PITTSBURGH STEELERS

3 MISCUES THAT LED TO THE LOSS IN DENVER

The Pittsburgh Steelers saw their six-game winning streak come to an end in Denver. A lot of things went wrong, but what were the biggest miscues?

The Steelers have had their struggles in the Mile High City. Since the 2005 AFC Championship game, which they won on their way to the Super Bowl XL victory in Detroit, we’ve seen some painful losses there. Tim Tebow rings a bell to anyone?

Sunday afternoon’s loss is also painful. While it was just a regular season loss, it was a loss that the Steelers brought more on themselves rather than being outplayed by their opponent.

It also doesn’t help their running in the AFC playoff picture. While they still maintain a comfortable AFC North lead, they are now the 4th seed in the AFC, depending on what Houston does Monday night.

With five games remaining, the Steelers play three of them against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Patriots, and the 10-1 New Orleans Saints. Losing to a 4-6 Denver team was not ideal for setting up the remaining schedule.

So what exactly happened in this loss?

TURNOVERS

The Steelers were a minus-4 in the turnover department. And to make matters worse, they came at really bad times. Not that there is ever a “right” time for a turnover, but the timing of these just put a really bad cloud over this game that just gave the feeling this game wasn’t going to end well.

The first came on a beautifully run play where the Steelers ran a play action to the right side while tight end Xavier Grimble ran a drag route to the left. Big Ben hit the wide-open Grimble who had only one person standing between him and the end zone. Grimble took the defender head on and fumbled the ball inside the one yard line. The ball subsequently rolled in the end zone and out of bounds, resulting in a touchback which gave Denver the ball on their 20-yard line.

The second turnover came in the third quarter after the Steelers took a 17-10 lead. Ben floated a ball over Antonio Brown and it was picked off by Chris Harris Jr. The Broncos scored a touchdown two plays later to tie the game up. It was arguably the turning point in the game.

After the teams traded possessions ending in punts, the Steelers then drove down the field. In a screen pass to James Conner, it had all the makings for a big play. Conner was hit in the open field and went airborne, which is when the ball flew out from Conner’s possession, which was recovered by Denver. Denver hit pay dirt on the following possession.

Not all hope was lost. Big Ben drove the team down the field in the final minutes of the game down by seven. They got down to the two-yard line. On third-and-goal, on a play that was out of sync from the start, Ben forced a pass in the middle which was intercepted in the end zone.

The Steelers left at least 16 points off the board with these turnovers. They absolutely killed the team. No doubts or questions. They beat themselves.

LACK OF A PASS RUSH

The Steelers’ bread and butter on defense lately has been their pass rush. T.J. Watt and company have been getting to the quarterback like crazy all season and as we all know, a great pass rush can help hide a struggling secondary.

Well, the Steelers didn’t have a pass rush in Denver. They recorded two sacks, one of which was a clutch sack by Javon Hargrave that gave the offense a chance to tie at the end of the game. Outside of that, Case Keenum stood upright most of the afternoon.

Even when the Steelers are sacking the quarterback, they at least usually make life uncomfortable for the opposing quarterback. This didn’t happen today. Bud Dupree couldn’t get pressure from the weak side like he usually does and T.J. Watt was playing with an injured wrist that happened early in the game. There was a lack of pressure up the middle, and when there was, it was pretty easy for Keenum to maneuver in the pocket.

It was unfair to ask for the defense to keep bailing out the offense that kept turning the ball over and giving away points, but the defense wasn’t going to be successful without a pass rush. It’s what the Steelers rely on for the remainder of their defense. Anyone remember the loss to Jacksonville in the playoffs last year? Without a pass rush, even Blake Bortles can make his reads and throw the ball well. Case Keenum, who has Emmanuel Sanders at his disposal, is going to make the defense pay even more without any pressure.

OFFENSIVE GAMEPLAN

Whether you read this as an offensive game plan, as in the offense’s game plan, or as if it was offensive to you, or James Conner rather, you’d be correct either way.

The Steelers came into the game with a gameplan to throw the ball to move down the field. The problem is they were horribly unbalanced. The Steelers ran 60 pass plays compared to only 16 running plays. That is bad game planning at its finest.

The Broncos entered the game ranked 26th in the NFL is rush defense. It is a mystery of why the Steelers would strategize the way they did against a team that has struggled against the run this season.

Not only has Denver struggled against the run, but running so many pass plays is offering that many more opportunities for elite pass-rushers like Bradley Chubb and Von Miller to create pressure against Big Ben.

The Steelers never trailed by more than seven points in this game. There is no reason, even when you have a quarterback that can go win you football games like Ben can, to be that unbalanced. Even Big Ben would tell you that (I think). Unfortunately, Ben didn’t have his best game and threw the game away at the end.

Maybe with a more balanced offensive gameplan in place, the offense would have been more efficient. Maybe, but who knows if the Steelers would have given the ball away four times if they did.