CHICAGO — This was the game, right?
If you looked at the Steelers schedule before the season, searching for the annual road implosion against a bad team, this one leapt off the page like an eager school kid and screamed, “Pick me!”
Yessir, this was the game that would provide an early indication of whether the Steelers had finally grown up. Whether they had matured to the point where they could take care of business and secure the kinds of road wins that would help them play at Heinz Field through January.
Or, it might signal that they still hadn’t figured it out against the Mike Glennons of the world and will probably wind up in Foxborough, Mass., or Denver or some such place and wonder how it all went wrong.
I’ll take ‘B’ for now.
What a disaster. What en embarrassing afternoon. What a weak effort against a wounded Bears team that had lost 19 of its previous 23 games and has precious little ability to advance the ball via the forward pass.
The Bears stink. But the Steelers were 10 times worse in a 23-17 loss that ranks down there with the Philly massacre last season, the Ryan Mallett meltdown of 2015, the Cleveland, Tampa Bay and Jets losses of 2014, the Bruce Gradkowski game, the Brady Quinn game, the Terrelle Pryor game and any other ridiculous loss you can think of.
Mike Tomlin’s record in his past 18 games against road teams with losing records?
Try 5-13.
I’m not sure what these guys practiced during the week, other than celebrations — did you see Bud Dupree and L.T. Walton’s choreographed routine after sacking Glennon? — but it sure wasn’t stopping the stretch play.
Meanwhile, Glennon improved to a robust 6-15 in his career with a third of the wins coming against the Steelers. Not that he was the story (although he did throw a touchdown pass to tight end Adam Sheehan when the Steelers went to their “Gronkowski Coverage” of two years ago, the one where you don’t cover the tight end). Rather, it was a Bears running game that came in ranked 24th that eviscerated an overpursuing, poor-tackling Steelers defense.
Chicago rushed for 220 yards and 5.8 yards per carry — all of it with little variance in plays. They fittingly finished the torture session with Jordan Howard’s 19-yard run in overtime, one on which Ryan Shazier and Mike Mitchell and probably everybody else took a poor angle. Or tried to play hero ball. Or simply got overpowered.
“We kind of knew what they wanted to do,” Shazier said. “Those running backs are who they lean on. We just couldn’t stop them.”
That’s troublesome.
Did I mention that the defense was the best of the Steelers’ three units?
The special teams were comically bad. The $100 million offense stunk for the third consecutive week, and it started from the very first play, when Ben Roethlisberger lofted what appeared to be a catchable bomb to Martavis Bryant.
The ball bounced off Bryant’s fingertips. Maybe it was an overthrow. Maybe a drop. Either way a missed opportunity.
That led to a three-and-out. Then a fumbled punt (Eli Rogers), then a Roethlisberger fumble, then a penalty for “two men moving and [not getting] set at the snap.” Later it was drops and holding calls and missed throws and just a mess.
Le’Veon Bell still isn’t out of the blocks — is this what Tomlin meant when he said there would be “consequences” to his training camp absence? — after gaining 61 quiet yards on 15 carries.
Speaking of the offense as a whole, guard David DeCastro called the frequent underachieving “a waste of talent.”
“You can say potential all you want, but until you start doing it, it doesn’t matter,” DeCastro said. “It’s tough to waste all the talent we have. We just shoot ourselves in the foot a lot.”
Earlier in the week, Tomlin refused to acknowledge that the Steelers’ offense has a road issue. He really should, because the numbers are impossible to ignore. Since 2014, Roethlisberger is 17-4 at home and 14-10 on the road, with 61 touchdowns and 16 picks at home vs. 26 TDs and 23 interceptions on the road.
He took the blame for this one. And while that might be overdoing it, he wasn't very good.
“I think I was off today,” he said. “For whatever reason, I did not make all the throws I normally would and make the plays I normally should and that’s why I think we lost the game.”
Too often, the Steelers have been historically explosive at home and hopelessly anemic on the road. What gives?
“I wish I could tell you, man,” DeCastro said. “The food, the water, the hotel air. I don’t know.”
Sure, the Steelers had injuries up front. Ramon Foster had to leave the game. Marcus Gilbert didn’t play. But the Bears have injuries all over the place.
Oh well, they’ll have a chance to make it better next week when they visit the Ravens, but look out: If Joe Flacco isn’t right, Mallett might get in the game.
You don’t want that.
First Published: September 25, 2017, 12:50 a.m.
