The Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Cleveland Browns last Sunday was unique in one important way: It was the only consistently competitive game of the year.
There was only about a minute of action where it was more than a one-possession game, from the moment the Browns kicked a field goal late in the first half until the moment which the Steelers opened the second with a 74. – backyard touchdown run by RB Jaylen Warren.
In fact, they scored 10 unanswered points in the second half, even making it 10-10 midway through the fourth quarter. But both sides of the ball failed.
If it was the defense that gave up the winning push in the final moments, it was the offense immediately before that sequence that did absolutely nothing: three passes, three incompletions and 15 seconds.
Coach Mike Tomlin explained his reasoning for the strategy on the final drive that quite confused Ben Roethlisberger, throwing three consecutive downs, including a long on second down.“Position on the field.
We play to win and not to lose,” he said yesterday on the Mike Tomlin Show. “We had the ball with one minute and forty seconds left. We will aggressively pursue the victory.
This is how we live.”“When these types of games don’t play out the way you want, there are often many ways to analyze them and second-guess yourself,” she added. “There is a spirit with which we play and we are committed to doing so.
We play and we play to win, so the aggressive component, that’s us.”QB Kenny Pickett’s first pass on the drive, all three aimed at WR Diontae Johnson, was likely dropped, although it wasn’t a particularly well-placed ball on a shallow route.
There was an apparent miscommunication on second down after Pickett’s deep ball on what he expected to be a successful route.Johnson was seen shaking his head as he leaned into the pack for 3rd and 10th place.
And then Pickett overthrew it on a corner route on the possession play where the receiver had gotten in front of the coverage. It wasn’t an easy shot, but there was a possible play that wasn’t.When you go into the game for play, you can’t criticize pre-snap decisions.
Execution was poor on one or both sides of each throw. These are execution errors, not design errors, especially in a tied game where you have to score and only have one timeout.
The Browns game came back with four straight completions by rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who quickly moved from the Browns’ 35 to the Steelers’ 26, and that’s all she wrote.
Cleveland was executed while Pittsburgh was not. Quite simple thing. If the parts mentioned were done correctly, we wouldn’t be talking about them.
