They started like a house of fire, but by the end of the night, folded like a deck of cards.
Yes, even the champion Steelers can have “one of those days,” and even one of the best clutch kickers in the business, Jeff Reed, can as well. Sunday was just that day, and in the end, it was too much to overcome for the black and gold.
“I hadn’t talked to Jeff specifically about why he missed the kicks,” said Coach Mike Tomlin. “Of course that is uncharacteristic of him. He just kicked the game-winner last week in overtime. That’s kind of what we are used to. It’s not what we’re used to in terms of what happened today.”
The first setback of the 2009 season is complete, as the team lost 17-14 after Reed shanked two late field goals, and the defense allowed the Bears to march 41 yards for a game-winning 44-yard field goal by Robbie Gould with 15 seconds left.
Not that the Steelers likely would have had any shot to try and tie the game up, but any doubt as sealed when the kickoff was fumbled away by Stefan Logan and recovered by the Bears. The loss was the first for the Steelers since they fell in Tennessee last December.
While it’s just a simple regular season setback, it’s stomach churning to say the least. The start of the game was about as good as it gets, as the team stopped the Bears three-and-out on their first drive, and then Ben Roethlisberger and the team went 92 yards in 13 plays, and on 4th-and-1 Ben threw to backup TE Matt Spaeth for a TD to make it 7-0.
The defensive domination continued till the second quarter when Chicago put a 13-play, 82-yard drive together to tie the game up. Jay Cutler had time to throw, and the QB had a good 1-2 punch with Johnny Knox, who made two big grabs for 38 yards. The drive concluded with a six-yard TD to backup TE Kellen Davis to tie the game at 7.
Things stayed tight till the third quarter, when the Steelers drove down the field in four plays and 69 yards, the big play being backup RB Rashard Mendenhall going for 39 yards to the two. Roethlisberger went in from two yards out to make it 14-7.
It was at that point that the Steelers could have imposed their will to put the game away, but instead they decided to give the game away. They got the ball late in the third quarter, and went from their own 37 to the Bears 20, but Reed missed a 38-yard field goal that very well might have put the game away.
The miss gave Chicago momentum, and they took it to drive down and tie the game when Cutler avoided a blitz to hit Knox with a 7-yard TD with 6:21 to go to tie the game up. Again the Steelers had their chances after that, and moved the ball smartly down the field, with the big play being a Mewelde Moore 15-yard run.
Again though, the game came down to a Reed kick, and this time, the 43-yard attempt was well wide, again giving the Bears a shot to take advantage of the mistakes. And they did.
Cutler hit Devin Hester with a huge third down pass completion, and they were able to march down to get in range for Gould, who unlike Reed nailed his 44-yard field goal for the win.
This is for sure a game the team should have won. They will look back and look at this game as a total missed opportunity. It’s easy to put the blame on Reed, but in the end, the defense and offense both missed their shots to finish off the Bears, and they paid for it losing to a team they should have beaten.
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John Loeper
September 20, 2009 at 8:53 pm
It looks like a long season for Steelers fans. no running game, lame defense without Troy and now the kicker looks like he has decided to phone it in. repeat of 2006. Super Bowl hangover.
mark
September 21, 2009 at 5:08 am
I dont see a hangover but there are many concerns! That game reminded me of the Steeler-Jets game a few years back. Left too many opportunities on the field. Played defense like they were afraid to take any chances and let the Bears drive on them without Forte running and with no sacks. The team looked out of sync on both sides of the ball. Again, Ben throws a bunch of times, completes a lot of passes and the team scores 14 points.Last week 325+yards passing, 13 points. That is not going to cut it in this league no matter how good the defense is. I cant stand this line coach anymore. He is inept as a coach and for all the good Tomlin has done, he needs to replace this guy before this season is lost. I saw a sack on Ben late in that game when the Bears only rushed 4 men! Steelers also need to settle on a who exactly in going to run the ball. This committee doesn’t really strike fear in any defense, now does it? A loss to the Bengals in next weeks game could be the sign that the team’s problems cant be corrected this season and a mediocre 9-7 season is on the way. Pressing the panic button? not just yet, but my finger is twitching over it.
