice, the Steelers were unable finish the game off with a series of missed chances and questionable play calls.
Let’s do a post-mortem in this week’s Three up and Three down.
Three up:
• Although the Steeler defense was far from perfect (I’ll get to that in a bit) a number of players had tremendous games last night. At the top of the list was Cameron Heyward who was absolutely dominant. Heyward spent much of the night in the Baltimore backfield and finished the night with seven tackles, a sack and a forced fumble.
Stephon Tuitt added 10 tackles and a sack and much like Heyward, seemed to be in on just about every play last night. Tuitt and Heyward are quickly becoming one of the top combos at defensive end in the game, and should continue to grow throughout the season.
Lawrence Timmons, James Harrison and Sean Spence all chipped in with sacks and Ross Cockrell, signed off the street at the end of training camp, had an interception and fumble recovery as he continues to carve out a niche as the Steelers nickel corner.
• Despite of the Ravens rushing defense that had not given up a 100-yard rusher in 29 consecutive games, Le’Veon Bell was able to grind out a 129-yard performance to end that streak. Bell added seven catches and looks primed to have another big year this season. They are going to need him if what we saw from the Steelers passing game under Michael Vick last night is going to be commonplace.
Credit Darrius Heyward-Bey with a solid effort, which included a nifty touchdown catch in the back of the end zone early in the second half. Considering Heyward-Bey was considered no better than the Steelers fourth option at receiver, and Markus Wheaton continues to be a major disappointment, his play has been a bright spot.
• Sorry to go off the radar, but in a game this galling and not a lot of bright spots, I’m going off the grid. How about the Hall of Fame ceremony for Steelers all-time great Jerome Bettis at halftime? Bettis received his HOF ring and the team did a tremendous job of putting together a fantastic ceremony. Highlighted by a video tribute with the Pittsburgh Symphony playing live on the field and an appearance by Bill Cowher, it was a memorable moment in a night that many Steelers fans otherwise would rather forget.
Three down:
•So back to the Steelers defense. Although the defense forced two turnovers and had five sacks, the number of missed tackles was absolutely mind boggling and was as big a reason as any for the defeat last night. Despite of Mike Tomlin making it clear that the Steelers needed to tackle better, that simply did not happen. This must improve if the Steelers defense is going to help carry the team with the offense struggling without Ben Roethlisberger.
After a tremendous performance by Steve McClendon against the Rams last week, the Ravens were able to open up massive holes between the guards for Justin Forsett, who finished the game with 150 yards rushing.
Joe Flacco was able to convert a number of critical late game completions to the likes of Kamar Aiken and Darren Waller. Both players made key catches in the final drive in overtime that led to Justin Tucker’s winning 52-yard kick. Even with Steve Smith out, Flacco found ways to make the plays he needed to make, and the Steelers defense has to take some responsibility for letting these no names make key plays late.
• Oh Josh Scobee. Needless to say the focal point of much of the anger and frustration over last night’s loss has been placed squarely on the shoulders of the Steeler placekicker. With multiple opportunities to seal a win, Scobee once again came up empty, missing two crucial fourth quarter kicks from 41 and 49 yards. We can talk about swirling winds and conditions at Heinz Field until we are blue in the face, Scobee was acquired to make those kicks, period, end of story.
To Scobee’s credit, he did not back down from responsibility after the game.
”It’s pretty frustrating,” Scobee said. ”I feel like I let the team down. It’s not something I ever want to remember doing. It’s just a bad feeling.”
Unfortunately, that’s just not good enough at the point.
The misses, especially the one from 41-yards, just can’t happen, and despite of the organization spending a draft pick to acquire Scobee, the Steelers will have to seriously consider bringing in competition for the placekicking duties with 11 days until their next game in San Diego.
• Tomlin is facing some criticism after last night’s loss. Some of it is warranted, some of it simply is not. To be fair to Tomlin, his decisions to go for it instead of attempting field goals from over 50 yards made all the sense in the world when you consider his kicker could not be relied upon by any means. A miss from that distance and the Ravens are just about in Tucker’s range without taking a snap.
A shell-shocked Tomlin wasted little time taking the blame for the late sequence of calls in the shortest post-game conference in memory.
”We lost, so I’m not going to try and justify anything that we did,” Tomlin said. ”Anything we did, I take responsibility for.”
The play calling in those situations, which it’s rightfully assumed starts and ends with Tomlin, left much to be desired. It did not help that Vick missed a wide open Antonio Brown on a pass most middle school quarterback complete on one fourth down play that would have extended one overtime possession in Ravens territory.
Two other late calls, one a low-percentage sideline pass to rookie Sammie Coates, the other, a jet sweep with Vick on fourth and 2 were definitely up for criticism. The latter play would ultimately give the Ravens the ball for a final time in OT, and eventually led to the Tucker kick and a one of the worst regular season losses in the history of Heinz Field.
