Pittsburgh Steelers Get Blown Out By Patriots: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
The Ugly
Where to start?……
Officiating: Strangely, this is my second week in a row of having to take the officiating to task. As I’ve stated before, I don’t really care to criticize officiating because it shouldn’t decide games. And, in the case of this game, it didn’t. But, I still can’t let some of this crap pass. The PI calls were awful – the inconsistencies were blowing my mind. Antonio Brown gets called for offensive pass interference on a ticky tack call, the the PI calls at the end of the 1st have drive were completely ridiculous in comparison. The PI calls on Gay were mainly ridiculous too – as I quipped on Twitter that Gay was having more yellow thrown at him than in an R. Kelly video. The Pats would whine for a flag and get it, just about every time. Is there a ProFootballFocus stat for that? Troy Polamalu won’t really have to worry about a fine this week for the helmet to helmet that was called on him during the game. Replay clearly shows that Polamalu hit the receiver in the shoulder and nevrer connected on the helmet despite what talking point clown Mike Pereira says. The chop block was the icing on the cake for me. Rookie running back Le’Veon Bell was called for a chop block that put the Steelers behind the 8 ball and killed a key drive for the offense. Looking back at the replay, Bell went low on an incoming defender. However, Bell was the first man to make contact with the defender. It looked like Foster touched the defender but only after Bell made contact low. A chop block is when a defender is already engaged in an upright position with a blocker and is then chopped low by another blocker. That’s not what happened, and it was clear that the official threw a flag from what he thought he saw and not what he actually saw. Bush league.
Nov 3, 2013; Foxborough, MA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers free safety Ryan Clark (25) tackles New England Patriots running back Brandon Bolden (38) during the first half at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports
Ugly ugly defense: The secondary had their worst game in years. They were torched by Tom Brady who threw for 432 yards and four touchdowns. Everyone back there was awful – Taylor, Gay, Polamalu, Clark. I have no idea what happened that caused such a complete breakdown. Maybe Ryan Clark can tell us later this week what he thinks happened when he appears on ESPN this week. The coverages were poor, there was no physciality at the line, and Troy and Clark looked like rookies out there by being looked off by Brady and finding themselves completely out of position. Tackles were missed and Clark had his signature bad angles.
The Steelers have a habit of making struggling teams look good and allow them to get out of their funk. This is a Patriots team that lost to the Jets. Brady’s QB rating was under 80 going into Sunday’s contest. His rating against the Steelers? 151.8. The Steelers gave up the most yards ever as a franchise (610). The Pats got 33 first downs. 33. Ugh this was ugly and nasty in every way.
The icing on the cake? With 3:19 left in the game and the Pats on the Steelers 5 yard line, Brady handed the ball off to Blount for a run up the middle. The run was designed to just get a yard or two and keep the clock going. Blount hit the line, and Ziggy Hood got his arms around him. Instead of bringing him down, however, Blount dragged Hood all the way to the goal line and fell into the end zone for a touch down. That right there is what this season has come down to.
Final Thought:
Clearly, the Steelers have problems up and down the organization. At first the offense seemed to be the glaring problem with the lack of execution, poor red zone efforts, and ranking low in just about every category. Now after humiliating losses to the Raiders and Patriots in back to back weeks, Steeler Nation (as well as the rest of the Nation on Sunday) have been witness something we haven’t seen around these parts in… well…. just about ever – a down right spanking on these defense. The season is all but done. There’s so much work that needs to be done. What once was a one or two year rebuilding project is more like a four to five year project in realistic terms. Tighten those bootstraps folks, it’s going to be a long haul for some time.