12/8/20-Steelers Need To Improve Quickly

By: Mike Pelaia

 

The Pittsburgh Steelers are 11-1 but that one loss just happened against an admittedly improving, yet still bad, Washington Football Team at home on Monday Evening Football. 

Over the last two weeks the Steelers haven’t played well and certainly haven’t looked like a Super Bowl contender. 

They struggled against a beat up Ravens team and then lost to a Washington team that had no business being in the same stadium.

Many folks will make excuses such as the Steelers had players on the COVID list or out due to injury and were playing on four days rest while the Washington team had 11.  Those are facts. They are not excuses.  In fact, the loss to Washington is inexcusable for a team who is undefeated and playing for the number one seed in the month of December.  It just can’t happen.

The Steelers have now become plagued by the dropped pass, having 12 drops over the past two weeks, most notably by Diontae Johnson.  And while the team averages 28.8 points per game on the season, good for 6^th in the league, they are averaging only 18 per game over their latest 1-1 stretch. 

They have been unable to run the ball and are 27^th in the league in that category and have opted for the short dink and dunk passes and seeing Ben Roethlisberger throw the ball over 50 times a game to make up for the lack of a ground attack.  It doesn’t work when that’s all you do and the defense knows that’s all you do. 

As the Steelers prepare for their upcoming game against the Buffalo Bills this coming Sunday Night, they need to rethink their offensive attack.  The Bills are 24^th in the NFL against the run, allowing 129 yards per game.  The Steelers need to scrap the short passes that are being dropped half of the time anyway in lieu of trying to establish a running game.  Whether it’s James Conner, Benny Snell, Anthony McFarland or Jaylen Samuels, someone needs to run the football effectively to control the clock as well as keep the defense honest and open up the passing attack for Roethlisberger and the plethora of wide receivers this team has. 

If the Steelers can do that, they will have success down the field against the Bills 17^th ranked pass defense.  In order for the Steelers to make things flow, they need to get Chase Claypool back in the game on the deep ball.  They need to have Roethlisberger hold the ball for a little bit longer and eliminate some of these quick throws to nowhere and most of all they need to run the football and eliminate the dropped passes.  The Buffalo Bills don’t play defense well but they will do enough to stifle the Steelers if they know what’s coming every down!

Defensively, the Steelers are going to need to blitz Josh Allen but will need to get to him quickly. Allen is fast and nimble and in addition to his over 3,000 passing yards, he has over 300 rushing yards and six touchdowns.  He’s dangerous and he needs to be the primary focus on defense.  Without Bud Dupree, Alex Highsmith is going to have to step up and do a lot more than he did against Washington, where he only had two solo tackles.  The next man up philosophy of Mike Tomlin must carry through. 

If Pittsburgh is unable to pressure Allen, he’ll be looking to his favorite target, Stefon Diggs who leads the Bills with over 80 catches and 1,000 yards receiving.  He’s dangerous and with a banged up secondary, could cause nightmares for the seemingly struggling Steeler team who will be licking their wounds.

In addition to the offense needing to revamp to a more controlled style led by a rushing attack that opens up the pass and the defense bull rushing Josh Allen, Mike Tomlin is going to need to put points on the board when they become available to him unlike his choices against the Washington Football Team.  In my opinion he left six points on the field and while we have no way of knowing if the field goals he didn’t elect to kick would be good, it would have changed the complexion of the game if he had attempted them.  

Unfortunately Steeler Nation, while I still think the Steelers will be contenders of some kind down the stretch, they have fallen back to the pack and I don’t believe they will beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night. 

Final score:  Buffalo 24  Pittsburgh 17