Plenty Of Blame To Go Around For Steelers Collapse

For at least six more days, Steelers fans will be haunted by Thursday night's loss to the Ravens. It isn't so much that they lost the game - plenty of people expected Baltimore to win. It was that the Steelers players and coaches had a meltdown of epic proportions that has every sports fan in our city mad at somebody associated with the Black and Gold. Pittsburgh had a 20-7 lead in the 2nd half, and led 20-17 with less than a minute to go before Ba
ltimore tied the game with a Justin Tucker field goal, and then won the game with another field goal in overtime.

I was lucky enough to attend the game, and as my mom and I walked back to our car, I felt sick. The Steelers have never been #1 on my list of beloved sports teams, so the fact that I had a feeling like that, which still hasn't fully gone away really, says something about how awful this game was. Scapegoating is an unfortunate part of the psychology of sports fans, and Pittsburgh fans are no exceptions. I've witnessed plenty of Pirates, Steelers and Penguins players and coaches shoulder more blame than they deserved after a tough loss, and on Friday morning Josh Scobbe joined this not so exclusive club. Scobbe missed 2 field goals of 49 and 41 yards within the final 2 minutes, and the Ravens took advantage of the errors and pulled out a 23-20 win in overtime. Scobbe is at fault in a big way for this loss (Steelers management released him in favor of Chris Boswell as I wrote this), but he is not the sole reason why Pittsburgh blew this game. There are other reasons why this game slipped through the cracks, and I will list the big ones and cut the poor kicker some slack.

Offensive Play Calling

If Ronald Regan, George W. Bush, and Mitt Romney were all chemically bonded to form one super-person, it would still not be as conservative as Todd Haley's play calling was on Thursday night. While it makes sense that the Steelers offense would be watered down without Big Ben under center, Mike Vick is a capable back-up, and Todd Haley practically put him in a cage for the entire second half. Even at age 35, Vick's arm strength is still incredible, which is why I simply cannot make sense of the absurd amount of short pass
es that Haley called. Ever since Haley took over as offensive coordinator in 2012, short passes have been a key part of the Steelers offense. While it's understandable to make the short pass more prevalent with a backup quarterback, there needs to be a fair balance. With Vick's arm strength and the Steelers outstanding core of receivers, why not cut Vick loose more often and try to create a big play. Vick proved himself to be capable in the first half, so it's all the more confusing that Haley decided to be as conservative as he was in the second half.  

At the top of the list of blunders that Todd Haley made on Thursday was not calling Antonio Brown's number often enough. I find it pretty hard to believe that Vick is not capable of throwing a ball 20 yards downfield to the best receiver in the NFL, but apparently that's the way the Steelers see things.  I don't think it's a stretch to say that the Steelers could have put up 30+ points if more 20+ yard passes to Brown were called, and it was obvious to many people that the conservative play calling was not working. As poor as Haley was, two of the most boneheaded decisions of the game were made in OT by Mike Tomlin. The first decision came on the Steelers first offensive possession of overtime. The Steelers were putting together a pretty good looking drive, getting the ball down to the Baltimore 39 yard line. 

It was 3rd down at a very manageable 2 yards, and this situation had Le'veon Bell's name written all over it. You would think, with the offensive strategy being as conservative as it was, and with Bell being the best running back in the NFL and averaging close to 6 yards per carry for the night, that it would only make sense to call Bell's number for the first down, right? Well, Haley had other ideas, and called a pass play that fell incomplete. This set up 4th and 2, and the decision was in Mike Tomlin's hands as to whether the Steelers would go for it or not. They decided to go for it, and to me, the two most sensible things to do in this situation would be A) give the ball to Bell or B) throw a short pass to Heath Miller, as a pass to the Tight End would make sense in a short yardage situation. The Steelers did neither, and they curiously decided to get cute and call a play for Mike Vick to run to the left side. The Ravens were all over it, and stuffed Vick for no gain, causing a turnover on downs. 

