Truth be told, I was a bit more optimistic than I should have been going into Saturday. Manchester City were fresh off back-to-back wins, albeit against lowly Luton Town and Crvena Zvezda (also known as Red Star Belgrade). The Penguins had also won back-to-back games against the Coyotes and the Canadiens, the latter of which culminated in a ridiculously entertaining 12-round shoot-out. I went to sleep Friday night excited at the thought of all four of my favorite teams whose seasons are currently underway (Pitt basketball, Penguins, Steelers, Manchester City) being in action within a 12-ish hour period. It became even more pronounced when City took a 2-0 lead over Crystal Palace, during which I thought to myself, “this could be a sign of how the rest of the day unfolds”.
Indeed, it was a sign—just not what I had expected. City conceded two late goals, including a stoppage time penalty—to draw against Crystal Palace, making it three straight home matches without a win. To put this season in perspective, City have conceded a goal in the 70th minute or later in 4 of their last 5 Premier League matches, including stoppage time goals against Chelsea, Tottenham, and Palace. They also have not recorded a clean sheet (or shut out, for those unfamiliar with soccer jargon) in the Premier League since a 3-0 win against Manchester United in OCTOBER. Needless to say, the season has not gone according to plan. There is certainly time to right the ship, but they have a plethora of teams over whom they need to jump to win their 4th-straight league title.
The day improved a bit when Pitt throttled South Carolina State in basketball, although anything less would have been a disappointment against a team coming into the weekend with a 3-8 record. Unfortunately, this was followed by one of the worst Steelers games I have ever witnessed (which will be the crux of this entry), and then a 7-0 thrashing of the Penguins by a Maple Leafs team without Auston Matthews or T.J. Brodie. I went to sleep Saturday night significantly more irritable than I did the previous night, especially because of the Steelers’ 30-13 blowout loss to the Colts, a game in which they led 13-0 and conceded 30 straight points.
The game started well enough, even though the Steelers opted to receive the opening kickoff and promptly went three-and-out. The Colts drove the ball into Steelers’ territory but missed a 56-yard field goal, giving the black-and-yellow good field position, which they turned into 6 points after a 4th and goal quarterback sneak by Mitchell Trubisky barely broke the plane of the goal line. Chris Boswell then missed the extra point. The following Colts’ drive was a three-and-out, but their punt was blocked by Connor Heyward and returned to the 1-yard line by Nick Herbig. On 2nd down from the 4-yard line (of course Najee Harris lost 3 yards on 1st and goal), Mitch hit Diontae Johnson on an out route to go up two scores. After the extra point, the Steelers led 13-0—it seemed as though they were actually ready for a game for once.
This proved to not be the case, unfortunately. The Colts scored to make it 13-7, got the ball back, turned the ball over on 4th and goal on the 1-yard line on a wide-open drop in the end zone, got the ball back AGAIN, and scored to take the lead with 22 seconds to go in the first half. That was the only lead change of the game.
The second half was brutal. The Colts went three-and-out, which was good, but Najee Harris decided to fumble on the Steelers’ first offensive play of the second half, giving great field position to the team clad in blue and white which was immediately taken advantage of, as Gardner Minshew threw a touchdown on that next play. Following that, the Steelers went three-and-out, and the Colts drove down the field for a chip-shot field goal.
Down 11, the Steelers got the ball into field goal range, albeit very long range. On 4th and 14 on the Colts’ 39-yard line, Tomlin opted to punt the ball away instead of allowing Chris Boswell, one of the most accurate kickers in NFL history (with the game being played indoors, mind you) to attempt a 57-yard field goal. Now, I could understand the decision if your defense has been playing well and/or you have a good punter, but neither is the case for the Steelers. What ensued was a PATHETIC 22-yard punt, followed by a field goal drive spanning nearly 9 minutes. The decision to punt the ball away was idiotic—I am sure that the coaching staff was thinking about the field position if Boswell missed, but it only took Indianapolis 4 plays to get the ball to where they would have taken over after a theoretical missed kick.
At the end of the game, Mitch Trubisky (16/23 for 169 yards, 1 TD, 2 INT, 68.9 passer rating) was benched in favor of Mason Rudolph, who I have just received word will be starting next week against the Bengals.
After this monumentally deflating game, it became apparent to me that the problem is not only with the current team (although that is a big question mark), but with the franchise as a whole. Mike Tomlin’s catchphrase is “the standard is the standard”, meaning that the expectations do not change for the team. Should they change, though? What good does it do to continuously finish slightly above .500? You have no chance of making a run to the Super Bowl, but you also are not sufficiently bad to gain a high draft pick. As much as it hurts from a fan perspective, it would be better to absolutely suck for a couple years and draft high-end talent than to be mired in a consistent air of mediocrity. There are no benefits to the seasons without a losing record streak that has become the subject of many discussions in recent years. It would be one thing if the teams were competitive enough, but they are not. It would be better to tear it all down and start over than to hope to get lucky with mid-to-late first round picks year-in and year-out.
Have a nice holiday week. I may or may not have something on Christmas Day depending on what transpires both in the sports world and in my own.