The Steelers lost to the Dolphins. No, you’re not dyslexic. You read that right. The Steelers lost to the Dolphins in a pitiful, injury filled game Sunday afternoon. Let’s relive it.
The Steelers may not be the team we thought they were. They’re a good team and a playoff team. They’ve played four great games. There is no reason to panic due to a couple losses. Everybody loses games. But the Steelers two losses have been so unwatchable, so bad, that it seems incompatible with even a bad game from a Super Bowl team.
They lost to the Dolphins 30-15. Yes, Roethlisberger missed time, but the Pats beat the Dolphins without Brady. And Ben being out has nothing to do with Jay Ajayi running for over 200 yards. Pittsburgh is inconsistent. They’re injury prone. Their defense is not good. Maybe it’s better than it once was, maybe. But it’s far from good. Can Pittsburgh be blamed for injuries? No. But that doesn’t improve the result.
They can be blamed for year after year sticking Landry Jones in there. It’s been clear for several years to any Steelers fan he is not an adequate backup, and with an injury riddled team like Pittsburgh it will be needed. If Jones is an asset with a clipboard, hire him as a coach. There’s just no excuse for the most important player on the Steelers team to have the worst backup on the team.
But the defense is more at fault than poor Landry. Regardless, let’s relive this rough game.
1st Quarter
The Steelers started off with the ball. After Le’Veon Bell got them a first down the Steelers had to punt. When Miami got the ball they started with a penalty. Then Pittsburgh had a penalty on a 22 yard pass that put Miami in Steelers territory. Mike Mitchell left the game with an injury. Jay Ajayi brought it to the 12 and the Dolphins scored a field goal. Pittsburgh down 3-0.
The Steelers answered during another penalty soaked drive. Darrius Heyward-Bey took a rushing play 60 yards to the endzone, a reverse, after plowing a would be tackler. Le’Veon Bell caught a pass for the 2 point conversion making it 8-3 Steelers.
Miami went three and out. The Steelers again marched up the field but the offensive line had a pretty bad game, Roethlisberger was sacked. They were forced to punt. It was all downhill from there.
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2nd Quarter
The second quarter began with a long Miami drive largely composed of short passes and long runs from Jay Ajayi. But the Steelers made a great goal line stand and forced the Dolphins to kick a field goal. Pittsburgh still up 8-6.
The Steelers got the ball and immediately Ben had to scramble and he threw an interception. It was intended for Sammie Coates who was heavily covered. Dolphins linebacker Donald Butler blocked, or fell onto the back of, or stumbled into Ben Roethlisberger, injuring his knees because Big Ben’s legs are catnip for linebackers as well know. He left the game.
The Steelers had another fine redzone performance holding the Dolphins to just a field goal. But at this point the Dolphins were up 9-8.
Le’Veon Bell had some nice runs on the next drive but the offensive line liked those penalties tonight and then an incompletion by Landry Jones forced Pittsburgh to punt. Then Ajayi moved the ball to midfield for the Dolphins and Tannehill tossed a 39 yarder to Jones. Williams punched it in for a touchdown. Dolphins up 16-8 to end the half.
3rd Quarter
So Miami started off with the ball. Mike Mitchell returned, and got another costly penalty. Also Anthony Chickillo and Stephon Tuitt left the game due to injury. Again, short passes and long runs brought the Dolphins to the redzone and a defensive stop lead to a field goal. But this time the field goal was blocked.
Pittsburgh marched down the field. 10 yard pass to Eli Rogers. 16 yard pass to Antonio Brown. Oh yeah, Ben was back. Then holding, more holding. Ben threw it long to Sammie Coates and it was intercepted. Great.
Ajayi ran for 33 yards on the next play. Shortly after, and aided by an 11 yard pass to Parker, Ajayi ran it in for a touchdown. This made it 23-8, Dolphins.
Then the Steelers went three and out and punted, but not without an injury to Vince Williams.
4th Quarter
The Dolphins punted off their first drive and Pittsburgh punted back shortly after that. Then the Dolphins punted again but not before holding the ball for six and half minutes.
The Steelers drove down the field though and largely through passes to Eli Rogers, with some help from Le’Veon Bell, they get close to the red zone. Ben through a 23 yard touchdown to … Cobi Hamilton. So the Steelers were within a score now, it was 23-15 Dolphins.
But there was barely a minute left. Who could score in 62 seconds? Jay Ajayi apparently. After a failed onside kick he ran 62 yards for a touchdown to make it 30-15.
Pittsburgh did have time for a turnover on downs. The game was over.
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Pittsburgh is a team whose success, despite all the talented players they have, almost entirely depends on Ben Roethlisberger. He was injured, threw 189 yards, and had 2 touchdowns. So they lost. As a visibly frustrated (at least by Tomlin’s cool standards) Tomlin said in the post-game press conference, “We didn’t tackle well enough to win day. We didn’t take care of the ball. So anybody in the NFL is going to be you when you have a combination of those two things.”