In what may well have been the shortest-lived quarterback controversy in Steelers history, Mason Rudolph proved why he has been a career backup. Mason ain’t the guy and based on the gameplan the Steelers knew he wasn’t the guy. With a 31-28 loss at Chicago the Steelers have been asked to leave the Playoff Picture, in 2007 I was asked by my girlfriend’s brother to exit the Old Timey photo her family took during our trip to the Outer Banks. Both experiences were uncomfortable.
Watching the same thing again is boring, this team is remarkably boring. The 2025 Pittsburgh Steelers are the 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers are the 2023 Pittsburgh Steelers are the 2022 Pittsburgh Steelers and on and on and on. Week to week they are consistently inconsistent, sometimes the defense shows up and sometimes the offense shows up, they rarely show up together. Both the offense and defense played poorly, even the punter decided Sunday would be a good day to have his worst day of the season.
Some may think this season has been a missed opportunity, but did they really have an opportunity? Tomlin, Khan and Art Jr haven’t given this team an opportunity to win in the last decade. Sunday’s game was a perfect illustration of all the things they are missing, old/bad quarterbacks, no legitimate WR1, a soft defense and a coach that is so scared to lose he never tries to win. It’s amazing that Mike Tomlin is the person that coined the phrase “we do not live in our fears.” Nobody lives more in their fears. Fear is written all over the offensive playbook and the punt with 2 minutes left in a 3 point game. The punt also gives some insight into how confident he was in getting 9 yards….cant blame him for feeling that way. We can blame him for getting this team into that position during the game and more broadly this position during the season.
The Good (not that much)
They were on time for the game and didn’t have any trouble coming out of the tunnel like the last time they went to Chicago (insert Allejandro Villanueva video)
TJ Watt got a strip sack and then we got to see every person that has ever been in his family. We are aware that JJ Watt and TJ Watt played NFL football.
Kenneth Gainwell is one of the best offseason additions they have ever made
The Bad (much more stuff went bad)
The Coaching – Not using the middle of the field since 1980, the illegal formation penalty on Calvin Austin which negated a huge first down right outside of the two minute warning, calling a weird pass play on the 3rd down before the punt, living in his fears by punting, zero urgency at the end of the game and more terrible play calling. That was not a sentence but I just needed to get that all out.
The Defense was really mediocre, they needed to step up and make some more big plays. They got an early TD but couldn’t get off the field on third or fourth down allowing the Bears to 8/14 in those situations.
I am not sure the outcome would have been any better with Rodgers in the game, but Mason Rudolph was bad. He was clearly limited in the playbook but they don’t have much more imagination with Rodgers so who knows? DK Metcalf has been a major disappointment, it’s difficult to tell if it’s a DK Thing, a QB thing or a gameplan/playbook thing. Either way there is nobody on this offense that could worry any defensive coach.
The play selection on the last sequence was baffling, they threw the ball twice for a total of 3.5 yards into the middle of the field. They aren’t willing to use the middle of the field where there are less players, but they are willing to throw the ball right into the teeth of the defense if the result is 2 yards. It does not make any sense.
Looking ahead, they are going to be having a bad time. The Steelers have Buffalo on Sunday at 4:25pm, it will be nice to have a national audience see Josh Allen destroy this defense. After that it doesn’t get any easier, Baltimore twice, Detroit, Buffalo and Cleveland. Cleveland has a very good defense….
This team is mediocre, just like their coach.
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