Jay
September 21, 2009 at 9:32 am
“It’s easy to put the blame on Reed.” It is because that’s who lost the game for them, pal…You can’t blame the D, they gave up 17 points on the road against an (elite) quarterback…You CAN, however, blame the Offense (or lack thereof) for individual miscues and a horrid philosophy (miscues in Santonio slipping, dropping passes, o-line letting backside pursuit catch parker, offsides, holding, etc and the coaching philosophy of, “Hmm, Mendenhall, a first round draft pick, just ran 20 plus yards on a play, let’s not gop to the run anymore in this game!”) Wow, our offense sucks…print it, tell ’em…Ben couldn’t’ve run out and handed Holmes the pass in the endzone any more perfect…I think I heard Ben yell, “Sorry San, didn’t mean to hit you in the hands!”
mark
September 21, 2009 at 10:23 am
Jay. I am really concerned about this offense. I keep saying that for all of the success that Ben has throwing in our “new” open offense, where is the scoring? In all honesty, Steelers should have scored 27 yesterday. Sacks,penalties, running game, slips,drops, etc… c’mon guys!I was also wondering why Rashard did NOT get more carries. I dont like his sideways running into the guards like I saw him do twice yesterday. But he did have our best run of the season. I know its easy to blame Reed, and truth be told he did kill us. But he has won a lot more games then he has lost and I blame the inability to score TD’s. I want the line coach fired. period, end of story.I also understand the Defense only giving up 17, but it looked like they were waiting for the Bears to make a mistake instead of forcing one. Its early, but there are concerns.
DrGeorge
September 21, 2009 at 11:27 am
There is plenty of blame to go around in the Steelers loss to Chicago, a game they should have won. The media focused on the obvious: Reed’s two missed field goals from 38 and 41 yards out — chip shots that he usually makes. But don’t put all the blame on Reed. We also saw Holmes drop key passes; a QB give up a sack at a critical juncture and throw errantly all night, including one interception; Ty Carter surrender two TD receptions to taller receivers; an O-line that, despite improvement, still had lapses against the blitz that disrupted offensive continuity; and a porous pass defense. Perhaps Hines Ward sensed it coming from the start: he wasn’t smiling.
Surely, the inclement weather and slow field negated the speed of our receivers and contributed to the offensive miscues described above — but none of the foregoing would have mattered if the Steelers had a reliable running game. As the Post-Gazette observed, of 14 first down running plays, 9 produced three yards or less, and some resulted in negative yardage. The calls were painfully obvious: dive plays on first down between the tackles that Chicago easily stuffed. The team did manage 103 yards rushing for the night, an improvement over last week. But the rushing improvement was marginal. Except for Mendenhall’s one 39 yard ramble (also his net total on 3 attempts), the Steelers rushed for only 66 additional yards. More important, they couldn’t and didn’t run when they needed to run. The coaching staff repeatedly called passing plays on short yardage situations — hardly a vote of confidence for the running game. And on the goal line, the call was a QB option. Although the play resulted in a TD, but it also showed that the coaches know our RBs can’t gain two yards when needed. In short, the Steelers are a one dimensional team, and opposing defenses play them as such.
We should also note, for completeness, a deficiency in the Steelers’ pass defense which allows opposing QBs to complete passes underneath the coverage almost at will. The idea, a popular one in the NFL, is to allow short catches and limit YAK. A patient, accurate QB will gladly accept this largess and dink-and-dunk his way to the red zone, and often the end zone. The misnamed ‘prevent defense’ — a variation on this concept — is equally porous and largely prevents the team that uses it from winning. The accurate, but lame-armed, Curt Warner, routinely used his dink-and-dunk game to exploit our swiss cheese schemes in the Super Bowl last season. Yesterday, Jay Cutler, the Bears’ QB, did the same. While Cutler has a big arm, he didn’t need it against the Steelers; his dink-and-dunk passes were safe (zero interceptions versus 4 last week against G. Bay) and delivered 232 yards against a passive secondary. I admire Dick LeBeau as much as any fan, but he needs to tighten up the short coverages or even use man-to-man on occasion. Yesterday, the pass defense of the Super Bowl champs looked generous, predictable, slow, and ordinary. You can almost hear Carson Palmer licking his chops.
