View From 522: Delays, bad offense and message sending

Trust what the Pittsburgh Steelers do, not what they say.

In an unexpected twist I was able to attend Sunday night’s Pittsburgh Steelers-Dallas Cowboys game and it ended up being an utterly bizarre night with a frustrating game that I am still recovering from nearly a week later.

Not the result. I am over that, and was over that before I got back to the car. Shit happens in the NFL. But the reality that I am now getting old and can not as easily stay out until 3 in the morning the way I used to is a very, very discouraging thought. Thanks to the 95-minute lightning delay at the start, and the nearly four-hour game that followed, and the walk back to the car, and the 45-minute drive home I did not actually get home until nearly 3 AM. Here we are now nearly a week later and I still feel like I have not caught back up on my sleep. Or anything. If this was 10 or 15 years ago I would have been ready to do it all over again the next day. Now it is taking me a week to recover.

This was never supposed to be my game, but my brother Matt and his friend who go to most of the games now were both unable to go, leaving the tickets in the hands of me and my brother-in-law, Bill. It should be noted that Bill was an uninterested neutral observer and was only attendance for the chaos. He dressed the part.

Every week we always enjoy pointing out the “random” fans in attendance and laughing at how obscure they can be. Like seeing somebody in a Falcons jersey at a Steelers-Packers game. This time I brought the random person and, to be fair, it IS a fantastic jersey. I have also BEEN that fan on multiple occasions because when I go to different games in different cities I am always wearing a Pittsburgh shirt (or a Montreal Expos shirt) and getting the weird looks. It is great.

Sunday could not have been a more perfect day in terms of weather. Sunny, blue sky. No clouds. Low humidity. Temperatures in the 70s. Gorgeous day. When I picked up Bill around 6:30 it still looked the same. But as we started to walk over to the stadium you could feel the wind picking up, you could see ominous clouds moving in, you could just feel a change that something was brewing. Just as the two teams concluded warmups, the Steelers announced that the game was in a weather delay and the fans could remain in the seating area. Since this was not my first rodeo, I said the hell with that, they are going to be evacuating us within 10 minutes. So we bolted down to the concourse under the seats and secured spots to stand before thousands of people made their way in.

That was exactly what happened. Spirits were still relatively high even though movement was extremely limited.

Eventually, there was football played.

Let’s talk about it.

1. The one thing I was worried about coming into this game was the expected takeover by Dallas fans. Pre-game estimates had it that as much as 46-48 percent of the stadium could be Cowboys fans. While there were a lot, and while it was more than you normally get for a road team and its fans, and it was nowhere the takeover that was feared. I have seen way more visiting fans from Buffalo, Chicago, San Francisco, and Green Bay. They were also, for the most part, mostly cool. The two guys sitting next to me (one of which was actually a Raiders fan) were trying to find the closest Waffle House to Pittsburgh for a post-game meal, and then asked me if I knew where a Waffle House was located. I dug their vibe.

2. The most frustrating part about this game was the offense.

Look, I know the defense did not have great yardage numbers. They bent a lot. They gave up a game-winning touchdown drive in the final seconds. All of that is frustrating. But at the end of the day they still forced three turnovers, were inches away from forcing a fourth in the closing seconds if the ball bounces a different direction, and they still held Dallas to 20 points. That should have been enough.

I think it is fair to be frustrated with how the game ended with them and to be frustrated with the way they played.

But they were in a position to win.

This game was on the offense. Almost all on the offense. The defense forced three turnovers and blocked a field goal. The number of points the Steelers scored off of those turnovers and blocked field goals: Seven. They were playing a defense that was bad this season when it was healthy, and then came into the game without several of its best players, including its BEST player (Micah Parsons).

All you could get out of that was 17 total points?

It was especially frustrating because over the first four weeks of the season I think there were plenty of reasons to believe that they were actually making some progress in the way they were playing. The point totals may not have been better, but they were sustaining more drives, moving the ball more and turning more possessions into points.

