Despite a raucous pro-Steelers crowd, the Steelers continued the disturbing trend of losing to sub 500 teams, as they completely showed up flat against the New York Jets. The Jets scored 17 points in the first quarter and held on to win 20-13, despite, being dominated in every offensive category.
The offense floundered all day and despite playing against the worst secondary in football, the Steelers didn’t take many shots down the field. The Jets did a great job pressuring Ben Roethlisberger and he looked off and out of synch all day with receivers. He threw a momentum crushing interception into triple coverage. While at some point we expected him to come back to earth, I don’t think anyone expected it do be that bad, against a team that is signing guys off the street.
The offensive line struggled early in protection but got it together in pass protection. The down side was they couldn’t seem to create running room all day, and the Haley offense seemed to just give up on the run. Le’Veon Bell found very little room to run, the lone bright spot being he is now the single season receptions leader, eclipsing John L. Williams.
The defense had trouble with contain and Michael Vick escaped pressure several times, he was the wild card in the game and the Steelers really didn’t have the answer. But after a horrendous first quarter, they knuckled up and held the Jets in check for the most part.
The high point, Shaun Suisham hit the longest field goal of his career, the low point was every other thing on special teams. Suisham missed a chip shot field goal, Antonio Brown muffed a punt.
It was just a terrible game for the Steelers all day, they made several key mistakes on offense, with four turnovers, they had lapses on defense, and missed a chip shot field goal.
The best thing is to turn the page and reverse the trend against the Titans next week.
BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!
My “GAME BEER” goes to: Honestly, I have no idea who would even qualify, the game was that strange. Everybody sort of sleep walked through the game.
Where I watched the game: At Met Life Stadium, with a pro Steelers crowd, who were extremely disappointed. I went with KGB, my buddy Bill and his buddy Mike, also our friends Christine(Jets) and Mike. They made jello shots, and we had a great tailgate! Very disappointed, also Bill and I are 0-2 when going together!
My Stat of the week: 2-16, yup I stole this stat from last year. That was the combined record of the Bucs and Jets. I literally could see this coming a mile away and I am disgusted that we lost. If the Steelers won just one of these two extremely winnable games, they would be in first place right now. Under Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have lost NINE times to teams that have finished 6-10 or worse. I am a huge Tomlin supporter but that is a disturbing fact.
My thoughts on Next Week: I expect a bounce back week and for the Steelers to absolutely jump the Titans off the bus. They will be in primetime and will be out for blood.