theRepublic said:
Not sure why you are so defensive of the Steelers offense. Especially since it is responsible for at least 2 of those losses, and arguably the 3rd as well. Let's start with the Chiefs game yesterday. The Steelers had 39 net yards at the end of the first half. Net 40 if you want to take out the kneel down to end the half. You are not going to win any game playing offense like that. After the Chiefs scored a TD on the opening drive for the 3rd quarter, and then forced a fumble and scored another TD, the game was over. The Chiefs played prevent defense the rest of the way. While the game was "close", the Steelers possessions ended: Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, Punt, End of Half, Fumble. Net 38 yards on those 9 drives. The defense getting lit up by the Chiefs is nothing to be ashamed about. Happens to a lot of teams. Let's go to the Browns game. All you need to know is Browns, zero turnovers, Steelers, 5 turnovers. Steelers possessions started: Fumble, Interception, Punt, Interception, Punt, Interception. 28-0 start for the Browns. Game was basically over at that point. Win probability for the Browns never dropped below 85% after that point. The second half garbage time points made it look closer than it actually was (TD with 1:09 left). Offense lost this game too. Finally the Jaguars game. Another game they lost the turnover battle, this time 2 to zero. Problem was the first interception set up a short field (18 yard line) for the Jaguars to easily go up 14-0 in the 1st quarter. Then a Ben fumble was returned for a defensive TD to make it 28-7. They gifted 14 points to the Jaguars in a game they lost by 3. Although again, the final score looks a lot closer than the game actually was. The Steelers scored two TDs right at the end of the game. One with 2:01 left, and one with 0:01 left. The defense only gave up 378 yards in this one. And the Jaguars were actually the 5th highest scoring team in the league in 2017, and 6th in yards. Not that bad a job considering the competition. The turnovers on offense is what really did it. If you look at the advanced statistics for the Steelers this year, the offense was bad. Football Outsiders DVOA have them as the 25th best offense in the NFL. ESPN FPI has them as the 27th best offense. |
I don't deny the Steelers offensive has been bad this year. I've never shied away from saying the offensive line is atrocious, or that the receivers have a major issue with dropping passes. Diontae Johnson personally ended 2 Steeler first half drives with dropped passes of well thrown balls on 3rd downs. And yeah, Ben regressed as the years wore on, as aging QB's do (see Peyton Manning and Drew Brees) especially after the year he lost a season with the elbow injury. But, you're right to call out the turnovers in the other 2 playoff games I mentioned, although Ben was turnover free in the KC game this weekend (Najee Harris had his first fumble of the year deep in Steeler territory to set up another Chiefs score). I was on a rant and didn't need to throw in mention of those other games, but the scores stuck out in my head at the time. The Steelers were a consistently Top 10 offense the last 3 years that Todd Haley ran it. Yet, he was the only one to get thrown under the bus after the Jacksonville loss. So, I'll always be salty that they didn't win a Super Bowl when they had the offensive trifecta of Big Ben, Antonio Brown, and Le'Veon Bell playing together in their prime.
Anyway, the Steelers were 1 out of 4 playoff teams to get trounced this weekend. And of the 4, they were the only one to have held a lead at any point in the game.
