By Ray Porter Jr. for Urban Media Today
PITTSBURGH, PA–In two short weeks, it has gone from bad to worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
One week after falling 31-28 to the Chicago Bears, they took a harder tumble against the Buffalo Bills, 26-7 in front of 66,068 at Acrisure Stadium.
“Not a lot needs to be said. That’s an awful performance by us,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “But it’s us. We didn’t do a lot well tonight obviously. We didn’t possess the ball or maintain ball security on offense. We were highly penalized. We allowed those guys to run the ball. Didn’t play 60 minutes of action. Didn’t play complementary football. So, we’ve got to absorb that result.”
The 2nd half was unlike the first half for the Steelers as they proved to be very competitive with the Bills and led 7-3 at halftime. They scored the first points of the game on a 6 play 39-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard TD by RB Jaylen Warren. The defense also forced two turnovers as CB Brandon Echols intercepted Bills QB Josh Allen and LB Patrick Queen recovered a James Cook III fumble.
And then things fell apart in the second half after QB Aaron Rodgers was hit by Bills DE Joey Bosa, forcing a fumble that was recovered by Christian Benford who returned it 17 yards for the TD and a 10-7 lead. Rodgers would sit out a drive as backup Mason Rudolph came in and threw an interception on his first pass attempt. The Bills then added to their lead on a 9-yard TD pass from Allen (15/23, 123 yards, TD, INT) to WR Keon Coleman. Allen would then rush for a TD and a Matt Prater FG would conclude the scoring for the Bills as they improved to 8-4 on the season.
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about. We didn’t play a good half of football. We turned the ball over, didn’t produce scores, and there’s nothing mystical about that. It’s about the same as last week,” said Tomlin.
Rodgers (10/21,117 yards) returned to the game and even led the Steelers on a progressive drive that eventually stalled on a questionable decision that led to a turnover on downs.
“Run it, pass it, we just weren’t successful enough today to sustain any time of ball control or produce enough points to be functional today, and that’s just the reality of it,” said Tomlin.
The Steelers’ running game was only able to produce 58 rushing yards (35 from Warren) when asked about this output, Tomlin replied “We’ve got to win possession downs. We’ve got to maintain possession of it. We can’t turn the ball over. It will produce more snaps for us. If we do that, we’ll probably have more than 58 or whatever it is that you mentioned,”
With the loss, the Steelers fall to 6-6 and are once again out of first place in the AFC North Division as the Baltimore Ravens return to the top spot. Next Sunday, the Steelers and Ravens will meet in Baltimore for the first time this season. The Steelers know they must find a way to turn things around, or it could be another rough ending to their season.
“We’re certainly not going to feel sorry for ourselves. That’s just the business we’re in,” said Tomlin. “Not putting together 60 minutes of action. Certainly, there are tangible things, things that you and I both see, but we’d better look at it and look at it hard because there’s usually something beneath the surface that’s producing that, particularly in the consistency with which it is occurring. The third quarter was awful. It was awful last week. So, we’ve got to absorb the responsibility of that.”
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