As questionable as this decision was, the Steelers were not done with 4th down stupidity. After forcing the Ravens to punt, the Steelers again moved the ball well, getting the ball down to the Ravens 32 yard line. Again, it was 3rd and 2. Again, giving the ball to Bell would have made far too much sense. Again, the Steelers completely botched it. Bell's number was called on 3rd and 2, but for a short pass that only gained 1 yard. Tomlin correctly decided to go for it on 4th and 1. Surely, he could not mess up another 4th down call, right? Wrong. This time, he made an even more boneheaded decision, and called for Vick to throw an out route, which may be the most difficult route to run for an NFL receiver, to Antonio Brown. It was Vick's worst throw of the night and came at the worst possible time. The Ravens took over on downs and won the game on a 52 yard field goal from Justin Tucker. After the game, I talked to my friend Colin about the decision on 4th and 1. He said that he had no problem with not giving the ball to Bell, as he felt the Ravens defense would have fully expected it. While that is a valid point, even when expected, it is very difficult to stop the best running back in the game from getting 1 lousy yard. 

I am still not against Todd Haley as a play caller, as I find it hard to dislike what he has done with an offense that has been among the best in football over the past 3 seasons, but his play calling throughout this game was horrendous, and he deserves to take a lot of heat for it. 

Poor Last Minute Defense

I won't be nearly as hard on the Steelers defense as I was on Todd Haley's play calling, as John Butler's unit turned in a solid performance for the 3rd week in a row. However, I cannot defend the defense's execution on Baltimore's last drive of regulation. Even with Schobbes 2nd miss of the night creating this drive, Baltimore still should have been stopped from scoring, as they only took over on their own 31 yard line. With just 1 minute left to play, the Steelers still should have stopped Baltimore from scoring, and they couldn't do it, even after forcing Baltimore into a 3rd and 10 with 29 seconds to play. Just because the kicker screwed up does not mean that the defense should be let off the hook  for allowing Baltimore to send the game to
OT. 

Mike Tomlin

In most cases, the defensive and offensive coordinators are the ones who receive all of the blame for poor decision making over the course of a football game, as they are the ones who make almost all of the decisions. With this in mind, it's pretty staggering to think about the number of times Mike Tomlin was wrong on Thursday night. Here is a list of the 3 most questionable decisions by Tomlin on Thursday, not including the ones I have already mentioned in this article

1. Not going for 2- The main reason I am bringing this up is that of all the things that were talked about throughout Friday as questionable decisions that were made on Thursday night, this was one that seems to fall under the radar. After Mike Vick found Darius Heyward-Bay in the end-zone to pad the Steelers lead to 19-7, Tomlin chose to kick to the extra-point rather than try to give the Steelers a 2 Touchdown lead by going for the 2-point conversion. I understand both points of view here, as with the benefit of hindsight, this decision could have either won the Steelers the game, or lost them the game in regulation as opposed to overtime. However, given that the Steelers are 3 for 4 on 2-point conversions this year (a success rate of 75%), I think it would have made sense to try it. It's no guarantee that the Steelers would have converted, but they certainly could have, and I think it was worth a shot, and the reward was greater than the risk at that time.

2. Having Scobbe kick those 2 field goals in the first place- The best way I can defend Josh Scobbe is by saying that his 2 missed field goals should have never been given a chance to take place.  Let's breakdown both times Tomlin decided to have Scobbe kick late in the game. So let's say, rather than have Scobbe kick from 49 yards out, Tomlin decides to punt. There is a very good chance that Baltimore would have been pinned inside their own 5 yard line, which would have made the possibility of a Ravens win even less likely. The absolute worst case scenario would be that Jordan Berry, who had averaged 39.8 yards over 6 punts throughout the game, would kick it through the end zone, allowing the Ravens to start out at their own 20 yard line. Scobbe's miss allowed the Ravens to start in a much better position, starting out at their own 39 yard line. Having Scobbe kick a 41 yarder on the next Steelers possession made more sense than Tomlin's previous decision to kick, but I still disagree with it. While kicking a 41 yard field goal is easier than kicking a 49 yard field goal, Scobbe's confidence was likely shaken from his first miss, and the Steelers were presented with another opportunity to pin Baltimore deep inside their own territory, and considering there was little over a minute left to go in the game at this time, this would have made the possibility of Baltimore hitting a game-tying field goal nearly impossible. But, Tomlin decided to try for 3, and Scobbe could not deliver
, and Baltimore started at their own 31 when they could very well have been pinned inside their own 5. 

So, Josh Scobbe is only a piece to the large puzzle of ineptitude that led to the Steelers loss on Thursday night, and while Mike Tomlin is a good head coach and Todd Haley is a good offensive coordinator, neither of them were wise, and the Steeleres paid for it. The schedule will only get tougher from here, and this loss could prove to be a huge, huge blow. It is now up to Mike Vick and company to save this ship from sinking into the sea of disappointment.