Pittsburgh Steelers: Five takeaways from week two

By: Donny Chedrick 

Not an ideal start. 

The Steelers are 0-2 and that isn’t even the worst thing that happened this weekend at home against Seattle. Not only did the Seahawks prevail 28-26 with a huge game-ending drive— that required no points, but saw multiple big plays from Russell Wilson, the Steelers lost their Hall of Fame leader. Ben Roethlisberger is now out for the season needing surgery on his throwing elbow.

There is a lot from this weekend to recover from, but we’ll break down five things as the Steelers move to Week 3 in San Francisco.

1.     Ben goes down

Going into the season, nobody on this team wanted to prove more than Ben Roethlisberger. Even with a as a no doubt first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback, Big Ben was going into the year without Antonio Brown for the first time in about a decade. Arguably the best QB-WR tandem in the league for the last five or so years broke up in an ugly way. Ben didn’t have a good start to the year, but nobody did. He completed eight passes Sunday at Heinz Field for 75 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions. There were two throws when Ben immediately grasped his right elbow after the release. The second one took him out of the game and for the season as things quickly went from bad to worse.

2.     Rudolph’s turn to lead the sleigh

For just over a year, Mason Rudolph didn’t really get the chance to play in any reindeer games. Now his number is being called and the Steelers hope his bright, red nose can lead them down the cloudy road of uncertainty. The second-year QB was thrown into the fire Sunday and looked better than many may have expected. Rudolph was 12-19 for 112 yards, two scores and one interception – thanks in large part to another Donte Moncrief drop. Quite frankly, the Oklahoma State product stepped in and kept the Steelers in the game. He has some tough tests coming up as he will be expected to lead this team the rest of the way.

3.     Vanimal in action

In New England, Vance McDonald was virtually invisible, besides to late-game snags amounting to a few yards. In the home opener at Heinz Field, McDonald found the endzone twice on passes from young Rudolph. McDonald’s final line was 38 yards on seven receptions and a pair of scores. Both touchdowns came in the red zone as the “Vanimal” proves to still be a great target inside the 20-yard line. Sometimes a young QB relies on a TE as a safety blanket of sorts. We could see that here and we could see McDonald’s numbers go up without Ben under center.

4.     Still no running game

It was a concern after last week’s dreadful loss in New England, but even in a close game, the run game wasn’t there on Sunday at Heinz Field. James Conner led the charge, but left early due to an injury, finishing with just 33 yards on 11 attempts. Rookie Benny Snell Jr. added 23 yards, all of it coming on one carry and Jaylen Samuels held the rock just three times for 18 yards. This is something the Steelers need to fix quickly moving forward, especially having a young, inexperienced quarterback. Conner is questionable for Sunday, so if the Steelers go with a “by committee” strategy, two or three guys that carry the ball should expect to carry the load.

5.     The defense showed improvement, but got beat when it mattered

Luckily, the defense also made strides this week. Four sacks (2.5 from Stephon Tuitt) and two fumble recoveries – one being returned for a score by Mark Barron, only to be called back for a bad block and one returned to the goal line by rookie Devin Bush. Unfortunately, at big points in the game, Russell Wilson had his way with the Steelers defense. 300 yards and three touchdowns, while also running for more than 20 yards, including a few key scrambles on the Seahawks’ final drive. Granted, Pittsburgh has faced two QBs that will have busts in Canton, Ohio one day in weeks one and two. As the season goes on, the Steelers will have to find ways to make big plays in big moments because the defense will be a key part in how high the ceiling is for this team without Roethlisberger. On Monday night, the Steelers acquired defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick from Miami for a 2020 first round pick. No matter what you think of the trade, Fitzpatrick will certainly bring more stability to the defense over the course of the season, getting set to start his first game for the black and gold at free safety Sunday in San Francisco.