In a week where Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown all had monster games, you’d think the city of Pittsburgh would be celebrating a win. However, following suit with the season thus far, the Steelers failed to succeed at all three phases of the game and dropped their fourth straight. Despite holding a one point lead with 42 seconds remaining, the defense gave up big plays and bad penalties, ultimately resulting in a game winning touchdown.
Pittsburgh Steelers Week Ten Takeaways
Deadly Defense
Big plays were the Achilles heel of the Pittsburgh defense on Sunday. Late in the first quarter, Pittsburgh forced Dallas into early trouble, a second and 18 yards to go. Unfortunately, Pittsburgh was unable to capitalize on the early drive success. On the next play, rookie sensation Ezekiel Elliott took a screen pass 83 yards for a Cowboys touchdown.
Late in the third, Dak Prescott found Dez Bryant for a 50 yard touchdown. This was the result of rookie Artie Burns getting burned off the line trying to play tight one on one coverage on Bryant. After beating Burns, Bryant raced into the endzone due to the help coming too late from rookie safety Sean Davis.
Finally on the last drive of the game, the defense failed yet again. With just 23 seconds left, Davis made another costly mistake, getting caught grabbing the facemask of Jason Witten. This was an unneeded error, as Witten was on his way to the ground. If Davis had just let the play continue, Witten would have been brought down in bounds, causing the Cowboys to burn their final timeout. However, Davis was flagged, setting up a 32 yard touchdown run from Ezekiel Elliott with nine seconds left to seal the game. Elliott went untouched into the end zone.
The Run Defense
Another issue for the Steelers was defending the run. Going into this week, the prospects didn’t look good. The Steelers had been gashed recently on the ground. The Cowboys came into town with the league’s leading rusher and the best offensive line in the game. It was no shock that the Steelers weren’t able to stop the run, but it still exists as an ongoing problem. The secondary problems are one issue, but not being able to stop the run along with it makes for more disaster ahead.
Improved Passing
The major positive for the Steelers was a significant improvement in offensive production from last week. The line for Ben Roethlisberger was superb. Ben threw for 408 yards and three touchdowns. More importantly, Ben re-established the offensive strategy of spreading the ball around while featuring his two big stars. Antonio Brown had 154 yards and a touchdown on a whopping 18 targets. Also, Le’Veon Bell added 134 yards and two touchdowns on 26 touches overall. This amount of production from the Steelers stars is encouraging. Now they just need to maintain this success.
This streak needs to end soon. The agony of watching these games is a hard pill to swallow for fans that aren’t used to losing. More than that, fans that expect more from a talented team that many picked to win the Super Bowl. It is not too late to turn this season around. Luckily, the schedule is favorable to the Steelers. Pittsburgh travels to Cleveland next week to face the 0-10 Browns. Next week may be the turning point in a successful season. Or, it could be the last nail in the coffin of a disappointing one.
