CHICAGO — On a strange day all around the NFL, from California to London, the Steelers provided a sense of normalcy in the city of big shoulders.
They went down in another big upset on the road.
Chicago, a 7.5-point underdog as more Teddy Bears than Monsters of the Midway after they lost their first two games following a 3-13 record in 2016, toppled the Steelers with old-school football Sunday that had to make Dick Butkus smile as he watched from his seat at Soldier Field. They ran all over the Steelers for 220 yards rushing and pretty much slammed what is supposed to be a vaunted Steelers offense that again went pffffft.
It all ended in a 23-17 overtime loss when the Bears won the coin toss and gouged the Steelers defense for 74 yards on four running plays, the final a 19-yard cutback by Jordan Howard for the winner.
That ran the Steelers record in their past 18 games on the road against teams with losing records to 5-13. It dropped them to 10-7 under Mike Tomlin in games which they were favored by at least a touchdown on the road.
Playing down to their opponents? Sunday, they played under them as their franchise record in Chicago dropped to 1-13. The Steelers put the Win in Windy City.
“Yeah, you guys call this every year,’’ guard David DeCastro told reporters afterward. “And I’m trying to say ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re not going to do it again.’ And we do it again.”
And again and again.
“It felt like another game like that,” DeCastro agreed. “I think it’s one we’ll look back on. Give credit to Chicago, they’re a good team. I don’t want to take anything away from an NFL team like that, but we didn’t play anywhere near where we should have been and we’re going to take responsibility for that.”
It has become part of their culture. Steelers players said they did not feel their pre-game gesture of staying in the locker room for the national anthem had any kind of negative effect on their play. They thought in a way it brought them together. Some players wanted to kneel during the anthem, some didn’t. They decided as a team to not appear for the traditional opening at all as NFL teams all over wrestled with their responses to President Trump’s call for any player to be “fired” if they knelt.
“We cannot make excuses,’’ quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “I need to play better football. I will take this game on me. I did not play well enough.”
He was right about that. Roethlisberger and his offense could not really get untracked for a third consecutive game. Roethlisberger was high and wide on throws and completed just 22 of 39 passes for 235 yards and one touchdown. He was not intercepted.
But his offense also had just one good drive in the game, a 13-play, 77-yard touchdown series capped by Roethlisberger’s 7-yard scoring pass to Antonio Brown in the second quarter.
Their other touchdown came after Ryan Shazier forced a fumble and recovered it to give them the ball at the Bears 16. Even then, it took six plays and a third-down pass interference penalty in the end zone to set up Le’Veon Bell’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Their only other score came after J.J. Wilcox intercepted a pass to give his offense the ball at the Bears 21. They could not punch it in and Chris Boswell kicked a 32-yard field goal.
That brought them from 10 points down to tie it, 17-17, in the fourth quarter. They never got out of their territory on two more series and their offense never saw the ball in overtime.
The bottom line: Déjà vu for a Steelers team used to these kinds of upsets.
“I don’t think déjà vu,’’ Cam Heyward said. “They had a good plan, they executed. There’s so much in tipping the scales and they did a little bit more. You commend them for doing that. Each week, every team wants to win, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who it is. We have to be willing to play better.”
Their special teams may have been worse than even their offense or defense. Eli Rogers fumbled the Bears’ first punt of the game at his 29 to help Chicago to a quick 7-0 lead when Howard ended that short series with a 3-yard touchdown run.
Boswell’s 35-yard field goal try with six seconds left in the first half was blocked, setting up a bizarre turn of events that in the end cost the Steelers six points — the missed 3-pointer on their end and the ensuing 24-yard field goal by Chicago’s Connor Barth with no time left in the half.
“In the first half we turned the ball over ... plus a blocked kick,’’ Tomlin said. “You’re probably fortunate to be down by 10. We were.”
Good fortune or bad, there’s always one thing everyone can count on from the Steelers — close or losing games to teams they are heavily favored to beat on the road.
They struggled to win their opener in Cleveland against a rookie quarterback and a team that won one game last season. Now they lost to a team whose quarterback has two wins over the course of three years. Mike Glennon pulled a huge upset in Heinz Field with what would become the 2-14 Tampa Bay Buccaneers three years ago. His only other win since then came Sunday in Chicago.
“Something about these games, we’ve got to figure out,’’ DeCastro said.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.
First Published: September 25, 2017, 1:08 a.m.
