The harsh reality for the Steelers is that this season is starting to look and feel a lot like last year, only they weren’t the league’s last unbeaten team this November when things began to unravel again.
Much was made of Ben Roethlisberger going five weeks without a pick, but the offense remains marginal at best – a pop-gun short passing game reliant on YAC to move the ball downfield – and the offensive line and running game are not nearly good enough to offset the limitations and deficiencies of a nearly 40-year old quarterback who was already at the end this time a year ago.
The Steelers finish November going 1-2-1 in their last four games, beating the Bears with a serious assist from an officiating crew, tying the winless Lions at home, and giving up 82 points in consecutive defeats to the Chargers and Bengals.
They managed to lose to quarterback Ryan Finley and the struggling Bengals on Christmas week last year, then lost consecutive games to the Browns — first 24-22 and then 48-37 in the wild-card round — and lost Week 3 at home to the Bengals, 24-10, before edging out the Browns, 15-10, at the end of October.
Watt is still working back from injury, the defensive line ain’t what it once was, and the offensive line couldn’t get fixed in just one offseason.
Been tracking this for a while, and it continues to astonish: The Jaguars’ lack of a passing game in the first half of games is truly staggering.
Trevor Lawrence, the first pick of the entire draft and a slam-dunk selection at that, has been unable to do much of anything at all until the Jags are chasing games.
Lawrence went 12-for-19 for 100 yards and an interception in the first half against a very bad Atlanta defense, and that was probably his best first half since mid-October.
Despite Hurts making some bad decisions, he drove the team on what could have been a game-winning drive, only to be undermined by repeated drops on very catchable passes.