Yikes. Where do we go from here? Chiefs Recap + Happy New Year
To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. I’d like to start this off by saying I’m not writing this year off just yet. I think there’s hope that this team can end the year on a high note and maybe win a playoff game or two (if we drew Baltimore in the divisional round, for example, I think we could win that game, contrary to popular belief). With that being said, there’s some clear issues on this team, and we’re at the point in the season where your team just kinda is what it is, so I’d like to go over those issues and what my thoughts are on how the Steelers should address them both this season and moving forward. But, first, let’s recap the Chiefs.
I was tremendously confident heading into the Steelers’ Christmas Day matchup against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously, what took place in-game for the Steelers was not indicative of a team that is in the same ballpark from a talent AND a coaching perspective as the Chiefs. Just outclassed in basically every way for the third time in 11 days, this time to the tune of 29-10. It has been a rough 20-or-so years for Steelers fans having to watch a team like the Tom-Brady-led Patriots just eviscerate us every time we met, and it looks like we’re in the midst of another run with another dynastic team led by Patrick Mahomes that we just don’t stand a chance against.
The big story after this game was the defense as yet another top-tier offense just had their way against us. Against the Eagles, they sold their soul to defend Saquon Barkley, but our corners couldn’t hold up against the Eagles’ receivers. Against the Ravens, Derrick Henry looked unstoppable. This time, against the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes just dink-and-dunked up and down the field, slowly and methodically paper cutting the Steelers defense to death with ease. It was painful as fuck to watch, and Steelers’ defensive coordinator Teryl Austin (and, of course, Mike Tomlin) was (were) outcoached by Andy Reid.
I said in my pregame thoughts that the Steelers defense was going to have to take away the middle of the field, primarily the Chiefs tight ends, and I don’t know how many times Travis Kelce was just left wide open near the middle of the field. I said Mahomes paper cut us to death, and that’s true, but there were several busted coverages along the way that made the loss look extra ugly.
This play from the third quarter is being widely speculated upon by Steelers fans on social media, and rightfully so. As you can see, Patrick Queen and Cam Sutton both blitz and nobody covers one of the best tight ends of all time, Travis Kelce. The aforementioned speculation is that Cam Sutton wasn’t supposed to blitz on this play, and while it is just SPECULATION, and none of us actually know at this point, I agree with that sentiment. Watch Patrick Queen on this play. He clearly bails out of his pass rush early to see what the fuck has happened behind him. Once he sees that Kelce has the ball, he kinda starts to pursue, but he’s also kinda putting his hands up wondering why that just happened. After Travis Kelce is downed he immediately turns around and looks at Sutton, and he’s not the only one. Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliot both look equally as disgusted as Queen does. That appears to be on Sutton, and that’s the kind of thing that didn’t happen when UDFA rookie Beanie Bishop Jr. was out there at Nickel. If you go through my posts, you’ll see that I have been extremely critical of Bishop all season long, because he’s small and he seems to be lacking a bit from a coverage perspective. With that being said, he at least knew his role on each play, and you didn’t have things like this happening. Sutton also got called for roughing the passer earlier in the game, and struggled in coverage all day long. Combine that with the locker room calling somebody out (presumably him) after the game, his off the field issues, his steady decline in production, and I think it’s safe to assume that he’s not going to be the starting NB anymore. I think it’s irresponsible to have him out there playing any significant role, and it’s safe to move on from him after this season. If your goal as a front office is to run it back with this core next season, you cannot do that with this secondary as presently constructed. Cam Sutton figures to be, and should be, a casualty of that.
Later on, in the 4th quarter, Patrick Mahomes hits Travis Kelce, who is once again wide the hell open, and he scampers for another 20 yards. As you can see, Chiefs’ Noah Gray (#83) goes in motion and DeShon Elliot, Elandon Roberts, Patrick Queen, and Cam Sutton are all communicating, presumably making sure everyone is clear on their assignment. At the snap, Elliot blitz’, Sutton takes Gray, and PQ and Roberts both take Kareem Hunt, leaving Travis Kelce with the ball and enough room to build a house. Again, without knowing the play call and being in a helmet, all I can do is speculate. Obviously, they’re in man coverage. After Gray goes in motion, Elliot turned into a pass rusher, so someone on the other side was probably going from a pass rusher to man coverage. It looks like that guy was probably Sutton based on the way he lined up and his pre-snap movement. At the snap, Sutton covers Noah Gray, which looks right, but again I don’t know. So, between Patrick Queen and Elandon Roberts, somebody needs to take Kelce, and somebody needs to take Hunt. They both took Hunt. Between Roberts-Queen-Sutton, somebody didn’t know what was going on in that play. I don’t know which one, but Queen looks frustratingly in the direction of Sutton, once again, after the play.
