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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) trips under pressure from Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward (97) at Acrisure Stadium on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in the North Shore. The Dallas Cowboys won 20-17.
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Joe Starkey: The Steelers deserved to lose — and their tired formula isn’t adding up anymore

Benjamin B. Braun/Post-Gazette

Joe Starkey: The Steelers deserved to lose — and their tired formula isn’t adding up anymore

With the Steelers mired in yet another ugly, last-possession type of game — the kind they seem to seek out — NBC announcers Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth couldn’t help themselves.

For some reason, they thought such a predicament was cause for praise, even though the Steelers had been badly outplayed by the severely short-handed Dallas Cowboys. It was looking like Mike Tomlin’s crew was about to pull out a strange, Kenny Pickett kind of win as it marched toward a late go-ahead score.

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Tirico: “Have you seen this Pittsburgh game a thousand times?”

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Collinsworth: “It’s what they live for. It’s what they practice for.”

Oh, we’ve seen this Pittsburgh game a thousand times, all right, and we all know the formula doesn’t work in the long run. You might sneak into the playoffs winning that way, when your offense stinks. But it’s not a long-term plan for success.

Tomlin himself admitted as much when the Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada last season, saying, “We need to engineer victory more fluidly.” That was the first time in his tenure that he admitted just winning wasn’t good enough. The Steelers were 6-4 at the time. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but the message obviously needs to be repeated if prime-time announcers are lauding the Steelers for having a chance to win late when they’ve been doubled up in yardage and pushed around for much of the night by a mediocre Cowboys team.

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Somebody should also remind Tirico and Collinsworth that the Steelers have not won a playoff game in seven years. They haven’t come close, actually. When they do sneak in, the old “Let’s score 19 and hold ’em to 16” plan doesn’t work. Mostly because they usually give up between 30 and 40 points in those games.

The final in this one: Dallas 20, Steelers 17 — and you know what? It could be a blessing to lose a game like this. Maybe it will prod Tomlin into being more aggressive early in games. Like, maybe when they’re at the other team’s 28, trailing 3-0 with a third-and-eight, they won’t RUN A PITCH PLAY TO A THIRD-STRING RUNNING BACK.

Did that really happen?

Did Arthur Smith (or Tomlin) really call a pitch out to Aaron Shampklin on 3rd and 8?

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“A little unusual call there on third and long,” Collinsworth said. “They must have really liked something.”

Yeah. They like a field goal, is what they liked. And they lost by three points. So much for turtling early in the game because you believe your overrated defense is going to win the night.

The Steelers were outgained 445 to 226. They allowed a team with no running game to come into their stadium and run for 109 yards, and Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, despite some unfathomable brain cramps, lit them up to the tune of 29-of-42 for 336 yards passing.

Dallas was 9 of 15 on third downs. The Steelers were a pathetic 3 of 12 against a badly injured and, heretofore, soft Cowboys defense.

Sure, the formula might work in Vegas next weekend. It could even get the Steelers into the playoffs. But we all know how the movie ends. Tomlin needs to change the plot. That could involve getting George Pickens the football, among other things.

Meanwhile …

• A popular question over the past few weeks: “What does Russell Wilson do that Justin Fields can’t?” We might have seen the answer in the first half: Wilson might throw better intermediate and deep balls. Fields was off with such passes for much of the night. He should have been intercepted on one. He overthrew Darnell Washington on another. He needs to take a little off the fastball. He was really good on the go-ahead drive, but as we’ve mentioned, 17 points is not enough.

• Pickens wrote an interesting message on his eye black: “Open (Expletive) Always.” It’s hard to believe either Art Rooney II or the NFL was amused. Pickens can expect a fine. He finished with two catches for 29 yards, but at least he completed a nice pass to Isaac Seumalo on the last play of the game. Pickens also spent an unusual amount of time on the sidelines in the second half, although Tomlin claimed there was “no underlying story.”

• Lots of people have been running cover for Minkah Fitzpatrick lately, trying to explain how in the world he hasn’t had an interception since the second-last game of the 2022 season (he also hasn’t had a fumble recovery since the late stages of the 2021 season). They say teams don’t throw at him, that he’s asked to play all over the field, etc., but it looked like he was guessing wrong a lot in this game. Collinsworth sure thought so. Fitzpatrick plays his heart out. He’s a great hitter. He made a phenomenal tackle on Prescott at the goal line. But they didn’t make him the then-highest-paid safety in the NFL to never force turnovers. He has not been good in coverage this season, and the Steelers have given up numerous big pass plays in the past two games. It kind of makes you wonder how they would have fared if Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert had stayed healthy for the whole game three weeks ago.

• That hit by Elandon Roberts at the goal line was one of the greatest goal-line plays I have ever seen. It was a mix of Troy Polamalu and Kendrell Bell. Roberts looked like Superman.

• Tip of the cap to Kyle Allen, who came in cold off the bench and made the Steelers’ best pass of the night to that point, hitting Pat Freiermuth down the seam for 19 yards on what became a touchdown drive. Allen hadn’t attempted a regular-season pass since Dec. 4, 2022.

• All the momentum from that 3-0 start has been sapped. Quarterback questions will arise this week. The Ravens look like the favorites in the AFC North.

• Tomlin butchered the timeout situation for the second straight week. The Steelers had none left when they got the ball with 15 seconds left, needing only a Chris Boswell field goal to send the game to overtime. One of those timeouts was wasted when the defense had 12 men on the field. Inexcusable stuff.

First Published: October 7, 2024, 5:55 a.m.
Updated: October 7, 2024, 6:43 p.m.

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Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) trips under pressure from Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward (97) at Acrisure Stadium on Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in the North Shore. The Dallas Cowboys won 20-17.  (Benjamin B. Braun/Post-Gazette)
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