Well, I don't know about you but the loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars feels like a season-crushing loss. I realize the season is not over, but to lose to a conference opponent at home does not help our cause at all. It's bad enough to lose a home game but to lose the first of three straight home games can have a devastating impact on the remainder of the season.
I guess the only saving grace of this loss is that we have a quick turnaround with a Thursday game approaching. I do think that Mike Tomlin and the coaching staff need to take a long, hard look at what we're doing, how we're doing it, and with whom we are doing it.
Let's see what we learned on the offensive side of the ball.
The Steelers offense sputtered and could not get on track yet again
Why do I feel like we talk about the same offensive deficiencies week in and week out? The answer is that the offense displays the same deficiencies week in and week out. According to ESPN, the Steelers offense managed to gain a total of two-hundred and sixty-one yards on twelve drives, averaging a shade over four yards per play.
Time of possession continues to be an issue as we held the ball for just under twenty-six minutes, which translates into the defense being on the field longer than it needs to be and longer than what is optimal to secure victory.
The other way to look at it is this: if the offense was efficient and was able to score quickly, it really wouldn't matter how long we possessed the ball, but since this offense is inefficient, time of possession matters.
Honestly, when Kenny Pickett was injured and could not play in the second half, I was cautiously optimistic that Mitchell Trubisky would lead on a comeback, but, instead, he threw a costly INT with less than ten minutes left in the game. Trubisky then threw another INT at the end of the game, which, frankly, didn't matter but it would have been something of a moral victory had we been able to score a TD.
Let's see what we learned on the defensive side of the ball.