Behind the Steel Curtain
A late, garbage-time touchdown saved the Steelers-Chargers final score from looking like the blowout loss it actually was. Ultimately, the Steelers fell 25-10 on the road on Sunday Night Football, moving to 1-3 in the team’s last four games.
As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had.
Part of my job — and a part I generally enjoy — is getting to pick the Steelers game each week.
This year, it has been a near-impossible exercise.
Are the Steelers good? Bad? The average is somewhere in between, but the team prefers to wildly fluctuate between the extremes. Pittsburgh won, and largely dominated, the AFC top-seed Colts last week before falling apart the next against a good, but hardly unbeatable Chargers squad.
The Pittsburgh offense and defense can’t seem to have good days at the same time, either. Against the Justin Fields-led Jets in Week 1, the Steelers nearly spoiled a 34-point game by giving up 32. And against the Chargers, the defense largely held up its end of the deal against one of the NFL’s most elite quarterbacks, but the offense responded with nine sub-five-play drives.
Is it a matchup-based issue? In some ways, sure. But the Steelers bottled up an MVP candidate in Jonathan Taylor last week on defense and consistently moved the ball on offense against a top-ranked Browns defense in Week 6. They can deliver against good units.
There’s just no way to predict this Steelers team from week to week. Every take is immediately disproven in the following game. If one thing is consistent, it’s the inconsistency.
Mike Tomlin’s Steelers teams have teetered frustratingly in this territory for the last few seasons, and this latest two-game stretch has been among the most glaring examples yet.
This isn’t the level of consistency that should come from a professional-level team. Instead, it looks like it’ll be another season of unexpected highs and equally brutal lows.
Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is far from the only player who deserves blame for the game’s disappointing result, but there’s no doubt the veteran passer’s performance was the foundation of the loss.
Rodgers has been playing NFL football since 2005, mind you, and Sunday’s performance was right up there with the worst games he’s ever played.
Rodgers completed just 16 of his 31 attempts for 161 yards, one late touchdown, and two interceptions. The most representative stat line for his night, however, were his numbers under pressure: no completions, three sacks, and one safety.
All the negative aspects of Rodgers’ generally good season up to this point were magnified against the LA defense. Rodgers’ pass protection was far from spotless, but he wilted under pressure, missing reads, air-balling throws, and looking lost and skittish in the pocket.
At 41 years old, it’s hard to fault Rodgers for being contact-averse at this point in...
