Steelers Lose To Titans, Blow Yet Another 4th Quarter Lead
Pathetic. Embarrassing. Unacceptable. Those are a few of the words I could use to describe the loss to the lowly Tennessee Titans on Thursday night. The Steelers came in at 2-2 but many of us, myself included, felt that record was not indicative of the team they truly were. I felt they were still a legit shot at 12-4 and a contender for the division. Well, at this juncture, they simply are not.
The display on Thursday night was nothing short of sickening. The improvements made last week in the running game and on defense vanished. The injury bug struck again, grabbing 7 more Steelers (Pouncey, Gilbert, Foster, Mendenhall, Redman, Carter and Clark) and a problem that was small before; volcanically erupted on Thursday as well; the special teams failed.
Let’s start with the good, not that there was much. The passing game was once again the best part of this team’s evening as Big Ben through for 364 yards and a TD, he also threw his 2nd INT on the year late in the first half when the team was driving for a score. That play certainly had a role in this loss, no doubt.
Isaac Redman of all people was the team’s leading receiver going over 100 yards. The production is great out of Redman but you never want your running back to lead the team in receiving yards. Mike Wallace put up 94 yards but only on two catches. He did have one deep 82 yard TD score which is something I called for in my pre game break down, so I enjoyed that, but he was relatively nonexistent down the stretch. Miller was solid again with another 6 grabs and Antonio Brown had 4 but only 20 yards and was unheard of late in the game as well.
Roethlisberger was forced to throw 40 times as once again the running game came up short, averaging a miniscule 2.5 yards per carry. Rashard Mendenhall had 6 carries for 6 yards before he left with an Achilles injury. Redman had 14 yards before he left with an ankle injury and that forced Baron Batch to shoulder the bulk of the carries, getting 10 and totaling 22 yards. Mendehall is a big part of this team as he proved vs. Philly but it is more than obvious now that without him, the team has no back. I was in the Redman camp, especially after last year but he’s not getting it done. I’ve met and talked with Baron Batch, he’s a very nice guy, willing to answer questions and politely discuss whatever’s on your mind. That all said, he’s not an NFL back. He’s just not. They have no backup plan and that’s a shame.
Many will say the line isn’t doing their job, quite frankly they are. Even on Thursday night when they dropped 3 guys to injuries, they only allowed one QB sack. That’s getting it done. They are opening holes for the running backs to get through but the backs aren’t hitting them with speed. The offensive woes fall squarely on the running game right now, period.
The losses, however, are falling on the defense. They allowed 26 points to one of the worst teams in the league. Yes, the Titans did start one drive from the Steeler one yard line, true, but when it mattered most, as is becoming the norm this year, the Steelers defense failed. The team once again had a 4th quarter lead, this time a 7 point lead in the fourth and they blew it. The passing defense allowed Matt Hasslebeck to throw for 290 yards, not to mention the multiple pass interference calls on Ike Taylor. With the game on the line, tied at 23, the Steelers let the Titans go right down the field to get into field goal range with 4 seconds to go and lose the game. Plain and simple; they failed. Yes Ryan Clark had 11 tackles, yes James Harrison had 6 and looked good and yes the team collected 3 more sacks and an INT but they failed. They need to start learning how to win without Troy Polamalu. Since 2009 they are now 7-9 without him. He’s not going to be here much longer; they better figure something out, soon.
But let’s not put all of this on the running backs or the defense, the special teams and coaching sucked too. The punt that was blocked set up an easy score for the Titans, that’s problem number 1. Then, problem 2, while a special team’s shortcoming ; it is more a Tomlin mistake than anything. The offense failed to convert a 3rd and 7 with a little over 40 seconds to go. They were on the Tennessee 36, meaning they were staring at a 54 yard field goal to potentially win it. They had 3 choices, kick, pooch punt or go for it. They unwittingly decided to kick, all the while knowing Suisham has never kicked one longer than 52 (which he had made earlier). He missed, giving the Titans the ball on their on 43. This enabled Tennessee to have short field, move the ball just enough to kick a 40 yarder and get out of dodge with a win.
The move was ridiculous by Tomlin, sure, he was trusting his defense in the event of a miss. I hate to say it, but you can’t trust this defense, they’ve proven that this year. The right play would have been to go for it. Big Ben has been nothing short of clutch on critical downs this year; give him the chance to make a play. Let’s say they don’t get the first down and the Titans get the ball back. Well, at the very least, you’ve saved your defense 7 yards. How so? The ball is always placed at the spot of the missed kick for the opposing offense to start. Had they gone for it, the ball would have been placed at the line of scrimmage. Those 7 yards could have been a difference.
Secondly, you play for overtime with these new rules. Tomlin should have realized that a FG at the end of regulation clearly beats you, and with a short field you’re handing them the opportunity to do so. However, a field goal on the opening drive of overtime does not beat you. If he wanted to trust his defense then he should trust them going into OT to not allow the fatal touchdown but only hold the Titans to a FG or nothing at all; all while playing on a long field. He didn’t think and it cost the team the game last night and potentially a lot more down the line, only time will tell.
The fact that this team has now fallen to 2-3, 0-3 on the road and 1-3 vs. the AFC; puts them in a critical position. They now have to start their AFC North games in a deep hole next Sunday when they travel to Cincinnati in what absolutely is a must win situation. They have injuries to heal, they have the running game to work on, they have special teams to shore up and they have a defense that needs to learn how to close, immediately.
I’ll stop just short of saying this season is over but you can bet all your savings that if they don’t fix all of these items, it will be over come Sunday 10/21. I trust Big Ben and the passing game and I trust in the talent this team puts on the field, however, I can longer trust a 4th quarter lead, any special teams play or the running game until we see some consistency out of all of these units. Until then Steel Nation, we’ll have to hold our collective breaths and hope that when the final second ticks off of each week’s game; we are on the winning side of things and not watching yet another kick go through the uprights that has us sinking our heads into our hands in disgust.
NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:
Player of the Game: NONE! No more players of the game during losses.
NEWS: Pouncey has an MCL injury and could miss some time. Gilbert has an ankle and could also miss some time. It’s still very early to tell but don’t be shocked to see them miss a week or two, if not more in Pouncey’s case.
NOTES: Big Ben passed Terry Bradshaw as the all time leading passer in Steeler history.
Heath Miller became 3rd all time for receptions by a Steeler.
2-3, up next: at Cincinnati
Comments