mark
September 21, 2009 at 12:26 pm
DrGeorge, I have to agree on a few things you said but I have to disagree on the performance of Ben. His interception came when he was throwing to an open receiver when he was hit. I think this caused the passed to lose its intention. I will agree on the porous pass defense. I know, I know, Troy wasnt there, but he was there in the SuperBowl and this is what teams are looking at. Its a copycat league and teams are going to go underneath as long as the Steelers let them. This scheme also prevents the Steelers from getting the big pass rush because the ball is already gone.I actually do NOT want to keep talking about the offense because after only 2 weeks, it is the topic us Steeler fans keep reverting to. The team needs to stick with a RB, whoever it may be, and go with him. The rotation is killing any continuity and this team cannot afford to be any more out of sync.Personally, I think they should stay with Mendenhall, who may be a bit more physical in moving the pile.Parker is getting thrown back far too much with this bad line in front of him.The Steelers let one get away yesterday because they did not finish the job. As bad as they were, they could have escaped with a win. Beating the Bengals is a must and it will go a long way in gaining confidence in this team.
DrGeorge
September 21, 2009 at 1:15 pm
Mark, we agree on the larger picture, and I don’t dispute a word you say here. Clearly, Ben was bumped at the moment of release, causing the interception. Whether the interception was due to Ben waiting too long, the O-line’s protection, or the play calling, the interception was one of a list of things that went wrong besides J. Reed’s missed FGs. My point was that the media was heaping more blame on Reed than he deserved. If we had a reliable running game, we would have converted at least one of those 3rd downs, and Jeff would have been spared a difficult kick on a sloppy field. I share your concern about the Bengals. A win in Cincy is far from certain.
mark
September 21, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Dr George, I am with you on the entire matter. It seemed yesterday was one of those days that no matter what they did, they just werent going to do enough to win. I thought it was eerily similar to the game they played against the Jets back in 2007. We were all waiting for the Steelers to put the Jets/Bears away but instead let them hang around enough to move the ball and win late. Too many missed opportunities in that game and yesterday’s game. DO you agree that the team needs to pick a RB and stick with it? I think the rotating is killing any chance at continuity.
DrGeorge
September 22, 2009 at 10:23 am
Mark, take a look at Ron Cook’s column today (9/22/09, at Post-Gazette.com) regarding the defensive let down at Chicago, especially the lack of a pass rush. Note the statistics.
As for the RB situation, most teams in the NFL use a committe in the backfield, if only to keep legs fresh and extend the careers of stars like W. Parker. It surely extended Bettis’s career a few years back. The Steelers backs are adequate and about equal in talent. Rushing continuity largely depends on O-line execution, anyway. The RBs aren’t missing the holes; they’re simply aren’t many holes these days — the long run by Mendenhall being the exception. Like you, I would prefer a big time “go to” guy at RB, but we don’t have one now. Parker still hasn’t fully recovered from his knee injury; Mendenhall lacks power; and Moore (the most versatile of the lot) is smallish for the routine pounding RBs take. I think the coaches are making do with a very ordinary group of backs. However, if the O-line blocking improves, these guys will all look much better than they do now.
The Steelers have routinely passed on big power backs in the draft and in free agency, probably for financial reasons. In pro sports of all kinds, victory usually goes to the team with the most genetic freaks — guys who are bigger, stronger, faster than the average pro
— at their skill positions. The Steelers have less than their share of such uber-athletes over all, and none at RB. (Mendenhall looked like one in college, but his talent hasn’t translated to NFL success yet.) The Steelers success in recent years has been the result of using the talent they have more skillfully than others: i.e. through teamwork. In both Super Bowl XL and XLIII, the Steelers were not the most talented team in the NFL. But the team won anyway. And we can win this year again, even though our RBs are simply adequate (not great), if the O-line makes holes for them, if the blocking schemes suit the defense, and if the right running play is called at the right time. In short, I’m afraid we’re stuck with the RB committee for the balance of the year –but it should be good enough, if the rest of the problems get fixed.