Steelers' Playoff Woes Intensify After Crucial Loss

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00:00Let's take a look at what we saw yesterday, and let's just start with what we saw in the

00:04night game.

00:05The bigger game, the more important game, kind of no matter what happened between Baltimore

00:10and Cleveland.

00:11For Cincinnati, they needed a victory to keep their postseason hopes alive.

00:15For Pittsburgh, the difference now, let's just for the moment say the Chargers are going

00:21to win their game today.

00:22The difference for the Steelers was a look-ahead line of pick in Houston versus now being over

00:30a touchdown underdog potentially in Baltimore.

00:35One of the more costly losses of the season, and here's my angle of it, Donny.

00:40Because Cincinnati was talked about so much more going into the game, I think it's going

00:45to be looked over a little bit.

00:46The fact that the Pittsburgh Steelers now have run up against playoff competition and

00:51not looked capable of getting the job done, this is a Cincinnati team that still, all

00:56suggestions are, they're going to miss the playoffs.

00:58The Steelers, at home, went for it, played for it, needed it, didn't get it.

01:03I think that's as big of a deal as anything else we saw in that game.

01:06And not only they didn't get it, they were down 10-0 in the first quarter, which shows

01:09you, come on now, let's rally the troops and the whole Mike Tomlin, we want to get the

01:12stink off this football team to pick up a victory.

01:15You couldn't have had a better spot to play the Cincinnati Bengals.

01:18Freezing cold temperatures, on the road, T. Higgins has a high ankle sprain, and your

01:22top running back, who's been wonderful this year, doesn't even suit up for the game in

01:25Chase Brown.

01:26And then you're going to let them dictate based on their defense over your defense?

01:30That was as embarrassing as it gets, Joe, because I look even at some other requirements

01:34to previous three games.

01:35Hey, upper-level competition, you step up, you didn't play well.

01:38This was your get-right game, in a playoff-mode game, where you were at home, and quite frankly,

01:421917, I'm sorry, the game wasn't even that close.

01:45No, think about the first time that they played, right?

01:47Russell Wilson dominates, he puts up 414 yards, they put up a 40-spot, they win that

01:52ballgame by margin on the road, and from that time, they've been completely inconsistent

01:57from an offensive perspective.

01:59They rushed for 3.2 yards for a carry yesterday, 4 of 12 on third-down conversions, and I talked

02:05about it, Kev.

02:06This was a team that you should have dominated.

02:08You've now lost four straight, you're heading into the playoffs, and you're searching for

02:12answers, not just in terms of your offensive line, but your quarterback now.

02:16Is Russell Wilson the guy?

02:17We talk about that 414-yard performance, I tweeted it out, that was probably the worst

02:23thing that could happen to the Pittsburgh Steelers and all their fans.

02:26Why?

02:27Because Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin technically don't want to play that way.

02:31You look at the last five games since that performance for Russell Wilson, 856 total

02:37passing yards.

02:38He's averaging 171.2 passing yards per game.

02:43I gotta be honest with you, they might have been favorites potentially before the Houston

02:48game.

02:49Now it's an even pick, and I would give the edge to C.J. Stroud over the way they performed

02:52last night.

02:53Well, this is where it gets very interesting in Pittsburgh, because when Russ took over,

03:00they win four games in a row, right?

03:03He comes out playing against the Jets and the Giants and looks pretty good in those

03:08games.

03:09Then he kind of is a part of the Steelers.

03:11They'll find a way, they beat Washington, they beat Baltimore, they lost to Cleveland.

03:17Guess what?

03:18They bounced back.

03:19You mentioned the 400-yard performance.

03:21But now, it has been a disaster.

03:25And we have had conversations around Russ and Fields at times in a joking fashion.

03:30I think Donnie, again, the way Russ hit the ground running, you were proven correct, right?

03:34But we sit here now, I'm not telling you Fields will be better.

03:38I'm not sure he'd be any worse.

03:41Russell Wilson, the selling point, and again, a selling point that you were absolutely spot

03:44on about, what he did for George Pickens.

03:47George Pickens is a loose cannon, you probably lost him with what we saw yesterday.

03:52One catch on six targets for no yards, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not sure that the

04:00Steelers' best option isn't making a move to Justin Fields to get a spark.

04:06Because I think we all know, at the end of the day, this team's strawing dead, kind of

04:10regardless.

04:11Yeah, I don't think it's going to help either way at this point now.

04:13Just watching how it's playing out, there's no explosive plays back there, the running

04:17game wasn't there.

04:18And we're looking at a football game, like, we're talking about Russell Wilson is going

04:22to be a quarterback that needs to be in a dome in perfect conditions, like his arm is

04:24shot.

04:25He didn't look all that great in the pocket yesterday.

04:27He did deliver some balls that got dropped late in the game, but separate that.

04:30Did it look like he had a lot of pop on his passes?

04:32You watch Joe Burrow, it's a completely different ball trajectory that comes out of his hands.

04:35And you're saying to yourself, well, he is a little bit more athletic.

04:38Athletic than what at this point?

04:39Got sacked multiple times last night by Trey Hendrickson.

04:41I just don't see this team peaking at the right time.

04:44It was almost like we were anointing Mike Tomlin as the best coach in the NFL 12 or

04:4713 weeks in.

04:48Then once they got to the real competition and the attrition started to settle in, it's

04:52just not a good football team.

04:53And heading in, quite frankly, I was saying to myself, yes, you want to angle towards

04:57Houston.

04:58I don't think they could beat Houston in a dome environment, and I certainly don't think

05:01they could beat the Baltimore Ravens.

05:02No, I don't think so either.

05:03If you want to play that way, and they had a very conservative approach early on, you

05:07have to run the football much more dominant than what they did yesterday.

05:113.2 yards for Gary, with Warren and Najee Harris on the ground.

05:15You're not going to get it done.

05:16You're certainly not going to get it done against the better teams in the AFC, teams

05:19like Buffalo and teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, right?

05:23You could maybe get one win.

05:24But again, playing a team like Houston in a dome that has speed on the perimeter, that's

05:29going to open it up.

05:30That's going to challenge your defense the way Cincinnati and Joe Burrow did over the

05:33top.

05:34This is tough.

05:35They've plateaued yet again, and they did it with a quarterback change when they were

05:394-2.

05:40I don't know what Mike Tomlin does at Wolfsburg.

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