Zach greets Mike Tomlin, Arthur Smith, and Teryl Austin at the Steelers’ Practice Facility, 2024, colorized. 

Four days later, you would think that a loss in the elements to a division rival would no longer sting—especially with the Steelers sitting at 8-3, a game ahead of the Baltimore Ravens (who play the Chargers tonight on Monday Night Football) for first place in the AFC North. 

And yet, I still find myself extremely frustrated with how the game on Thursday night against the Browns—a two-win team entering the night—unfolded, as the Steelers lost 24-19 in a game where all three phases (four, if you count coaching) were miserable. Of course, my anger could be exacerbated by the rest of the weekend’s events: the Penguins lost two more games, Pitt football was slaughtered by Louisville, Manchester City lost their fifth-successive match in all competitions, and Pitt basketball lost to Wisconsin in one of the most poorly-officiated games I have seen in quite some time. Whatever the reason may be, I am vexed.

It was not simply that they lost the game—to be perfectly honest, I was expecting it. After a very emotional, hard-fought victory against the Ravens, facing a team six games under .500 on the road on a short week was sure to be a letdown spot. Hell, I had the game pegged as a loss when the schedule was released in the spring. It was that they lost in such a mind-numbing fashion, as they usually do against subpar teams (they are 0-3 in their last three contests against teams that are 2-8 or worse). 

It takes more than one hand to count the number of horrid decisions the coaching staff made during the game, although clock management—as usual—was at the forefront of Mike Tomlin’s deficiencies. He has been the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers since I was in kindergarten, and has not improved at all in this department. Let us analyze a few examples of this ineptitude from Thursday’s game. 

First, we will rewind to the end of the first half, where Cleveland had the ball in the red zone while maintaining a 7-3 lead. On 3rd-and-7 from the Steelers’ 17, Nick Chubb ran the ball for one yard with 1:27 to go in the half, leading to a 4th-and-6. Surely, you call a timeout before the Browns run their 4th-down play, whether it be a field goal attempt, a ploy to draw the defense into the neutral zone, or a legitimate attempt at a fourth-down conversion, right? You would likely get the ball back with around 80 seconds to go, which is plenty of time to get into scoring range. 

Well, Jameis Winston decided to try and draw the Steelers offsides, and ran 40 seconds off the clock—Tomlin did not use his third timeout of the half. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Instead of getting the ball with 1:20-ish left in the half in a 10-3 game, the Steelers received the kickoff with 40 seconds left, and would do nothing with the ball after an initial 19-yard pass to Pat Freiermuth.

The Steelers fell behind twelve points (18-6) early in the fourth, and, in the snow and wind, it did not look like the offense could score enough points in the remaining 12:16. Jaylen Warren’s three-yard rushing touchdown cut the lead to 18-13 with 7:57 left, and then a Calvin Austin 23-yard receiving touchdown shortly after a Jameis Winston fumble gave them a 19-18 lead with 6:20 left. Jameis threw an interception on the next drive, but the Steelers went three-and-out (I will lament the play calling soon), and a shanked punt gave the Browns great field position down one with 3:22 left.

Now, we will encounter another Tomlin timeout moment. The Browns hit a couple plays and were set up with a third-and-two with two minutes remaining. Jameis dropped back to pass and just chucked the ball straight at Ethan Pocic, one of his offensive linemen. A penalty was called—illegal touching. This is a five-yard penalty, although I am of the opinion that intentional grounding should have been called, a penalty that would have backed the Browns up further and cost them a down. The refereeing throughout the game was atrocious, but I digress.

After about five minutes of hemming and hawing, deciding whether to accept the penalty and give the Browns a fourth-and-two or third-and-seven, Tomlin opted for the latter (a decision with which I did not agree, but one that I understand). The issue is that, despite having so much time, they burned a timeout immediately after the long delay, a timeout that would have been crucial later in the game. The Browns converted the third-and-seven anyways.

How about one more time management offense, for good measure? The Browns, being down one, only needed a field goal to win. Presumably, once they were inside the ten, letting them score (since you wasted a timeout) would give your offense more time to mount a comeback. On first-and-goal from the nine, the Browns handed the ball off to Nick Chubb, who originally looked as though he would waltz into the end zone untouched (as was my hope), but the defense tackled him at the two. Forty seconds went by before Chubb inevitably scored. Instead of having ~100 seconds and a timeout to score a touchdown, they had just under a minute.

Now, you may have noticed that I said that the Calvin Austin touchdown put the Steelers up 19-18 after being down 18-13. The play call on the two-point conversion was a fade pass…to a running back…and not just any running back, but to Cordarrelle Patterson, your kickoff return specialist! In what universe do you run a fade route with someone other than George Pickens (or maybe Mike Wililiiams)?

I must admit, I thought the Steelers won the game when Jameis Winston threw the interception with just over four minutes left. That was, of course, before some bad play calling and execution occurred. The Steelers ran the ball twice, as they should have, to drain some clock. However, on third-and-four, needing a first down, Justin Fields—your backup quarterback—is throwing a deep ball down the left sideline? Why? Why are you not throwing something five or six yards past the line of scrimmage to pick up the first down? Granted, it was a pass that probably should have been caught—Pickens slowed down and jumped for the ball instead of running through the flight of the pass—but it was still a poor decision on third down.

The play calling was incredibly predictable all game, too. The Steelers ran the ball 33 times, and I probably could have guessed 25 of them correctly before the snap. Also, they went 0-for-2 on 4th-and-short—why is Smith incapable of calling a quarterback sneak? Why allow the defensive front to get penetration into the backfield on a handoff?

The defense does not get a pass, either. The pass rush—especially TJ Watt—was invisible all game. Jameis Winston was hardly pressured at all, and, when he was, he was able to escape with relative ease, the edge rushers grasping at the shadows of his cleats. They barely blitzed, allowing Winston to be comfortable and have time to find open receivers. Teryl Austin did a horrible job devising schemes for his best pass rushers to get free. He made no in-game adjustments, allowing Watt to get enveloped by 2-3 Browns blockers on every play.

With all that being said, it is still inconceivable that the Steelers lost that game. The Browns had eight penalties, three turnovers, and went 1/10 on third down. In fact, per Bill Barnwell, teams that have lost the turnover battle by two, failed to convert two or more third downs, did not score a return touchdown, and were out-gained we’re 0-67 in the last 30 years before that game.

Now, we get to the big picture. The Steelers are still five games over .500. If you had told me that would be the case before the season, I would have taken that, no questions asked. However, I am slightly nervous that this team will not make the playoffs. The remaining schedule is as follows.

• At Cincinnati (one of the better offenses in the league)
• Home against Cleveland
• At Philadelphia (on a seven-game winning streak)
• At Baltimore (does not require a comment)
• Home against Kansas City (we all know how that will go)
• Home against Cincinnati

That is a brutal schedule. How many wins do you see in those last six games? I am naturally pessimistic, but I see two wins at best. Is 10-7 good enough to make the playoffs? Probably. 9-8 is a real possibility, too. Of course, the Steelers have won games this year that they have not been expected too win, but the players are going to have to play much better than they did on Thursday—and the coaches are going to have to coach better, too.

In the words of Bill Belichick, “we’re on to Cincinnati”. Have a great week and a happy Thanksgiving, as we watch Tommy DeVito face Cooper Rush in a game called by Tom Brady.