The Steelers lost their first game of the season to Washington. Here are my takeaways from Pittsburgh’s sad performance in Week 13.
If we thought the Steelers were frustrating to watch in Week 12 against the Ravens, apparently we hadn’t seen anything yet. While we could have assumed that Pittsburgh would be fired up to show the nation what they are made of after barely squeaking by Baltimore on Wednesday, they proved to be thoroughly disappointing against the Washington Football Team on Monday night. The Steelers lost their first game of the season 23-17, and it wasn’t pretty.
Despite boasting a 14-0 lead well into the second quarter, Washington ultimately went on a 23-3 run to own the Steelers in the second half. This is a performance that we would love to forget, but one that Pittsburgh desperately needs to learn from. There were too many things that went wrong in this game, and changes must be made moving forward. Here are my four takeaways from the Steelers first loss:
The run game was non-existent… again
Despite still being tied for the best record in the National Football League, this has been the story of the year for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Though they started the year strong on the ground, Pittsburgh has topped 100 rushing yards just once in their last 7 games. On Monday night against the Washington Football Team, they managed a dismal 21 yards on the ground on 14 carries.
The Steelers abandoned the run in the second half, as they were having a terrible time trying to move the ball on the ground. Outside of two respectable runs from Anthony McFarland, this running game was a train wreck, and both the offensive line and running backs are to blame. Benny Snell was utterly pathetic with his opportunities – turning his 8 carries into just 5 yards and being stuffed multiple times at the goal line. The Steelers certainly don’t seem poised to have a balanced offense heading into the playoffs at this point in time.