NFL playoff team losing its mojo at critical juncture
A victory would have clinched the AFC North and a home playoff game for Pittsburgh. Instead, on the wrong side of a 34-17 defeat Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, they left wearing frowns instead of division-champion attire.
Pittsburgh lost in the most un-Steelers-like way: dominated by the Ravens on both sides of the line of scrimmage and deficient in the turnover margin while missing chances to win that battle. A fumble near the goal line by quarterback Russell Wilson and an interception thrown to Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who returned it for a touchdown, were two game-changing plays the Steelers were on the wrong side of.
“You’ve got to control the run, the line of scrimmage,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “The turnover game is always significant in matchups like this. We failed in both areas. So, when you do that, you should expect to lose.”
Derrick Henry ran 24 times for 162 yards and the Steelers gave up 220 total on the ground. The Ravens had seven rushing plays go for more than 8 yards; Henry’s longest was a 44-yard run the first play after Wilson’s missed deep shot to the end zone – broken up by All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton – intended for wideout Calvin Austin, which opened the fourth quarter.
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Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick picked off Jackson on the next play from the Pittsburgh 11-yard line. Two plays later, however, was showboating his way into the end zone.
“Sudden change” was one area in which the Steelers struggled against Baltimore, defensive lineman Cam Heyward said.
“Just the recipe that we had tonight was not conducive to winning this game,” Heyward said.
Unless they “own” their performance and learn from it, the mistakes will continue, Heyward said. The Steelers have a game Wednesday, on Christmas Day, back home against the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.
“We’re going to play good teams week in and week out, especially when you get to the playoffs,” Heyward said. “There’s not a sorry team there.”
It’s the most brutal stretch of the schedule for Steelers, whose defense has allowed 38, 27, 14 (against the Cleveland Browns) and 34 points in its last four games, respectively. The Steelers went into their Week 9 bye allowing 14.9 points per game. The competition has proved tougher, surely, and the injuries have mounted on both sides of the ball. Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith uses Wilson differently than Justin Fields, who started the first six games of the season and was part of a significant list of inactive players – including cornerback Donte Jackson, safety DeShon Elliott and defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi – for the Steelers on Saturday.
“It’s a team game. This is a complementary game,’ Heyward said while bringing up last season’s Week 18 victory in Baltimore, which ultimately got the Steelers into the playoffs, with Mason Rudolph at quarterback as an example of injuries being part of the game. ‘When we’re at our best, we are playing really good complementary football.”
Tomlin said missed tackles by the defense were an issue for the second straight game. On Jackson’s 9-yard touchdown to Isaiah Likely with 5:52 left in the first quarter, a late motion by the Ravens clearly confused the Steelers’ secondary, leaving Likely wide open over the middle.
“It’s concerning, certainly,” Tomlin said about the tackling woes. “We’ve got to be better.”
His team will have to go “back to the lab” to do so. For outside linebacker Alex Highsmith, not tackling well comes down to who is the more physical team.
“When we’re successful, we get off blocks and make tackles,” he said. “We didn’t do that enough today. Just have to be more physical, especially playing a team like this. They’re one of the best in the league, and we’ve got to play physical when we play them.”
The Steelers appeared allergic to the loose football for much of the game. Twice in the first six minutes the Ravens put the ball on the ground – once when Highsmith strip-sacked Jackson, another during a punt return. On neither occasion did the Steelers recover the ball, and they missed a third opportunity on a muffed punt with less than two minutes remaining.
“I just think we need to start faster,” said outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who entered with a bum ankle and was kept quiet (one solo tackle, three total). “We’ve got to tackle. … We have to rely on our brothers in run defense. We have to just do things that make defenses good. We didn’t do that tonight.”
The Steelers aren’t incapable of passing the ball. But Pittsburgh hasn’t run well enough to have subpar quarterback play reliant on a depleted receiving corps. George Pickens missed his third straight game, and Wilson desperately misses him in the deep passing game, despite Austin’s best efforts to fill that role. Ben Skowronek had two early targets and seemed to be in rhythm with Wilson but exited in the first quarter with a hip injury and didn’t return. Tight end Pat Freiermuth had three catches for 16 yards on three targets. Wilson did throw for more than 200 yards (217 on 22-of-33 passing) for the first time in three weeks and looked like the prime version of himself while spinning out of the pocket and delivering a dime on a play or two.
“Stuff happens,” running back Jaylen Warren. “We’re a team that usually counter-punches. We don’t look at that as any momentum loss.”
Wilson definitely showed his 36 years on this Earth, though, with about 11 minutes remaining in the second quarter. Facing a second-and-6 from the Baltimore 23-yard line, Wilson dropped back and had nothing but grass in front of him. A millisecond of hesitation passed before he took off, yet it looked like he’d make it all the way to the end zone. But Ravens defensive back Ar’Darius Washington closed the gap, and Wilson awkwardly turned to try and pick up a final block. In an instant, Wilson was airborne and the ball was on the ground.
“I put that game on me, in the sense of, there’s two great opportunities there,” said Wilson, referencing the fumble and pick-six in the fourth quarter.
“Unacceptable,” he added about the fumble.
One thing Wilson won’t do, he said, is keep his head down.
“There’s a lot of good things we’ve been doing all year,” said Wilson, who missed the first six games of the season with a calf injury. “We can’t let a game like this take us to a negative state of mind, because there’s a lot more that we’re playing for, searching for.”
That will have to be accomplished on the shortest rest an NFL team will face this season (kickoffs 96 hours apart). And after the Chiefs, they’ll host a Cincinnati Bengals team that will either be looking to keep its currently slim, but improving, playoff hopes alive or play spoiler.
Until then, they’ll use the precious hours before Wednesday to highlight some issues, Heyward said – mainly, tackling.
“Talk about it,” he said. “Coach it up. Practice it.”
He did the math in his head and laughed.
“There’s not a lot of time to practice,” Heyward said.
There’s not a lot of time to wrap up the AFC North, either.
