Steelers Week 4: Winners and Losers
There weren’t a whole lot of positives to note from the Steelers frustrating home loss against their division rivals. The Ravens had their way with the Steelers defense, while Ben Roethlisberger and company failed to get things going on offense.
The Steelers season continues to get more frustrating with each game played, and something has to change. Here are my winners and losers from Sunday night’s home game against the Baltimore Ravens:
Winners
McDonald was one of the lone bright spots in a game that consisted of both poor offense and defense. Vance was violent after the catch and helped energize the crowd and the team during their brief comeback. Finally healthy, McDonald looks like the real deal at tight end with the ability to dominate in every-down work.
Pass Protection
The only other positive to note on this team was the ability to keep Ben on his feet. Roethlisberger was sacked only once late in the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach, though he failed to do much with solid protection.
Losers
Mike Tomlin
Every time your team performs this poorly, it comes back on your head coach. Unacceptable play on both sides of the ball. I know Tomlin isn’t entirely responsible for everything his players do (or fail to do), but the Steelers really were pathetic in this showing.
Vince Williams/Jon Bostic
I’ll be completely honest: this is the worst group of linebackers I have seen on a Steelers roster since I’ve started watching football. Pittsburgh is really feeling the effects of losing Ryan Shazier. Williams and Bostic are best suited as rotational linebackers, and we’ve seen enough to know that neither is the answer the Steelers are looking for.
After a good past two weeks throwing the football, Ben came back down to earth (and then some). Roethlisberger missed open receivers all night and unsuccessfully forced the ball to Antonio Brown on more than one occasion. Ben finished with 1 TD, 1 INT, and a 72.5 passer rating.
Run Blocking
We can point to the absence of Le’Veon Bell and say that the Steelers run game would be much improved if he were out there. However, if you watched the same game I did, you would know that it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. Though good in pass protection, the Steelers offensive line has failed to create even a little bit of running room for James Conner. Pittsburgh hasn’t been able to run since week one, and they need to keep their running back from getting hit at the line of scrimmage more often than not.
Antonio Brown/JuJu Smith-Schuster
Antonio Brown hasn’t seemed his normal dominant self so far this season, and he and Ben are clearly not on the same page at times. Likewise, JuJu posted his worst game of the season – dropping a routine pass and letting a potential touchdown get away from him. The two star receivers went 5-of-11 and 4-of-11 in targets, respectively.
Edmunds makes a few nice plays here and there, but he made too many mistakes Sunday night – giving up big plays and being caught out of position. Edmunds has to play with more discipline if he is going to help the Steelers in the back end.
Pass Rush
Joe Flacco had all night to throw the football. The pass rush was completely non-existent. Nothing else to be said.
Everyone else
To be quite honest, I feel there are 35 names I could put on this list, but I’ll save you the headache. The Steelers were bad. Their offense was bad. Their defense was bad. Their coaching was bad. It doesn’t happen often, but the Steelers are giving me a very hard time believing they could be legitimate contenders this year. Big changes are needed soon, or the results will continue to be the same.
