Blame Ben Roethlisberger, Steelers Grades, Playoff Standings
By Kim Myers
The Pittsburgh Steelers will enter the final quarter of the 2014 NFL season with each game dubbed a ‘must win’ to keep pace in the AFC North. This week the team will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals in the first of their 2-game series against their divisional foes. While they’re putting their last game behind them and moving on to the Bengals we’ll be busy looking for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Tuesday, Dec. 2nd.
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Blame goes to Ben
Crusty old news hound Ron Cook of the PPG penned a column aimed directly at Ben Roethlisberger to point the blame for Sunday’s loss against the Saints. Ben said himself prior to Sunday’s matchup that it was a “must win” game for the team considering the tight divisional race and even tighter Wild Card standings and he simply failed to rise to the occasion. Roethlisberger’s passes were off the mark from the very beginning. He ended with 435 passing yards on the day but 166 of those yards came in the final two drives when the game was already out of reach for the Steelers. Going back to his historic performances in his previous two home games, Ben has actually been off the mark ever since. In the Tennessee game it was overlooked because of the win, but in reality Ben’s been off since he was on fire against Indy and Baltimore. Here’s hoping he gets that figured out quickly.
Steelers Grades
ESPN’s Scott Brown graded the Steelers in their loss to the New Orleans Saints. Obviously, the grades were not pretty. Ben Roethlisberger graded a D in the quarterback position for throwing a pair of interceptions and a handful of almost-interceptions. The running backs graded a B+ and would have been higher if not for the play where Dri Archer was inexplicably put in the game on a short-yardage situation and got stuffed for no gain. Le’Veon Bell, on the other hand rushed for 95 yards and 4.5 per carry. The defense all graded badly from the defensive line to the defensive backs. There was no consistent pass rush on Drew Brees which allowed the secondary to be carved up like an autopsy.
Where do the Steelers stand?
The Steelers got some help yesterday in their loss by the Ravens and Browns, who also lost their games putting all three of them 1.5 games behind division leading Cincinnati for the time being. Teresa Varley explains that if the playoffs were to start today, the Steelers would be on the outs, as they currently sit at the No. 9 seed. The fact that they still have both games against the Bengals could end up in their favor, should they be able to take care of business and sweep the Bengals for the first time since 2011. Varley also has all of the tiebreaking scenarios spelled out, if you want to give yourself a headache trying to figure it all out at this point.