Dan Sanford

Sports Editor

das6267@psu

When I last wrote about the Pittsburgh Steelers for the Beacon, the Steelers had defeated the Denver Broncos in Week Five of the NFL season, and Pittsburgh had their first win since Week One in Buffalo. The article highlighted a concerning pace for the Steelers, who despite having snapped a losing streak had also suffered injuries to key players. Impressively, the Steelers would prove me wrong in the short-term, stringing together three more wins against the Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns, and Chicago Bears, all of which were won by margins of less than a touchdown. The Seattle victory came in overtime.

Now, however, the Steelers are back to playing like the team which caused my concern in mid-October. Since that victory against Chicago, the Steelers have been unable to win a game, even against the winless Detroit Lions, who they tied 16-16 in a turnover-filled affair. In Los Angeles, where the Steelers visited the Chargers, the team had no answer to Austin Ekeler’s run game. Even though the Steelers played the best fourth-quarter football in franchise history and set a new season high for points scored, the Steelers held their late-game lead for only two minutes before Los Angeles secured a game-winning touchdown. 

Most recently, the Steelers were blown out by their division rivals, the Cincinnati Bengals, by an embarrassing 41-10 margin. The Steelers simply were unable to adjust to the Bengals’ game plan; Pittsburgh could not defend the pass game in any reasonable capacity, and allowed Joe Burrow to complete 20 of his 24 pass attempts. Joe Mixon also ran the Steelers ragged on the ground with a 165-yard day resulting in two touchdowns. The rift likely would have been even greater had Minkah Fitzpatrick not intercepted Burrow nearing the end of the second quarter. With this loss, the Steelers are once again below a .500 win rate.

The Pittsburgh Steelers are an enigma. They can play incredible football, but seemingly only when behind. Just when things are starting to look up for them, a key piece becomes injured. They have one of the league’s best linebackers in T.J. Watt, but in most games, they cannot get a balanced, successful effort from their defense. 39 year-old Ben Roethlisberger plays with such a boom-bust consistency level that it is difficult to tell whether he should be the one taking snaps for the Steelers or if it is finally time to sit him for good, although some of his recent troubles have been attributed to, and responsibly claimed, by head coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin himself has been responsible for mishaps which almost single-handedly lost games this season, such as the fake field goal attempt against Cleveland which resulted in kicker Chris Boswell suffering a mild concussion. Though the Steelers won that game, they were without a kicker for the remainder of the game.

In recent years, the Steelers relied on a high-risk, high-reward playstyle. This has not been working out well for them this season. If they can put forth an effort where they are not constantly using a system that is not working, they will be able to defeat their division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens, on Sunday.