Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers haven’t had a lot to celebrate over the last two weeks, dropping two games in a row to the Cincinnati Bengals and Green Bay Packers, respectively. The latest loss was largely a copy and paste of the defensive woes from Week 7.
There was a small number of quality performances that should be highlighted, but far more poor showings that we’ll dive into in this week’s winners and losers.
The only guy on the team who is great every week. 4-for-4 on field goals, three of which were from 50+ yards. He is the MVP of the team.
It was good to see Roman Wilson finally have a big game. He caught a 45-yard pass from Aaron Rodgers on the Steelers’ first drive to set up a field goal, and caught his first NFL touchdown, albeit after the game was practically decided. He led the Steelers with 74 yards receiving, and hopefully this leads to him getting more looks on offense.
Rodgers threw two touchdowns on 219 yards passing. He now has 16 touchdown passes on the year, which ties Russell Wilson for the most touchdowns by a Steelers quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
The Steelers were running the ball well, averaging over five yards per carry on 18 runs. They got away from it for whatever reason when it was working. Had they stuck with the run a bit more before losing their lead, or even when it was a one-score deficit, perhaps they would have been in better position in the fourth quarter.
Much like the Bengals game, it’s much easier to just group everyone together here. As the great Josh Yohe said on X, at least we can all be happy T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward are getting paid, right? Especially after those “difficult conversations” Heyward had with his family before getting more money. Certainly wouldn’t want them to feel unappreciated to do next to nothing on the field. No sacks for Watt again. No impact plays from Heyward again. This is why, when guys in their late 30s complain publicly for more money, you stand your ground and move on.
The defense had just one tackle for loss all game, and it came from Darius Slay, who has no business starting in the NFL anymore. And once again, Nick Herbig barely played. Just 20 snaps for the dynamic edge rusher, while Alex Highsmith did nothing of note for the 45 snaps he was on the field for.
The Packers totaled 454 yards, which takes the Steelers’ two-week total to 924 yards surrendered. Almost 1,000 yards of offense by opponents over two games – unacceptable isn’t a strong enough word.
Metcalf had a touchdown and a solid game overall with five catches for 55 yards, but also dropped a perfectly thrown deep touchdown from Aaron Rodgers, which forced the Steelers...
