Takeaways: Steelers Only Have Themselves to Blame for Ugly Loss to Colts
Pittsburgh Steelers Takeaways: There's no one to blame other than themselves for the Steelers ugly loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s not hard to diagnose exactly why the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Indianapolis Colts, 27-24 on Sunday.
But sometimes, it’s good for everyone to hear the starting quarterback say it. So I’ll start with a line from Justin Fields:
“We were shooting ourselves in the foot.”
That honestly kind of undersells what the Steelers did on Sunday. This wasn’t one slip up. This was like Daffy Duck grabbing Elmer Fudd’s rifle, triumphantly declaring that it’s duck season, and getting himself shot in the face over and over again.
Let’s hope the Steelers can turn their bill back around before next week.
The foot-shooting started from the very beginning of the game, as Joey Porter Jr. misjudged a gift-wrapped interception on the first play from scrimmage that would have totally change the complexion of the entire afternoon.
The first offensive snap didn’t go much better. Justin Fields got stepped on by an offensive lineman and nearly fumbled an exchange with Najee Harris that was lucky to only lose two yards.
From there, the hits just kept coming.
• Toward the end of that first offensive drive, both Spencer Anderson and Broderick Jones cleared Colts players off the top of a pile late. The officials first called Jones, then changed it to Anderson. It could have been either of them. That 15-yard penalty cost the Steelers a field goal attempt.
• A miscommunication or missed assignment between Patrick Queen and Joey Porter Jr. allowed a wide open Josh Down on the second Colts touchdown. The Colts only sent three players into routes. The Steelers dropped seven into coverage. Downs was still wide open. That just can’t happen, especially on a third down. It cost the Steelers four points.
1️⃣ zig zags his way for 6️⃣!
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/uazSwGc22o
— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) September 29, 2024
• Head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t challenge a 3rd and 2 where it seemed that Harris made the line of gain. Then they went for it on fourth down and put Fields in a shotgun with an extra offensive lineman in the game. That extra offensive lineman, little used center/guard Ryan McCollum, missed his block and Fields was stopped.
• Tomlin then challenged unsuccessfully on a play that did not appear to be close, costing his team a timeout that could have helped them score a touchdown in the final drive of the half instead of a field goal.
• Porter dropped a Joe Flacco pass that hit him right in the hands in the end zone. The Colts kicked a field goal two plays later.
• George Pickens fumbled trying to stretch the ball forward at the 5-yard line. The Colts recovered, costing the Steelers at least three points, and probably more. It wasn’t a hard hit. It wasn’t a picture-perfect strip. Pickens just didn’t secure the ball.
GEORGE PICKENS FUMBLE. COLTS RECOVER pic.twitter.com/PlRgZQhNGo
— NFL Retweet (@NFLRT) September 29, 2024
• On the first drive of the third quarter, running back Aaron Shampklin, apparently unsure of the call or the assignment, broke formation to converse with Fields with just seconds on the play clock, causing a delay of game penalty that put the Steelers behind the sticks. The Steelers punted three plays later.
• The following Pittsburgh possession, it was 3rd and 10 at the Colts 33 after a nice Calvin Austin III punt return. The Colts blitzed six. The Steelers only had five blockers. Fields held onto the ball anyway, trying to make a play. He gave 20 yards of ground and then fumbled the ball away. Again, three points taken off the board.
• Minkah Fitzpatrick plowed into Adonai Mitchell well after a Flacco pass pounced harmlessly nearby, drawing a 15-yard personal foul penalty that put the Colts into scoring range.
RELATED: Steelers Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick Rips Penalty Call: ‘I Thought We Were Playing Football’
• Later in that drive, rookie cornerback Beanie Bishop was in the wrong coverage, failing to fall off the first man that came through his zone. Again, the Steelers rushed just four and gave up a wide-open touchdown.
