Steel City Blitz
Hey Steelers Fans. Welcome to Monday.
First, give credit to the Cleveland Browns. They turned Sunday into their personal Super Bowl and played their masses off. They could have easily packed it in for the season but didn’t. The Steelers meanwhile looked awful – especially offensively. Aaron Rodgers was way below average until the final drive but that ended miserably and I blame him for that. The bottom line is that this was another Mike Tomlin clunker. The Browns are very good defensively but Tomlin’s team should have won this game and didn’t. Now it all comes down to a winner take all against the Ravens.
The Steelers will host the Ravens on Sunday Night Football. So yeah, not only do we have to wait all weekend for the game but we also get Cris Collinsworth. Ugh.
In the previous three weeks, I thought Rodgers and Offensive Coordinator Arthur Smith worked well together and seemed to be on the right page. Sunday however was probably Smith’s worst game of the year. Three play calls in particular were stunningly bad. Two runs on third and five situations went nowhere and then, coming off a timeout in Browns’ territory, they go deep to Scotty Miller of all people. As for Rodgers, his best moments of the game came on the final drive when he was willing to actually sling it. Those good feelings vanished immediately after trying to hit his buddy Marques Valdes-Scantling three straight times and those ended brutally. Rodgers’ unwillingness to look for other receivers was selfish and costly because he had guys open.
I thought Alex Highsmith played his ass off and very nearly made enough plays himself to win the game for the Steelers… Patrick Queen continued his solid play of late as did Payton Wilson and Jalen Ramsey… Kyle Dugger actually played well with one unfortunate exception. I honestly have no idea what he was doing on the Browns’ TD to Harold Fannin, Jr. That will be a black mark on an otherwise solid game… And in a rare move, kudos to Carson Schwesinger of the Browns. He literally played on one leg and still recorded nine tackles.
John Hussey’s crew entered this game with home teams in divisional matchups winning over two-thirds of the time. The Browns were flagged more than the Steelers today but there were three or four very questionable decisions. A false start on Dylan Cook was about as nit-picky as I’ve seen, especially considering that Cam Robinson was “kickstarting” early all day. The flag on Cam Heyward – while correct according to the rule – was 100% bullshit. I will never understand how a 320lbs man, going full speed and being engaged by a blocker is supposed to “not fall with all of his weight on the QB.” It’s an awful rule. The other questionable moments were an offensive pass interference call on MVS and then...
