Turnovers, Penalties and Poor Defense Doom Steelers In Oakland

It was a day that featured 384 passing yards and 4 touchdowns out of star Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. It featured 3 receivers with 60 yards or more receiving. It featured 31 points scored by the offense as well.  When you look at those stats you say it also featured a victory for the black and gold.  You’d say that, and you’d be wrong.

Missing in the above stats are the other numbers, the 2.7 yards per carry average out of the running backs to go along with a total of 54 rushing yards. How about two lost fumbles or the 119 rushing yards allowed by the defense. Perhaps the most glaring stat of the day; 10 penalties for 81 yards.  The Raiders only had three penalties!  I’ll write that one more time, the RAIDERS only had three penalties.

The Steelers clearly came out on a mission in the passing attack and proved they could move the ball in the air effectively. Big Ben was Big Ben making plays all over the field, buying time and throwing darts.  He sliced the Raiders up.  Mike Wallace had a massive day with 8 catches for 123 yards and a TD and Antonio Brown had 7 catches for 87 yards and a TD. Not lost in the in the effort was one of my guys to look for in the game, Heath Miller, he put up 2 TD’s on 8 catches and added 60 yards as well. 

Passing was obviously not an issue and given the talent this squad has, won’t be an issue all season long.  Pass protection was not an issue either, believe it or not, the team only allowed one sack, it did come late in the game when the Steelers least could afford it, but really, one sack is a great day’s work out of the o line when it comes to pass protection.

The issue offensively was clear, the running attack. It was nonexistent again.  Isaac Redman led the way with a whopping 27 yards on 9 carries.  They used 4 different running backs and it’s apparent they can’t find a guy they are completely comfortable with.  Perhaps means we all need to wait for Mendenhall to get back to game action or maybe the Steelers need to wake up on this one and just pick one guy to get the bulk of the load and let him get comfortable, I don’t know. Something has to give somewhere and as much as I thought Mendenhall was replaceable before the season started, I’m starting to doubt that now.  This team can’t get it going. Backs aren’t finding holes, not getting outside and the o line isn’t getting them the openings they need consistently either. It’s a mess.  This was a big factor in the loss to Oakland, generally if Ben is throwing the ball 49 times, the Steelers are probably going to lose. They need to have some form of ball control. They may need to control the clock now more than ever before to help keep the Steelers defense OFF the field. Can you believe that? 

The defense is by far and away the weakness of the team. Yes, I’ve been making excuses about not having a full defensive squad together this season with Harrison out all 3 games, Clark missing a game and Polamalu missing two. That’s all true. That’s not something I can use as a complete excuse anymore.  The unit looked a bit old yesterday with the exception of one of the oldest guys on the team, Larry Foote (led the way with 7 tackles).  They allowed Darren McFadden who hadn’t rushed for 60 yards total all season to have a 64 yard run and eclipse 100 yards on the day. They allowed Carson Palmer to throw all over them in the 2^nd half after keeping him under 40 yards in the first. They couldn’t get to Palmer either, only sacking him one time (Woodley). That is not what this defense is designed to do. If they can’t sack the QB or stop the run, they will be and were in trouble.  They created one turnover on the opening play of the game and then didn’t get anymore all day, losing the battle 2-1 in fact. 

Special teams really weren’t much better. Drew Butler punted three times for an average of 36 yards a punt, to contrast that Oakland’s Shane Lechler also punted 3 times but averaged 51.7 yards a punt. That’s 15 yards per punt difference in field position. Field position was not only directly impacted by the poor punting, but the penalties killed it in special teams as well. In fact, it took a punt return TD off the board by Antonio Brown, unacceptable. The black and gold actually committed 2 penalties on that return, one just wasn’t enough I guess.

All in all it was not a good day as a team. Sure there were some marvelous individual games and had they won perhaps this article wouldn’t seem as gloomy or as down on the team but there are some issues this team needs to fix and they need to fix them now if they want to be a factor in the AFC this year. 

Normally I’d say a bye week after the first 3 games is horrible but perhaps the football scheduling God’s knew something here. The black and gold need the upcoming bye to get healthy, organized and re grouped or else this Oakland game will not be the only time I write an article like this.

NEWS, NOTES and SUPERLATIVES:

Game Ball: Big Ben-384 yards passing and 4 TD’s, what more do you want out of him?

Butter Fingers: Antonio Brown, two fumbles, one lost. Still a great player with a very strong day but he needs to hang onto that ball better.

Troubling:  The Running attack, where is it?  Perhaps they need to draft a top tier back in April.

More Troubling: The defense, they are the weakest link on this team and that could be a first.

 Staying Together: Nobody pointed fingers after the game, they all tried to blame themselves and not throw anyone under the bus. It’s good to see them realize they win and lose as a team. If that mentality ever changes, there will be problems, this team is close and experienced, I don’t anticipate that becoming a problem. 

1-2, up next: Bye Week (Thankfully!)