There are a million-and-one ways to lose in this National Football League, so when an 11-0 Steelers team finally flopped off its pedestal after such a historically unprecedented start, it made sure there was nothing typical about Monday night’s 23-17 pie to the face.
No, this was special. They blew a 14-point lead on their home field for only the third time in 81 games (78-1-1), they doubled down on their sudden and shocking ability to be simultaneously unable to run and unable to catch, and they turned that and a chain reaction of brain cramps into a thrilling come-from-ahead loss to a 4-7 team without so much as its own nickname.
You can plow through every Steelers history text you can find, but that’s never happened.
The Washington Football Team, still in search of an traditional label that proves inoffensive to indigenous peoples and clinical dermatology, scored four of the final six times it possessed the football on a cold night in Pittsburgh and left Mike Tomlin’s team about 500 miles from perfection.
“There are different points along the journey where you get a chance to learn about yourself, who you are, what you’re made of individually and collectively,” Tomlin said after the first Steelers loss in 344 days, “and it takes the journey to reveal that. We’re faced with a loss now, so we have an opportunity to smile in the face of it.”
Who they are, what they’re made of, those are concepts often better evaluated by their mirror images. Who they are not — a team that can be relied upon to bust into the end zone on five shots from the 1, a team that can make routine catches of accurate throws, a team that can shut down a totally non-descript Washington operation at critical moments – is a situation best informed by what they are not made of. And what they are not made of right now is Devin Bush, James Conner, Maurkice Pouncey, Joe Haden, Steve Nelson, Zach Banner, Bud Dupree, Chris Boswell, and others critical to a varsity effort.
Thus amid injury and disease, the Steelers will head for Buffalo on the weekend where the Bills will have zero interest in helping them get their groove back. For them, harboring their own post-season daydreams that remain every bit as elaborate as yours, the Steelers are just another AFC team that hasn’t had anyone rush for 100 yards in seven weeks. Even then, Conner ran for exactly 101 against the Cleveland Browns.
Across 60 minutes last night, the Steelers’ ground game averaged 4.5 a pop. Problem is, that’s feet, not yards. The good news was that they only tried to run it 14 times, against 53 passes, 33 of which Ben Roethlisberger completed at an average length of 5.8 yards per attempt.
“We’re getting to that point in the season where you’ve got to be sharp in all areas,” Ben said after a third consecutive sub-90 passer rating caused mostly by the aforementioned drops issue. “At the end of the day there are gonna be all kinds of distractions.”
Tell me about it.
For all their evident warts right now, this team would have stretched its remarkable winning streak to one dozen were it not for a few decisions it might like to have reconsidered.
Tomlin said he didn’t want to put the game on Matthew Wright’s shoulders with the score tied 17-17 and the offense within range of a 45-yard field goal try, but the backup kicker had connected from 37 earlier. On fourth and 1 from the Washington 28 with five minutes left, if a difficult throw downfield to 5-8 rookie running back Anthony McFarland on an out-and-up route was the wrong call (and it surely was), Tomlin didn’t want to be Wright.
McFarland couldn’t handle the situation either, and Ben’s four-down throw fell incomplete.
A field goal might have stabilized things there, but it would have been much more beneficial for veteran linebacker Vince Williams not to get caught in the wash as tight end Logan Thomas was crossing free for a 15-yard tying touchdown four minutes earlier.
It might even have been helpful had Steelers running back Jaylen Samuels, instead of spectating a batted pass across the middle on Pittsburgh’s final possession, prevented Washington linebacker Jon Bostic (yeah, that Jon Bostic) from intercepting it by maybe, you know, moving toward the thing.
But there’s no utility in bludgeoning an 11-1 team here as December gets its legs. I’m with Tomlin, in fact. Smile in the face of this Steelers loss.
You got a lot else to smile about right now?
Gene Collier: gcollier@post-gazette.com and Twitter @genecollier.
First Published: December 8, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: December 8, 2020, 11:26 a.m.