Pittsburgh Steelers Fall To The Oakland Raiders: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Ugly

Terrell Pryor’s First Play From Scrimmage: First play from scrimmage of the game resulted in a 93 yard touchdown run.  Woodley bit on the fake (although one could argue that in that situation he was supposed to take the dive man) which left the outside undefended for Pryor.  Once he hit the edge, he was gone.  It was ugly ugly ugly for this defense and set the tone for the rest of the game.  The exclamation point stamped in the first 15 seconds.  It seemed to take forever for the defense to recover from that play, and they really didn’t clamp down on the Raider offense until after the Timmons fumble recover.

Oct 27, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin on the sideline against the Oakland Raiders during the third quarter at O.co Coliseum. The Oakland Raiders defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-18. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

Terrible coaching:  There are so many moments in this game that resulted from poor coaching: draws on 3rd down, bubble screens without blockers, Jonathan Dwyer RUNNING BACK A KICKOFF, poor end of 1st half clock management, and the play calling of the first drive in the second half being down 21-3.  I could go into each of these into great detail, but you unfortunately get the gist of what I’m getting at.  This was by far the ugliest coached game from every coach standing on that Steeler sideline.  It was pathetic and a joke.  Those crossed arms are about the only thing Mike Tomlin does correctly each week.  Each and every one of those guys should be on the hot seat and on notice for the rest of the season.  It’s inexcusable.  It’s unrealistic to dump all the players and start over, but the Steelers brass has all the right to dump the entire coaching staff and start over.  I feel sorry for some of these players who are vets and can see the squad imploding from within with all this terrible coaching.  It’s going to be a long season from here on out, and I hope that at least the coaches can get the younger players in for some experience gathering.  Excuse me while I go down an entire bottle of mouth wash to get this stank out of my mouth.

*Honorable mention: The patchwork of the offensive line and giving up five sacks.