The Pittsburgh Steelers had extra time to prepare for the New Orleans Saints and the way the team played, they were nowhere near ready for Drew Brees and company. Le’Veon Bell was easily the player of the week in the 32-35 loss that had a final score that made the game look a whole lot closer than it really was.
After the Saints won the coin toss and deferred, the Steelers offense came out flat. It has been a trend for Pittsburgh during the 2014 season. Pittsburgh scored first off of a Shaun Suisham field goal, but they were only able to put a total of six points on the scoreboard before halftime. In the second quarter, Brees unleashed the Saints offense on the ground and through the air, finding tight end BenjaminWatson and fullback Erik Lorig for touchdowns.
With a meager performance by the Steelers defense, the Saints were able to not only chew up yards on the ground but given time to open up the field for Brees to choose his targets. Despite the return of Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu, the defensive backfield bit on double-moves and were burned several times for huge chunks of turf. Poor tackling and pass defense only added misery to what defensive end Brett Keisel was feeling in an injured triceps, forcing him to leave the game.
Pittsburgh’s offense was hampered when Ben Roethlisberger slammed his throwing hand into a rushing defender and couldn’t pass the ball effectively. He ended up handing off the ball the Bell with his left hand and trying to get the offense going. Once again, Week 13 was a game that featured Bell, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller. It was a team loss, but right now this team has to be wondering how they are going to match up against the AFC North-leading Cincinnati Bengals two times in three weeks (starting next week).
A late fourth-quarter move to the hurry-up offense appeared to be working, making one wonder why Tomlin and Haley didn’t move to it sooner. Bell and Brown both had touchdowns late in the fourth with Bell and Lance Moore scoring on two-point conversion attempts to put the score at 32 to New Orleans’ 35. Although the game clock indicated a single second left before the final two-point conversion, the officials chose to allow the clock to remain at 0:00, giving Pittsburgh the final points but zero opportunity to go for an onside kick and a last-ditch desperate play for the win.
Some may blame Shaun Suisham’s missed long field goal for the three-point loss, but the Steelers never should have required Suisham to have to kick that ball at all. If the offense had performed at a higher level, the team could have earned the first down and gotten Suisham closer to the uprights or a touchdown.
The Steelers have to be concerned that their bye week did nothing to correct errors that continue to plague this team.
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DaveB.
November 30, 2014 at 6:48 pm
Youre coming off a bye week . Youre at home . You are playing a mediocre team that has only won four games to date . That usually means a win for most teams . The Pittsburgh Steelers are not most teams . These 2014 Steelers are in a word soft and thats putting it mildly . After going public this past week saying , every game from here on out is a must win and we cant afford any slip ups . They come out in front of there home fans and in front of the 1974 Super Bowl Steelers who were being honored for their 40th anniversary of Super Bowl IX victory and they play as if they are done and ready to pack their bags and head for the airport . Guess what guys ? You are done . This team never looked interested , and showed no fire or intensity at any point during the game . That falls on Mike Tomlin , his staff and the players . This team needs a good housecleaning from the top down . There are far to many players that are drawing a paycheck and thats it . It needs to stop and it needs to stop now . In their current state . they are a disgrace to all the Steelers that came before them . It hurts to hear but its true . Like it or not .
Curt
November 30, 2014 at 7:37 pm
Boy DaveB you have hit the nail on the head. My take is I honestly don’t want to see our boys in the playoff, first off they don’t deserve it and second I’m honestly afraid of them matching up against The Broncos, Colts or Patriots. Yes we beat the Colts, but remember lighting is not going to strike twice for this team. At the end of the season the house should be cleaned and it does start from the top on down. If your trend is not being able to handle sub .500 teams, then you have no business making the playoffs. The Steelers under Tomlin’s watch is no longer an elite team, we are mediocre at best and are slowly starting to slip into the NFL basement.
Jay
November 30, 2014 at 8:44 pm
An objective breakdown from a concerned fan: first of all to all yen apologists out there, the sky is not falling, no it is not because I have a life and chose not to fall back on the six trophy accomplishments of the past. Yen sound like the cowboy fans out here in eastern PA who always seem to revert and refer back to the “trophies” whenever someone points out their flaws (of course excluding the two aforementioned posters on here who seem to “get it.”).
Game one: bb fails to show up in second half, barely escape with win.
Game two: bb fails to show up at all as defense sucks, loss
Game 3: bell carries offense, win
Game 4: defensive letdown on last drive but bb has shaky game, loss
Game 5:offense only scores 17 points at Jax, win
Game 6: bb and offense fail to show up yet again in Cleveland and defense, as usual, sucks, loss
Game 7: offense catches lightning in a three minute bottle but otherwise was dormant for three plus quarters, win
Game 8: ben carries team, win
Game 9: ben carries team, win
Game 10: Ben fails to show up to abysmal jets, loss
Game 11: bell carries team as Ben looks like shit, win
Game 12: Ben fails to show up, loss;
You cannot argue with the assessment, go back and look. If your defense is that bad and you have an elite QB, you rely on him to score more points than your d gives up, if you can’t then it follows logically that your QB isn’t elite. Especially since you’re getting carried by your awesome running back for two of your wins and your supposed all world QB is only responsible for two wins. Top that off with a piss poor head coach and a GM who seems to have packed it in, but all of us “naysayers” will be accused of overreacting and not supporting the team, right! Bb had some good times here but he has been here a long time so any reaction to get rid of him can hardly be construed as a knee jerk reaction since he has indeed been here and the organization has had more than ample time to assess his current worth. I say strike when the iron is hot and unload him for some high draft picks, rebuild…why does it seem that the steelers organization puts out this aura that they’re above that as if rebuilding is beneath them? With all the mistakes that Colbert has made lately, the suck ass job TOMLIN does and the ineptitude of our “elite” QB now that he doesn’t have a defense to hide his huge flaws, it makes perfect sense to show some humility and get the ball rolling on a total rebuild!
Graydog
November 30, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Tomlin needs to go!!!!!
SB Steeler
November 30, 2014 at 10:04 pm
This has been the Steelers M/O for now 4 seasons under Tomlin. Same explanation after loses. Not ready for a mediocre New Orleans team with an extra week and NO with one less day of practice falls directly on the head coach. It really is time the Steelers go in a different direction with their head coach and probably GM.
As for the play on the field, Ike Taylor epitomized the team. I think back to before pre-season when Ike Taylor said he was more or less insulted for the lousy contract he was offered by the Steelers. Fast forward to today – the now and the present in Tomlin-speak – and Ike Taylor should be paying the Steelers to play.
Vince Lombardi once made a comment about football that I believe holds true today. Football is a simple game. It consists only of tackling and blocking. And that is so true. Anyone can block, but you need to be able to block properly. Same goes for tackling. When you’ve mastered those you win games. It really is that simple. Fumbles, interceptions, running plays, passing plays all take care of themselves when you have mastered blocking and tackling. The Steelers, under Tomlin, have not mastered blocking and tackling.