Heading into yesterday’s game against the Bears, the Steelers had a particularly dismal record in the city of Chicago for the entire history of their franchise—one win and twelve losses.
In sports, you often hear about “cursed” venues, where a team almost never seems to win. Think about the Penguins at the obsolete Spectrum in Philadelphia for years, or the Pirates at Miller Park (or whatever it is called now) in Milwaukee. Players come and go, but the ground on which the stadium exists continues to absorb the chances of winning from the players.
Soldier Field for the Steelers is one of those places. It does not get discussed with much frequency due to the fact that Pittsburgh only travels to Chicago every eight years or so. Now, I am not blaming the location for the Steelers’ failure to win yesterday—that is entirely on the 53-man roster and the coaching staff—but it is interesting how a seemingly archaic slab of concrete can house so many poor memories for the organization.
Both the Bears and Steelers entered the contest shorthanded. Chicago was missing six defensive starters—including their entire linebacking corps—while the Steelers were without starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Mason Rudolph started at quarterback for the now 6-5 Steelers.
For a decent part of the first half, I thought Arthur Smith called a good game for the offense. He used misdirection to fool the inexperienced backup linebackers. He kept Rudolph relatively clean in the pocket and allowed him to play within himself (minus the interception on the second play of the game). He even ran a fake quarterback sneak that went for 55 yards.
The defense gave up yards and points, but they also forced two turnovers in the first half, including a strip sack in the end zone that resulted in a touchdown. On that play, TJ Watt passed his brother, JJ, for the Watt family lead in sacks, with his 115th.
At halftime, the Steelers were up 21-17 and would be receiving the ball to start the second half. As has been the story so often in the past decade, the opposing team made halftime adjustments, while the Steelers…did not.
In the third quarter, the Steelers’ offense—which was moderately effective in the first half—had three drives: 11 yards and a punt, 7 yards and a punt, and then a Mason Rudolph fumble on a sack by Montez Sweat. Sweat, the Bears’ best pass rusher, was one-on-one against a tight end on that play. Why?
Two plays into the fourth quarter, the Bears scored their second touchdown of the half, taking a 31-21 lead. The Steelers’ defense had been on the field for essentially the entire third quarter. They needed to put together a drive.
They did. Seventeen plays and almost eight minutes later, Pat Freiermuth caught a touchdown from Mason Rudolph to cut the deficit to three (after the extra point) with 6:27 left in the game.
Fast forward two Bears punts and a Steelers’ punt sandwiched between, Pittsburgh would get the ball with 1:29 left, down 3, at their own 20. Plenty of time to get into Chris Boswell’s field goal range. The drive started well enough. On the first three plays, they gained 29 yards in 29 seconds.
What ensued was one of the worst four-play sequences in NFL history. With one minute left and no timeouts, the following occurred:
- Short pass over the middle for two yards, clock runs for 16 seconds
- Incomplete pass
- Short pass over the middle for two yards, clock runs for 18 seconds
- Incomplete pass, turnover on downs, game over
In WHAT UNIVERSE does dinking and dunking with no timeouts and limited time make ANY sense? How can you not throw for the sticks???
I can explain it to you. The offense did not want Rudolph to throw the ball far at any point in the game, especially over the middle of the field. Look at his passing chart.
He completed ONE pass of more than ten air yards. 116 of his 171 passing yards were yards after the catch. That yellow circle drawn on the passing chart is almost completely vacant, showing the offense’s inability and unwillingness to throw deep over the middle of the field against a team with no linebackers.
At halftime, the Bears obviously realized that the plan was to complete short passes in the area where their inexperienced backers were, so they moved them forward in their defensive formations. The Steelers did not seem to realize that.
Making adjustments has never been the strong suit of this regime, and that problem reared its ugly head again yesterday. The game was there for the taking, and it slipped away. Now, the Steelers are out of a playoff spot, and have to face Josh Allen and the Bills on Sunday. Good fucking luck.