Good, Bad & Ugly – AFC Championship

Nation, this one is tough to write.

The team we saw on the field didn’t seem to be the team we’ve watched over the past 9 weeks. The offense was doing alright, then Le’Veon Bell was gone with a groin injury, one he says he’s been micro-managing (all year?).

It took a while to adjust to that.

The defense was, well, to quote Coach Tomlin, they were “scatterbrained” at times.

They looked confused, and they looked unsure. Maybe it had to do with the style of defense they chose to play, maybe it had to do with whatever the Patriots were doing and maybe it was a combination of both.

The pressure wasn’t there most of the time, and Brady had forever to pick apart a secondary that suddenly seemed incapable of figuring out who to cover, and how to cover them.

Coach Tomlin said that “we didn’t make enough plays”, and that certainly can’t be argued.

They didn’t make enough plays, offensively or defensively.

Bob Labriola said before the game, and reiterated it in his piece about the loss, that the way to beat the Patriots isn’t with defense, but instead is with offense.

Here is a prime example of why that statement is true: The Patriots drove the field on their first series, and the defense stiffened enough to hold them to a field goal.

That is an opportunity, but the Steelers offense went 3 and out.

On the next series, the defense again held, and the Patriots went three and out.

Again, an opportunity, but the Steelers offense again failed to score, and instead managed a single first down before again being forced to punt.

If those two Steelers drives had produced touchdowns, it would have been 14-3 Steelers, and the game would have been different. The Patriots would have been forced to accept that they were in a shoot out, and it would have put some pressure squarely on their shoulders.

That didn’t happen.

Instead, after that second Steelers drive, the Patriots took the ball and scored and it was suddenly 10-0 Patriots.

Those first series set the table for the entire game, and if the Steelers had been able to convert those drives into points, well, that’s how your offense beats the Patriots: take advantage of the rare miscues they make, and make them pay in points.

Why couldn’t the Steelers pull that off?

Let’s see if the Good, Bad and Ugly of the AFC Championship can uncover some of those reasons.

The Good – Ben

There is one guy who you can’t put this loss on, and that’s Ben.

Yes, he turned the ball over once, but it was pretty clear to me that the issue on that pass was Darrius Heyward-Bey running the wrong route, or not being on the same page as Ben. It happens, and the quarterback bears the brunt of it, but so many times a INT is not a bad throw, but a throw that only looks bad because a receiver didn’t do what the quarterback expected them to do.

Ben ended the game going 31-of-47 for 314 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. His rating was 83.1; not great, but certainly not bad. Ben was good enough.

I was watching most of this game at my brother’s house, and although he’s not a Steelers fan, he kept saying over and over that Ben was playing badly. I asked why, and he said “I’ve seen him just drop balls in there and he’s not doing that.”

Oh, like the ball he dropped right into Sammie Coates that was dropped?

Or the ball that was dropped right into Cobi Hamilton for a TD, but was dropped?

Or even the ball he threw that AB could have made a play on, but was dropped?

Like those balls?

Ben did what he could, and the biggest problem he faced was the first thing we’ll talk about in the bad section…

The Bad – Nobody Stepped Up

Guys who had been stepping up and making plays during the 9 game win streak didn’t continue that trend.

Cobi Hamilton did catch a touchdown, when it didn’t really matter anymore, but as was stated above, he dropped one that might have changed things.

Eli Rogers had 7 catches, but his ill-timed fumble was, if not the final, the next to final nail in the Steelers coffin.

Jesse James had some nice catches, but he also had a drop that could have continued a drive.

Sammie Coates, well, I just don’t know how badly his fingers are bothering him, but he dropped some critical passes.

And, as Terry mentioned in our internal game thread, Darrius Heyward-Bey is fine as a special teams guy, and as the fourth or fifth receiver, but trying to count on him as the number two?

Well, it just wasn’t going to work.

I’ve ranted on and off all year about how not having a real 2nd option next to Antonio Brown is crippling at times, and this time was one of them.

(Hurry back Martavis.)

The Ugly – The Defense

There is maybe one thing that I can say good about how the defense played. Javon Hargrave’s sack was nice.

It went to sh*t from there.

This was not the defense we’ve seen the past 9 weeks.

James Harrison and Bud Dupree, the two primary producers of pressure (ahhh… alliteration how I love thee) dropped back into coverage more than they rushed. We rarely produced effective pressure on Tom Brady, and when you let Brady have 7 or more seconds to stand back there, he is going to pick you apart.

That’s exactly what he did.

Clearly Chris Hogan has a cloak of invisibility, because nobody, and I mean nobody, was capable of covering this ex-lacrosse player. I understand it can be confusing at times, as all of these Wes Welker clones that Patriots seem to find look alike.

But c’mon man, he does have a number on his chest!

The zone we played simply wasn’t working, and I am only guessing that the coaches simply didn’t have the confidence in the ability of our secondary to play man-to-man press to switch.

Would it have been better? Who knows?

I will say that it possibly could have been worse, but we’ll never know, because we stuck with something that simply wasn’t working.

Look, the defense gave up 431 yards of total offense, and allowed 36 points. As much as I hate to beat them up, I don’t know how to categorize that as anything but ugly.

Conclusion

Nation, this sucks. Pure and simple, it’s a bitter pill, and a tough one to swallow.

Notice that I didn’t even talk about the refs! (I almost made it through without mentioning them!)

Yes, they sucked, but I’m actually kind of okay with them keeping their flags in their pockets, as long as they are consistent about it.

But then they went ahead and weren’t.

That personal foul on Shazier was absurd. I understand letting them play, but you know, you’re not really supposed to tackle guys before the ball gets to them.

And don’t get my started about the fumble that wasn’t a fumble, that had a clear recovery, but didn’t have a clear recovery.

One of those guys was taking advantage of the new pot is legal in Massachusetts thing I think.

The refs didn’t cost us the game. The Steelers were simply outgunned.

So now the haters and the tweetlers (I don’t know if that’s a word, but it should be) can start their annual call for a coaching change. As one twitter idiot said “Steelers fans should be calling for Tomlin to be fired, no excuses for anemic offense with the weapons they have.”

Moron… sorry, I’m not in the mood for ignorance! Exactly what weapons is this bright bulb talking about? Cobi Hamilton? Eli Rogers? Jesse James? DHB? Sammie Coates with two broken fingers?

They lost Bell, didn’t have Ladarius Green, lost Cam Heyward to injury, Martavis Bryant to suspension and Markus Wheaton to injury. Bell, Green, Bryant and Wheaton are weapons. Eli may become one, as gritty as he is; Cobi Hamilton is not, and DHB and Jesse James are nice role players, but nobody is worrying about them.

The truth is, this season, coming back from a nearly disastrous 4-5 start, might just be the best coaching job Mike Tomlin has done.

We did make it the AFC Championship game, and there is only one other team in the AFC that can say that.

Yeah, I’m ticked, and frustrated and upset too Nation. I didn’t want this ride to end.

But it did.

Let’s lick our wounds, mourn for what might have been, and then put it in the past. There is a lot too look forward to with this team. Yeah, it’s going to be a long off-season, but once we put this awful, ugly, travesty of a game behind us, I think we can be excited about the possibilities of next year.

Heck, July and Training Camp really isn’t that far away!

Until next time Nation!


Suggested articles from our sponsors