Disastrous Super Wild Card Weekend for the Pittsburgh Steelers
Leading up to the Wild Card matchup against the Cleveland Browns (third time this season facing each other), it was business as usual for the Steelers. There was no cause for concern and several key starters were rested for the prior week’s regular season finale ALSO against the Browns. “The Browns is the Browns” said Juju Smith-Schuster when asked about the upcoming matchup. In full context, it didn’t appear to be a slight against his rival as he praised them as being a good team multiple times. That didn’t stop some from running with headlines that gave the Browns some billboard material.
Opening kickoff saw the Steelers receive and take their first snap from their own 22-yard line. The next 14 minutes and 50 seconds would be the absolute worst quarter in Steelers history. On the first offensive play of the game, Center Maurkice Pouncey sent the shotgun snap sailing over the head of Ben Roethlisberger. Ben and Running Back, James Conner chased after the loose ball, but neither could recover it before Cleveland’s Karl Joseph dove and secured it in the endzone. Brown’s TD and they lead 7-0 just 14 seconds into the game. Watching the replay, Pouncey was trying to step around a defender in front of Left Guard Matt Feiler and botched the snap.
The very next drive saw Pittsburgh start to move the ball and get in a groove until on the 7th play, Ben threw an interception on a bad pass attempt to Running Back Benny Snell. 3 plays later, Jarvis Landry took a Baker Mayfield pass 40 yards to the house. Browns now lead 14-0 just a little over 5 mins into the game. The next drive was a 3 & out for the Steelers to which the Browns ran the ball 4 of the next 6 plays while marching down the Steelers throat 65 yards capped by an 11-yard TD run by Kareem Hunt. Browns up 21-0 in 10 mins of game play. On the ensuing drive, Ben threw his 2nd INT of the night on the 3rd play which was returned by the Browns to the Pittsburgh 15-yard line. 3 plays later Kareem Hunt takes another handoff into the endzone from 8 yards out to put the Browns up 28-0…STILL IN THE FIRST QUARTER!
The nightmare quarter finally ended but the damage had been done. Early in the season, Pittsburgh could have easily overcome a 28-point deficit. But over the past 5 weeks, the offense had sputtered for the majority of each game. This once high scoring, fast-paced offense had now been playing like a shell of its earlier season self. Mid way through the 2nd Qtr, the offense was able to sustain a drive, move the ball and put points on the board. A 13 play, 89-yard drive ending with a 1-yard James Conner run. 28-7 with under 2 minutes left in the half. The bleeding of points allowed had stopped…or did it? The Browns waltzed to the tune of 9 plays and 64 yards in 1:10 and Austin Hooper took a 7-yard pass from Mayfield to add insult to injury. Browns 35, Steelers 7. With 34 seconds left in the half, the Steelers picked up some yards that allowed Kicker Chris Boswell a chance to add 3 more. A 49-yard field goal as the half ended put the Steelers in double digit points finally. 35-10 at the half.
In one half of football, the Steelers Top 5 Defense had allowed 28 points on 204 yards of total offense by the Browns. 19 minutes and 26 seconds the Steelers possessed the ball in the first 30 minutes. 6 of those minutes led to 3 INTs plus the opening fumble that resulted in the first 7 of Cleveland’s points.
Out come the teams from the locker rooms for the 2nd half with Steelers fans praying to the football gods that the misery of getting steamrolled by the Cleveland “Brahns” was done. Cleveland takes the 2nd half kickoff and punts after 7 plays. Out comes the Steelers offense that the fans wanted…8 plays for 84 yards ending with Eric Ebron making a fantastic catch for a 17-yard TD. Tomlin decides to go for 2…which fails. Steelers now trail 16-35. Cleveland again can’t move the ball on the next drive and go 3 & out. Following up their last successful drive, the Steelers again march down the field in 12 plays, this time for 68 yards and a score by Juju Smith-Schuster on a 5-yard pass from Big Ben. In 12 minutes, the Steelers scored 13 points and put the game within reach being down just 12 points (35-23). Both teams went 3 & out next with the Steelers punting on 4th & 4 in a situation that had a lot of people wondering why they didn’t go for it.
With a much different second half, the Steelers looked like they could mount a comeback. They held the Browns to 0 points and just 31 yards of offense in the 3rd Quarter. It appeared that the Steelers were back and in early season form. That’s when the Browns had other plans. Opening the 4th Quarter, the Browns finally got their offense going again on a 6 play, 80-yard momentum killing drive that finished with a screen pass to Nick Chubb that he took 40 yards to the endzone. That is the TD that would put the game out of reach for the Steelers. Browns 42, Steelers 23.
With 12 and a half minutes left, the Steelers needed to score quick…which they did. 4 plays, 76 yards in just 1:24 saw a TD pass to Chase Claypool from 29 yards out. 2-point conversion fails again. Steelers trail 29-42 with 11 mins remaining. At this point, time was not on the Steelers side as they need to get Cleveland’s Offense off the field quick. Again, the Browns had other plans and chewed up 6:40 of the game clock while managing a field goal to go up 45-29. The back breaker game on the next drive as the Browns picked off Big Ben for the 4th time in the game as the Steelers were starting to gain steam again. The Browns hit another Field Goal 25 seconds later to give them 48 points. One more drive for the Steelers to try to stay in this game and they flew down the field on 8 plays for 77 yards which saw another Claypool TD reception from Ben from 7 yards out. This time, the 2-point conversion to Conner worked. 48-37 and that would be the final score after the Steelers failed to recover the onside kick.
This was easily a much higher scoring game than ANYONE expected. Ben threw for 501 yards 4 TDs & 4 INTs on 68 pass attempts. The offense was moving the ball but unfortunately 4 INTs by Ben destroyed them and put the Defense in bad field position multiple times. In the first Quarter, 21 points were scored off turnovers and the 2 INTs put the Browns in a short field both times. Some could argue that the defense was a letdown as they struggled to generate a pass rush against an OLine that was missing pieces. This was the worst game for the Steelers Defense to generate 0 QB Hits, 0 Sacks, 0 Turnovers and only 2 Tackles for Loss. It makes one wonder if the defense had become too worn down over the recent 5 weeks because the offense was struggling to sustain a drive (or score points)? Whatever the case may be, the Steelers have some soul searching to do in the offseason (as well as maybe some coordinator searching) to fix these problems. This roster is STACKED with talent and should never have dropped 4 of their final 5 games regardless of the injuries that they sustained.
No matter how you slice it, a fun 11-0 start was proceeded with a 1-4 finish and a first-round exit loss to a Division Rival that hadn’t been to the playoffs in 18 years. Was the final result a reason to rebuild and go in a new direction from Head Coach on down? I don’t believe so. Mike Tomlin is a great coach and he will continue to be a great coach for the Steelers. Should they look at replacing their Offensive Coordinator, Randy Fichnter? 100% yes but I don’t see that happening until they move on from Ben Roethlisberger. Fichnter has that job because of Ben. Unfortunately, Fichnter is clearly in over his head between play-calling and schemes. Defenses figured out how to stop their offense unless Ben ran the no huddle. 5 years ago, under Todd Haley as OC, Steelers fans cried for the same thing. Let Ben run the offense on the field. When they did, they had success. When Haley was not brought back, Fichnter was promoted and fans across the world rejoiced in the belief, due to the relationship between Fichnter & Ben, that Ben would get unleashed. This season was a glaring truth being exposed to the contrary.
- by Ryan Samuelson
