Steelers recent success and lack thereof leaves plenty of questions
by Bo Marchionte
Published October 7, 2024, 02:37 AM
Pittsburgh, PA – Kickoff was delayed until 9:46 eastern central time before the weather allowed the Steelers and Cowboys to face off in their 34th matchup which includes their three Super Bowl battles.
Dallas upped their all-time series lead (18-16) with the toss of a Dak Prescott pass to receiver Jalen Tolbert with just twenty clicks left on the fourth quarter clock put the Cowboys ahead 20-17.
“I knew what play he was running, you know, I call it the Brandin Cooks special,” DeMarvion Overshown said. “But I JT (Jalen Tolbert), I seen him. I knew, once we got down there that our offense was going to take care of business. Shout out to those guys.”
It marked Prescott’s 24th game winning drive in his career and helped the Cowboys go a game above .500 while the Steelers after a 3-0 start have dropped their last two games. It has also revealed some kinks in their armor.
In their first three games, all wins, Pittsburgh allowed just 8.6 points per game and over their last two games an average of 23.5 in back-to-back losses. The total yards allowed coincide with the team dropping two in a row.
Over the last two weeks the Steelers defense has allowed an average of 401.5 yards per game compared to the stingy 229 average over their first three games that all ended in victory.
“Just didn’t capitalize enough on, you know, the opportunities we had,” Cam Heyward said. “You know, the play before the game winning touchdown got to get to that ball. Opportunities all over the place. I’m pointing to that one, but throughout the game, there was stuff like that.”
Offensively, Pittsburgh is still hasn’t found a groove. The possibilities could reflect deeper issues with strategy, personnel, or execution. It just feels like the Steelers are having difficulty establishing a clear direction on how they want to move the ball and score points.
Justin Fields played a clean game he made sound decisions. He avoided turnovers and felt to execute a couple of passes while in duress that led to big gains for the Steelers offense. However, in today’s NFL, the idea of having a quarterback pass for less than 157 passing yards in three out of the five games played, results in an offense that simply will not be able to compete at the highest level needed to remain competitive.
Against the Cowboys, Fields passed for 131 yards, he had a 55% completion rate going 15 of 27 with two touchdowns. He remained relatively held in check with 27 yards rushing on six carries.
Five weeks into the season, clearly the 3-0 start was a mirage, and this isn’t to say they couldn’t be 5-0 with a few lucky breaks here or there, but it also goes to say that their opponents might have snuck out a win on Pittsburgh had they received some lady luck in their contests.
“But, you know, I think we got to, you know, regroup,” Heyward said after most of the locker cleared and he was kind enough to field a couple questions. “Look at this film, be honest with ourselves, and understand there’s more ball to be played. I think we’re a tough bunch on each other.
“We expect a lot. Okay, we want more. But you know, there’s stuff that we can chew on and grow from. But there’s also a lot of good plays we had right. So, you got to take the good and the bad. In these situations, even if we have won. We got to look at it on how we can be a better team when we come back out.”
If Tolbert drops the Cowboys final pass attempt, the Steelers are sitting comfortably at 4-1 but wasn’t the reality that emerge late into Monday morning at Acrisure Stadium. Mike Tomlin is going to have the team prepared. The defense is going to make key plays to keep them in games.
The force-fed approach of running Najee Harris still remains the theme of the offense and despite carry after carry, the glimpse of a big gain keeps the Steelers bell-cowing him game after game.
Dallas had two-star defenders missing in action tonight in defensive tackle DeMarcus Lawrence on IR and edge rusher Micah Parson out with a high ankle sprain. Despite their absences, they kept Harris unwraps.
“You know, football, it’s a physical game,” Overshown said. “It’s a game of injuries, and you know, it’s unpredictable. You never know who’s going to go down, but you lose two big dogs like that. You gotta have players to step up.
“And we knew, you know, that we had to keep this train rolling without them, and because when they come back, you know they going to expect the thing to already be rolling.”
Pittsburgh has the pieces but after five weeks I’m not sure we know the offensive identity and the defense has slipped a little. I guess the more we know the less we understand.
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt/College2Pro.com
