Steelers Week 16 Reaction

 The Steelers are doing their best to try and ruin Christmas for all of us. As you can imagine, this is not one that I am excited about writing, but I am here and dedicated to recapping every Steelers game this year and that means the ugly losses to division rivals too. Believe it or not, I actually have a few delusional ways to try and spin this into a positive! Lets get into it: 

14 Point Swing? 28 Point Swing??

All season long the Steelers have been beating quality opponents by simply making fewer mistakes. It makes sense too, the Steelers defense has great playmakers who are practically guaranteed to force a turnover at some point, as long as the offense holds onto the ball they will have a good chance of inching out a win. This one was the exact opposite of that formula where a couple key mistakes took this from a close game to a blowout. Tied at 7 in the second quarter, the Steelers offense was rolling. Similar to last game, as soon as the Steelers went to Jalen Warren the running game got going which fueled everything else. They managed to get the ball deep into Ravens territory and ran a pass play for Wilson. With nobody open downfield, Wilson took off scrambling into a massive hole, exciting! Russ ran about 20 yards down field and looked like he had 1 defender to beat at the 5 yard line to get into the end zone. Rather than sliding, Russ decided to go for 6 and put his shoulder down, but the ball was knocked loose! A devastating fumble after a very promising drive lead to the Steelers scoring nothing. The Ravens took the ball all the way down the field for a TD of their own on the ensuing drive locking in what could be seen as a 14 point swing. Maybe I am being too generous on that one, the defense did give up a 95 yard drive, but it was at the very least a likely 7 point swing with the Steelers not scoring in the red zone. 

In the 4th quarter the Steelers defense did what it does best to Lamar, forced him into a mistake. Lamar dropped back to pass and threw the ball directly to Minkah Fitzpatrick for a pick! Huge play with the Steelers down 7 points now setting up a drive to potentially tie the game. Only a couple of plays later, Russ under pressure forces a bad pass into coverage that was picked off by Marlon Humphrey and taken all the way back for a pick 6. Ok here's another one that I probably can't officially call a 14 point swing, the Steelers were still deep in their own territory, but again at the very least it was a 7 point swing and a play that blew the game open for the Ravens giving them a comfortable 14 point lead. That's the game right there, other than the 2 turnovers the Steelers offense looked as good as it could without Pickens and the defense hung in there against one of the best offenses in football. Make mistakes against a good team and you will get burned. 

King Henry 

The saddest part for me about Derrick Henry signing with the Ravens this offseason isn't that my Steelers have to play against him twice a season, it's that now I can't reasonably love Derrick Henry anymore. What a beast of a running back Henry is. When the Ravens are up in a game in the 4th quarter he is a terrifying sight to see. The play just before the Lamar pick, Henry busted off a huge 60 yard run to set the Ravens up around the 20 yard line, looking like they could ice the game right there. That is a very frequent sight in Derrick Henry games, when his team is up you can almost count on him to put it away every single time. Henry's running style is such a joy to watch. Unlike a lot of running backs, Henry is massive and well built. When you let him get a head of steam he is going to barrel through any defender who steps in his way. The Steelers spent a lot of the game rightfully worried about Lamar Jackson keeping the ball, this allowed Henry to get a few more holes at the line of scrimmage and like I said, once he gets a head of steam it's over. Having that 2 headed rushing monster is really hard for opposing defenses to contest with, you can only hope Lamar makes some mistakes in the passing game. Henry finished with 162 yards on 24 carries and if he wasn't a Baltimore Raven, I'd be thrilled with his career resurgence this season. 

Importance of Pickens

This Pickens injury has really highlighted the Steelers need to get some WR depth in the off season. George Pickens through 12 games had averaged 70.8 receiving yards per game. The next 2 leading receivers for the Steelers have combined for 68.4 receiving yards per game. That's right, Pickens is out receiving the next 2 receivers combined on the Steelers. This has been made glaringly evident in the last 3 games. Nobody on the Steelers gets open consistently without Pickens in there and there's definitely nobody who can make something out of nothing like Pickens does every single week. Wilson was spreading the ball around pretty well on Saturday finding 9 different receivers, but each one of them has a flaw that makes it difficult to target them consistently. Probably the best receiver in the group without Pickens is Calvin Austin III, but Calvin Austin is maybe 5'8 and although he's speedy, he's just so undersized in the NFL. The big TE Freiermuth is a good reliable target, but lacks the speed and athleticism to get open consistently. Mike Williams and Van Jefferson are big bodies but they seem to never run effective routes to get open. That leaves Pickens as the only receiver on the team that can do all of the good receiver things. Hard to win when that guy is out. 

Stat to Watch

Realistically this 3 game stretch was always going to be killer for the Steelers. A pretty fun season so far that has seen them clinch the playoffs, but going up against the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs over a 10 day stretch was never going to be fun, and if it was we'd be losing our minds. Despite the not fun losses, there is a fun stat to watch in the last 2 games this season. Chris Boswell is now 6 FGs away from setting the all time record for FGs made in a season. You could argue that Boswell has been the Steelers best non-TJ Watt player this season and getting a record like that would just warm my heart. 

And that's that. I know a shorter reaction today but I really think this one came down to those 2 turnovers by Russ. Easy to feel doom and gloom after this one but it's another where if you cleaned up the mistakes this game goes a lot differently. Steelers still control their destiny in the division and a big win on Christmas against Mahomes and the Chiefs will do a lot to improve the mood of the fanbase. Regardless, go Steelers!