The busted coverages were bad, and they made a bad loss worse, for sure, but at the end of the day, the Chiefs offense just executed a fantastic game plan against our defense. The Steelers would line up in man coverage and get beat, so then they would line up in zone and Mahomes would just teleport balls into the holes of the zones. Obviously, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin can’t play man defense for us, so I can only place so much of the blame on him, but he had no answer for stopping this offense. Mahomes had a 76% completion percentage on 38 passes. Disgusting. The one bright spot in what was otherwise an excruciating game to watch from a fan’s perspective, was Cory Trice Jr. who showed that he can hold up when he gets an opportunity off a full week of practice. In the play above, Noah Gray (#83) motions in, so the Steelers defense adjusts, putting Trice one-on-one with DeAndre Hopkins, who runs a simple slant route. Trice was super sticky in coverage on this play against one of the better receivers of the previous generation. On the very next play, which was third down, he took on Hopkins one-on-one again, and took him out of the play completely. He also had a really nice open field tackle of Travis Kelce in the second quarter that I’ve seen being circulated on social media. Please understand that when I’m being critical of Steelers’ corners, very seldom is Cory Trice Jr. one of them. I couldn’t wait to come on here and sing his praises, and then Mike Tomlin opened the week by telling us that Trice would be limited to start the practice week. It sounds like he should be ready to play this weekend, but his health is too often what holds him back from securing a significant role in our secondary. I really hope he’s able to finish the year on a strong note, and come into training camp next year healthy and ready to put together a real NFL resume.
From an offensive perspective, I fear the Steelers offense is just meh. Some things looked good on paper. Over 200 yards rushing, and a 6.5 yards per carry average is a team is pretty nice. Pat Freiermuth had 8 targets and 7 catches for 60 yards. Nice. George Pickens 7 targets, 50 yards. Ok. Nine different receivers were targeted, and seven had at least one catch. Sounds lovely. We only scored 10 points. That won’t cut it. Like the defense, though, there are a ton of positives moving forward in my opinion. You’ve got no choice, as a team, but to make a move at the RB position, because we didn’t exercise Najee Harris’ 5th-year option. Now’s the time to draw a line in the sand and decide whether you move forward with him or not. Either way, I love Jaylen Warren, and this offensive line, while inconsistent, has shown glimpses of a very bright future, especially when we’re able to bring our first-round pick at tackle, Troy Fautanu, into the fold next year.
I think the 2025 year is going to be a big one for Calvin Austin III. He has certainly stolen the hearts of yinzers far and wide this year, and is making a name for himself as one of the better vertical threats in the league. Despite the fact that he is undersized, he is capable of going up and making himself seem bigger than he is to make catches. Not to mention, he’s a speedster and an extremely capable route runner. I have no problem with him being our number 2 receiver next season as long as there’s more receiver talent at WR3, WR4, and WR5 than we had this year (although I do love me some Ben Skowronek). He and Pickens give me A.J. Brown/DeVonta vibes. Of course, that’s assuming Pickens even wants to be here moving forward, which is a conversation for another day.
As for the QB spot…I don’t know what’s going to happen moving forward. Against the Chiefs, Russ had the turnover, which was a killer. He has been careless with the football during this losing streak, but I still think he’s our best option at QB this season. I don’t watch much college football, but I know that scouts aren’t very high on very many QBs coming out of this college football season. So, the Steelers will likely offer Russell Wilson a one-year deal of some sort, and if he takes it, great. If not, you go forward with Fields. I don’t love or hate either scenario, although if you’re moving forward with Russ, you’re going to have to nail your offseason acquisitions and draft picks, or else you’re just keeping yourself in this slightly-above-average-but-not-good-enough category that we’ve been in for the last decade, seemingly.
So, realistically, where do the Pittsburgh Steelers stand right now?
Well, here’s the thing: the Steelers had everything to play for on Christmas Day…ya know? I gave them a pass for @ PHI and @ BAL, because they were missing some key players, and they kept themselves in those games until the 4th quarter(s). At home, against one of the best teams in the league, about as healthy as you could’ve hoped at this point in the year, in a must-win to remain in first place in the division…and the Steelers looked outclassed in every way, and the Chiefs’ second best player on the team, Chris Jones, wasn’t even playing. Granted, the Steelers were on a short week, but so were the Chiefs. I understand this is a drastic take, given the fact I was thinking they were Super Bowl contenders just two short weeks ago, but this three game stretch has shown us what it looks like when we’re put up against actual contenders, rather than teams that are still a year or so away like the Falcons, Commanders, and Chargers. The unfortunate truth is that we are not in that contender category. That hurts today, but it has been nice to see this team being competitive throughout most of this year despite the fact that they’re really, kinda in a rebuild, if you really think about it. But, we’re still a few pieces away, and we have a lot of uncertainty still surrounding the QB position, at least in the year 2025. I’ll let you be the judge of how confident we should be going forward. I, for one, have a lot of optimism.
As for the rest of this year, we’re pretty much playing for our lives every time we touch the grass. We’ll see how the AFC conference standings shake out, but it looks like we’re most likely going to be going to Houston for the Wild Card Round. They’re on a steady decline as well, so I suppose that game is winnable. We’ll see how the cards are stacked, but needless to say, these last two weeks have sucked.
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