Steelers Player of the Game vs. Washington in Week 13

The Pittsburgh Steelers lose their first game of the season in an ugly showing against Washington.

It was another very sloppy game by the Steelers. They killed themselves on offense and Washington was able to take advantage of those mistakes. Pittsburgh had a solid plan and it worked out for the away team in this game. Washington was able to move the ball up and down the field with ease the majority of the second half and outplayed the Steelers while Pittsburgh’s offense was pathetic.

It was an embarrassing showing by the Steelers. It seems like once they beat the Jaguars they started wanting a loss. They have lost sight of the tenacity of winning in this league. Yes, it is tough to win in the NFL but it is even tougher when you play losing football. Sometimes a team beats you flat out but Mike Tomlin’s team has lacked preparation.

This evident lack of preparation could be from the tough reschedule of games but this team needs to be ready when the game clock starts running. It has been penalties and self-inflicted wounds that have caused this loss. T.J. Watt had nice plays but he missed a fumble recovery and had a terrible holding call that gifted Washington points. Watt wasn’t the only issue, as the entire receiving core, besides James Washington, could not catch the ball consistently. They were continuously dropping the ball and it led to major third-down conversion issues.

Is Washington a good team? They’re obviously playing better now, but they are a team the Pittsburgh should beat 9 times out of 10. Instead, this team is developing bad habits and it is now magnified with another ugly performance that resulted in a loss.

Steelers CB Mike Hilton is my Player of the Game

Every player had an ugly play for the home team, and that includes Hilton. However, he did have the most positive plays when compared to his peers. He missed an interception which would’ve been hard to come down with. Still, that turnover would have made a difference in this game. As usual, Hilton was most impressive near the line of scrimmage, and he came up with a number of impressive tackles in big situations. He showed the league his abilities in that aspect again. Mike Hilton does continue to be a liability in coverage at times and that’s a concern going forward. He finished the game with stats of six total tackles, two tackles for loss, and one pass deflection.

It was a very ugly game yet again for the Steelers and that’s the second week in a row for them. It is now seeming like a habit and that could be very bad news going forward. They have a tough slate of games to close the season and Pittsburgh will need to finish strong and fix these issues if they want to be real Super Bowl contenders. A loss magnifies the issues so maybe this will help them get a fire under themselves and fix these problems finally.

It was an embarrassing week of football for the Steelers yet again as they lacked preparedness. They have a lot of work to do before their primetime matchup against the tough Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football.