It’s the little things. The Steelers forced two perfectly-timed turnovers, which resulted in a missed FG and a rare Heath Miller fumble. The Miller fumble leads to 7 points when the initial completion and subsequent run had the Steelers looking at a short FG attempt to tie at the very least.
Saints win 20-10.
Maybe it’ll take a loss to get rid of the complacency. Ben came back to 2 straight wins and the team was playing well enough that the “experts” were back on the bandwagon and the vibe around the team was positive. Hope the team gets a kick in the pants before a big divisional game next week.
Ben: Don’t really care about that last INT. 17 for 28 for 195 yards. And all of that considering that Bruce Arians was content on running Mendy into the line and continuing with mind-boggling screens. But more on him a little later. Ben made his share of mistakes in this one. He took a couple sacks at bad times, and there was the aforementioned INT when the Steelers needed 2 scores with under 2 minutes left. Tough game, but it better lead to the necessary changes before Cincy. 2.5 of 5 helmets.
Arians: Man, I’ve scattered some small criticisms of Bruce Arians in my MMCNYs this season but haven’t devoted an entire rating for him cos repeating the same critiques is exhausting and annoying. We’ve been doing it for how many years now? But wow his game yesterday was terrible. I’m glad you’re committed to Mendy, but running him into the middle of the line over and over again is just stupid. And the turnover on downs was a little rough. Turning the ball over is one thing, but having Manny Sanders’ route put him remotely in position to bat away a ball intended for Hines is just poor planning. WRs gotta deal with the DBs getting in their way, they shouldn’t have to deal with their own guys, too. 1 of 5 motorcycle helmets. Poor. Hate on me if you want cos I’m taking the easy route and bashing Arians. I don’t care. Shut up.
Defense: Kinda feels like I’m talking about the Pens and how Fleury gets blamed for every loss with this Saints game. They let in 20 points, but weren’t really the reason we lost this game. The offense hung them out to dry all game. This D matched a Saints goalline stand, but had to also deal with short fields on a turnover on downs and another on a missed long field goal (IN A DOME!!!!!). Like I said at the beginning, they came up huge with 2 well-timed turnovers and the team did squat with the opportunities. 3.5 of 5 helmets. Still some big lapses in the pass defense.
Cheap Trick: Sucks. Playing Dream Police directly led to the early FG and the Mendenhall TD drives. But the game was a loss. It’ll take an actual losing streak before I ditch it as a motivational tool. 3 of 5 motorcycle helmets.
I’m done. Don’t wanna talk about this anymore. Steelers travel to play the Bengals next week. 2-game losing streak is not an option, and even though they suck this season so far, the Bengals tend to give us problems. Let’s end their season in their building.
(thanks to Doug for the banner pic)