• Finally, with the clock ticking under two minutes to play, Fields, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick botched the timing of the silent count. McCormick tapped Frazier, Frazier snapped the ball, but Fields wasn’t looking. Fields took the blame after the game. Either way, it was just another thing that shouldn’t happen sinking the Steelers.
RELATED: Justin Fields and Zach Frazier Reveal What Happened on Botched Snap
The bad news? That should be obvious. That’s a lot of shooting themselves in the foot. The good news? It’s not like they got dominated up and down the field by the Colts. They just need to play better, and most of them are capable of doing so. Every single one of those plays contains a relatively easily correctable mistake.
“We knew the whole game they weren’t stopping us,” Field said. “We were just stopping ourselves. It was kind of crazy that we stopped ourselves on the last drive too. So, like I said, it’s nothing mysterious. It’s nothing. It’s just us at the end of the day, and we have to execute. And I have to be better, we have to be better as a whole. We’ve got to come back next week and bounce back.”
THIRD DOWN DEFENSE
One of the concerning trends was the Steelers inability to get off the field on third down against the Colts. Indianapolis was 8 of 15 (53%) on third downs on Sunday. The Steelers had been one of the best teams in the league on third downs coming in, holding the Los Angeles Chargers to 27%, the Denver Broncos to 17% and the Atlanta Falcons to 22%.
Tomlin attributed the struggles with the difference in preparing for Richardson, but getting Flacco instead.
“When you work all week to defend Richardson and then you get Flacco, it’s a little bit different, and it probably took us a little too long to adapt and adjust in some areas,” he said.
“Yeah, the third down conversions were huge,” Flacco said. “Josh (Downs) ended up being huge late in that game, just on the little option routes we were giving him underneath.”
The Colts did a very nice job of targeting the least experienced members of the Steelers coverage unit, with both Bishop and Payton Wilson targeted multiple times.
NOWHERE TO RUN
When Arthur Smith was first hired as the Steelers offensive coordinator, the first thing that came to mind was his success as the O.C. of the Tennessee Titans, when he used Derrick Henry as a one-man offense some days to wear down the opposition into a pulp.
Those Titans used Henry to set Ryan Tannehill up in advantageous down and distance situations, and he let A.J. Brown do most of the heavy lifting in the passing game. When you looked at the Steelers in comparison, Najee Harris might not be Henry, but he’s not all that far away. Fields is Tannehill with better legs. Pickens could be Brown-like.
But the Steelers have not had that kind of dominant running game so far. Harris ran 13 times for 19 yards on Sunday. That’s not going to open up anything in the play action game. It’s not going to keep the offense on schedule to take the pressure off Fields.
This offense is not going to work without more from its ground game.
MASH UNIT
A major reason for that is their seeming inability to go 50 snaps without suffering a significant injury on their offensive line. James Daniels is the latest, now out for the season after leaving Sunday’s game in the first half.
The Steelers are now playing backups at three spots, first-year NFL regulars at three spots, and have exactly one player that had more 11 NFL starts coming into this season on their offensive line.
Even if Zach Frazier, Broderick Jones, Mason McCormick and Spencer Anderson are all promising young players, that’s not a recipe for success anyone would be embracing. Anderson was playing right guard for the first time since OTAs. There were some struggles. With that much inexperienced, it’s to be expected.
PRESSURES ARE NOT SACKS
In the never-ending war between people that actually understand football and those who only pretend to, there are some folks out there that would tell you that creating pressure is what’s really important, and that sacks are random and too unpredictable to matter.
That is, of course, nonsense. But that point was never more eloquently driven home than in the third quarter, when Flacco eluded Queen just long enough to throw the ball away on first down, had Cam Heyward strapped around his waist when throwing it away on second down, and then easily converted the third and 10 to keep the drive moving.
A pair of sacks would have made that third down unmanageable. The pressures? Not a big deal for Flacco. It’s almost as if they aren’t worth anywhere near as much.
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