By Tyler Sweet
Another turnover plagued game by the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately resulted in a Steelers loss to the Chicago Bears Sunday night. At times the Steelers showed flashes of improvement and the capability to put points on the board, but 5 total turnovers resulting in 23 Chicago points simply will not cut it. It was another ugly game at Heinz field…Here are my week 3 grades:
Offense
Early on, Ben looked very uncomfortable and was forcing the short thows and overthrowing the deep balls. After a couple big runs by Dwyer, Ben and the offense seemed to get settled in. Even when he was under pressure, Ben would stand his ground and keep his eyes down field, finding Heath Miller and Antonio Brown for big gains down field. For weeks, the offense has been lacking a leader to step up and provide some sort of spark.
The spark Sunday night came from Antonio Brown who was playing with great speed and was making some tremendous catches. But the 2013 trend of the Pittsburgh Steelers is that everytime the offense does something good, they follow it up with a horrible play that completely erases the positives. The offense played very well, except for a few crucial turnovers. It does not matter how many yards an offense puts up, if they fail to put points on the board or allow the opposing defense to score, you are not going to win games! Offensive Grade: B-
Defense
Like the offense, the defense struggled early in the game and allowed the Bears to put up easy points. I was very pleased how the defense played with emotion and were very aggressive late in the first half and the entire second half. Lawrence Timmons and Lamarr Woodley brought good pressure throughout the game and kept Jay Cutler from finding receivers deep.
Although the game was high scoring, it is hard to put all the blame on the defense, especially when 14 of the 40 points were defensive scores for the Bears. Good outing by the defense for three quarters. Unfortunately, there are four quarters in a football game, and even points given up early in the game will eventually come back to haunt you.Defensive Grade: B+
Special Teams
Going into this game I was extremely nervous about the shaky special teams unit of the Steelers going up against one of the greatest return specialists in NFL history in Devin Hester. The Steelers never let Hester gain momentum on his returns and even avoided him all together with squib kicks on the kickoffs. The Bears returners were consistently being gang tackled and taken down quickly. Despite the game already out of reach, Troy Polamalu came off the left side of the offensive line and blocked a late game extra point. Given the awful start to the season for this unit, I am very happy with the adjustments and vast improvements by the special teams lately. Special Teams Grade: A-
A loss is a loss no matter how you look at it. The Steelers were underdogs coming into Sunday night and at times played like the underdog, but the improvements on both sides of the ball are promising for a team that seeks to find any kind of hope for the long season ahead. As always, I am interested in hearing your take on the game and want to know the grades you would give each unit!
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Ben
September 23, 2013 at 12:18 am
So offense puts up 23 points and sets up 23 for the opponent, offsetting to essentially a offensively no-shown game of 17-0. No way you can win games like this.
Jose Luis del Bosque
September 23, 2013 at 12:32 am
Definitely this will be a pretty bad season. Big red lights are on in the Steelers locker room. If we add the pre season lost games to the first 3 lost regular games… this means some things are not matching up…. From coaches to players… inclusive the out field managers and executives!!! Hope the team do something about it…. For us…. the Steelers fan’s!!!!!
TRS
September 23, 2013 at 12:06 pm
Wow. Five turnovers (including two returned for TDs) gets you a B- on offense? No turnovers and the complete inability to stop three consecutive third-and-long chances nets a B+ on defense? I suppose mere competence (not actually hurting the team) is worthy of an A- on special teams. That is a B+ average! I wish you were handing out grades when I was in college. What grade do they get if they actually play winning football?
Not sure we watched the same game. The o-line was typically awful, and Roethlisberger was pressured into turnovers, but that is on him as well. Still no running game (thanks again o-line) and a fumble from Jones for good measure. Brown was great, but as a unit, the offense gets a solid D.
Speaking of solid D, the Steelers don’t have one. A little more pressure this week, but no turnovers and no stops when the game was finally in reach again during the fourth quarter. A recurring theme. They just don’t get the big timely stops anymore. It doesn’t even matter who the opponent is. The Steelers cannot shut people down. Another D for the defense.
Who would have guessed that Suisham would ever be the most reliable aspect of the Steelers? No big positive plays from the special teams (except the inconsistent punter getting run over), but at least they did not hurt us like the O and the D. A B effort for ST.