This game felt like it was right out of the 2022 and 2023 Steelers seasons. The game plan stunk, the play on the field stunk, and everything just seemed like it was a huge challenge. It was a big opportunity to build on some momentum and try to take a big step forward and they wasted it.

Injuries are not helping matters. The entire right side of the offensive line is sidelined, they have one healthy NFL running back (Najee Harris …. who might actually be their worst running back at the moment) and Isaac Seumalo was playing in his first game back from an injury. That adds up. But again …. they were not the only injured team on the field that night.

3. Justin Fields played his worst game of the season at quarterback, but I don’t know how much of that result I can put on him.

Was he good? Not particularly!

But holy shit did you see everybody around him?

The single biggest issue with this offense right now is the complete lack of playmakers.

There were four or five plays in that game where the Dallas offense made catches or plays that made you say, “Wow …. that was a pretty good catch.”

Ask yourself this question — how often do you say that about a Steelers game? Or a Steelers player on offense?

George Pickens does it on occasion, but not enough.

Other than him? It never happens. There were opportunities on Sunday night. On the very first drive of the game Connor Heyward had a chance to make a huge play down the sidelines that would have put them deep into Dallas territory. It would have been an above average catch, but it was definitely a makable play. He was unable to secure the ball.

In the fourth quarter Van Jefferson had a chance to make a catch on a back shoulder throw down the sidelines. It would have been a tough catch, but it was there. NFL wide receivers make that play every single week. He did not make it.

With the Steelers leading 10-6 in the third quarter, owning all of the momentum in the game, and having a chance to drive for a potential two-score lead, Pickens let a pass on a third-and-four go right through his hands to end the drive.

If you complete those three passes the entire game looks different. Fields’ performance looks difference. You probably win the game.

I like a lot of what Omar Khan and Andy Weidl have done in building this roster, but coming into the season with this collection of wide receivers is a gigantic swing and miss. There is just nobody out there you can rely on to make plays.

They are never open — whether by their own ability or by scheme — and they almost never make tough plays to help out their quarterbacks. Not every pass is going to be perfect into a wide open window. Sometimes you have to make a tough, contested play. Sometimes you have to make an above average play. The Steelers never make them.

I am not even fully convinced that Davante Adams is the right fit based on age and contract, but dammit they have to get somebody else in there.

4. In the days after Sunday’s game a lot of the discussion centered around Pickens, his usage and the batshit insane way the Steelers tried to justify his snap count on Sunday night.

The company line — load management. They were limiting his snap counts in the same way they limit Cam Heyward or T.J. Watt to keep him fresh.

The likely reality — bullshit.

That does not even pass the laugh test.

When it comes to professional coaches and front offices I am a firm believer in trust what they do, not what they say.

The Steelers are not happy with the current state of their wide receiver room, no matter how much they talk up Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin. If they were happy with it, they would not have gone all in to try and get Brandon Aiyuk before the season.

If they were happy with it, they would not be interested in Adams right now.

Their actions speak louder than their words, and their actions are that they want to get somebody better.

But they are never going to say that publicly because it does not do anybody any good. If Mike Tomlin goes in front of the press on Tuesday afternoon and says, “yeah, we’re not happy with our depth here and we are trying to find somebody better” all that does is paint you as desperate to other teams and drag down the players you do have and might be stuck with all season.

Van Jefferson is doing the best he can. The problem is that he is Van Jefferson. He knows that. You don’t need to publicly put the guy on blast and crush his confidence because, shit, you might be stuck with relying on him all year.

The same thing applies to Pickens. They are not managing his workload! They are soft-benching him because they are tired of his shit! Maybe half-assing it is not the best approach. But the reality is that you still need to win football games, and for better or worse he is still the best wide receiver you have. You still need to get SOMETHING out of him.

Pickens is an insanely frustrating player because he will make the occasional jaw-dropping play, and he is a legitimate big-play threat in the offense. But the mistakes he makes are baffling. They need more from him. They also need more around him.