Ugh. That’s right. Ugh. It was hard to watch. There were plenty of bright moments but the Steelers have, for the second time, found a way to lose an extremely winnable division game. The Bengals game, not unlike the Ravens, featured two teams that appeared to be trying very hard to lose. And the Steelers won both, both losses.
Just to be clear, they lost. That’s what I’m saying. The defense performed very well and the offense couldn’t get it done. A statement I could not have predicted saying early in the season.
Probably the worst part of it is Le’Veon Bell took a serious injury for the second straight Bengals game to his knee. Two is not a good number for the Steelers over the past year. And that’s not just a knock on Vick, because Ben underperformed too.
Sure Will Johnson should have come and got that ball and Le’Veon Bell could have helped and Ben just got back from injury but ultimately after a great first drive the offense just couldn’t put it together for a whole drive.
Foster on Bell
The Steelers O-line had some interesting thoughts on the Bengals defense. Given Burfict’s history, and the Bengals’ with Bell’s knees, it’s understandable. Regardless, here’s what they said.
Per CBS Sports’ John Breech, Ramon Foster said, “I am sure they were aiming to take somebody out today and kudos to them, they did the job.”
And of Burfict, he said, “He’s that type of guy. That type of guy gets his sooner or later. So, wait and see, I guess. He’s that type of guy, period. If you’re on the field with him, you know what I mean by that. They’ll play it off; he’ll act dumb about it. But you don’t run across the field hyped, celebrating, jumping up and down when a guy goes down like that.”
Marcus Gilbert added that he felt Burfict celebrating was, “Bull sh-t.”
DeAngelo Williams
Williams broke off a big run from back in the Steelers own red zone just to let us know he’s still the back we saw in the first two weeks and he’s ready to play ball.
Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette quoted DeAngelo Williams, of his readiness to replace Bell, “We’ve been here before. For eight or nine years I’ve been a starter in this league. I started the first two games earlier in the season. We’ve been here before. I’ve answered these questions before, and I’m going to answer them like I did then. I know why they brought me here. I’m going to play my role. It’s always an emotional blow when you lose any guy, let alone a guy like Le’Veon Bell. I just want to step in and try to do my job as best I can do my job, not like Le’Veon does his job because we’re two different runners. He brings a different dimension to the team as well as I do. I just have to go in there and be productive in the backfield and take the pressure off Ben.”
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Heath Miller added, about Williams, “He’s more than capable. He’s a great player in his own right. When he steps in the huddle we know we have a big playmaker in him as well.”
DeCastro chimed in too, saying, “He’s a veteran guy, been around, which helps us. He’s had some playing time, which is nice. But you obviously miss a guy like Le’Veon, for sure.”
Ben Roethlisberger
Ben has had better days. He’s had much better days. He was rusty and there were a lot of factors but he needs to get back in his groove for the Steelers to win.
According to Nathan Francis of the Inquisitr Ben said, “Health-wise, I’m OK. I’m obviously disappointed in the way that I played. I let this team down and I let the fans down. This is on me and I’m taking the blame and letting everyone know that I have to play better.”
Tomlin said, “When you’re at the point Ben is in his career, winning and losing is all that matters. He sees that very clearly, as do I, but we didn’t do enough today.”
Jeremy Fowler of ESPN quoted Ben saying, “That’s what is frustrating about it. They did more than enough to help us and let us win that game and it was awesome to see, but we didn’t take advantage of that offensively. We’re going to let this burn at us and then turn the page. We’ve got a whole half of football left.”
Heath Miller
Heath Miller had his best game in a while. He caught a lot of passes for a Steelers offense that lacked consistency throughout the day. The rest of the team did not sound surprised.
WTAE reported Tomlin saying of Heath, “It’s not about words, it’s about actions with Heath. He’s a great effort guy, he’s a detailed guy, both on the grass and in the classroom. He really has been since the day I met him. We’ve used him some more in protection because of circumstances in recent weeks. And we’re not throwing the ball, from a percentage standpoint, at the rate we were throwing it when Ben was in there. That reduces the total number of targets, and he’s been a victim of that, like a lot of guys have been a victim of that. But I am not discouraged by his overall play at all.”
Ben added, “Heath is a dynamic player and has been here for a long time. He’s a valuable piece of this offense, so we need to include him as we need to include everybody.”
Heath Miller said regarding the prior games lack of a catch, ending his streak of 110 straight games with a catch, “I knew about it but it was never a big deal to me. Those things are going to end sooner or later. The biggest thing is the team winning. Losing that game is what bothered me, not that I didn’t catch a pass.”
Next: Steelers place Le'Veon Bell on IR
On to next week. We’re at the halfway point and it’s about do or die time for the Steelers.