One way to view the entirety of an NFL season is by quarters, and in that way it can be analogous to an actual game. Because an NFL regular season now includes 17 games, which isn't cleanly divisible by four, some minor fudging of the numbers is necessary, but it still can provide a workable picture of a particular team's development during the course of the journey.
Four weeks/games ago, the Steelers were 6-3 and sitting pretty coming off a win over Green Bay at Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 12. For them, the definition of sitting pretty was being a half-game behind AFC North leading Baltimore, owners of a tiebreaker advantage over 6-3 Cleveland, and one-game ahead of the 5-4 Bengals. Understand that sitting pretty was in no way related to looking good in the process of that winning.
Aesthetics aside, the Steelers seemed to have found their niche as a team combining infrequent bursts of productive offense, with a defense that was not stingy as much as it was occasionally dynamic, and special teams contributing a never-miss placekicker and some occasional splash. It was nerve-wracking and frustrating for long periods, but against six of their first nine opponents they had made it work for them. And so in an industry that concerns itself only with "how many" and not "how," the Steelers were finding ways to take care of their business.
One quarter of the same season later, they are the exact opposite.
In losing three of the last four to limp into the final quarter of this regular season at 7-6 – the fourth defeat coming at the hands of New England, 21-18, on a Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium – what they have been finding lately are ways to lose. And limp is an apt description.
A month ago they often played complementary football in a good way, but Thursday night against the Patriots was another example of doing the opposite.
In the two games immediately before their trip to Pittsburgh, the Patriots had scored 7 points and posted 283 total yards in a loss to the 4-7 New York Giants, and then no points and 257 yards in a shutout loss to the 4-7 Los Angeles Chargers. Against the Steelers, New England scored 21 points on 219 total yards in the first half.
The Patriots took the opening kickoff, and with Bailey Zappe completing 3-of-4 for 60 yards and a touchdown and converting a third-and-9 with an 11-yard scramble, they used 8 plays to cover the 75 yards and take a 7-0 lead just 3:48 into the game.
The Steelers answered with a field goal to make it 7-3, and then early in the second quarter Mitch Trubisky made the big mistake that Zappe had avoided. On a third-and-10 that was part of a half where the Steelers converted just 1-of-6, Trubisky's pass down the sideline to Pat Freiermuth was intercepted by Jabrill Peppers at the Steelers 43-yard line and returned 32 yards to the 11. Then it was Zappe to tight end Hunter Henry for an 8-yard touchdown and the deficit was 14-3.
Before the second quarter ended, Zappe hooked up with Henry for a 24-yard touchdown that made it 21-3, and when the half ended he had completed 67 percent for 196 yards, 2 touchdowns, and a 136.1 rating; Henry got into the end zone twice; and JuJu Smith-Schuster had catches of 37, 17, and 28 yards. An offense that had spent the last couple of weeks unable to get out of its own way was taking advantage of a secondary that wasn't making plays on the ball, and exposed by a pass rush that wasn't getting there.
Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren had been carrying the offense via the success and frequency with which they had been carrying the football, but New England's No. 3 ranked run defense shut that down. Harris finished with 29 yards, Warren finished with 11, and their combined average per carry was 2.1.
George Pickens was targeted 6 times and finished with 5 catches for 19 yards, and Diontae Johnson was targeted 7 times and finished with 3 catches for 57 yards, which comes out to a 76-yard total and a 9.5 average per catch, both numbers way below the line for a day's work from the Nos. 1-2 wide receivers of a team with any hope to remain in the playoff picture. And the unit as a whole continues to be unable to create chunk plays in sufficient numbers to cut down on the instances where the offense must sustain long-ish drives to have a chance to score points.
Consider that the Patriots scored 3 touchdowns and ran 55 offensive plays, while the Steelers ran more plays (66) and owned a 5-plus minute edge in time of possession on the way to scoring only 2 touchdowns. New England created fewer opportunities for itself to have a possession ruined by a penalty, a bad play, or some other garden variety mistake.
The Steelers were without Kenny Pickett, and with four other starters – Harris, left guard Isaac Seumalo, center Mason Cole, and inside linebacker Elandon Roberts – playing through injuries sustained within 72 hours of Thursday night's game. Mykal Walker (signed Oct. 30) and Trent Thompson (signed Aug. 2) had to be pressed into coverage roles maybe a bit too ambitious based on their recent, quick, and necessary climb up a depth chart suddenly having to absorb three veteran starters on the injured reserve list.
Limping, therefore, is a legitimate representation of the Steelers' current condition, but they still had chances to beat New England.
But having a chance and getting it done are different conversations, which is a depressing reality for a team that once had been creating ways to win and now is mired in a stretch of finding ways to lose. Oh, and their final four games will be against better competition in tougher venues than what was presented by this back-to-back 2-10s that left town victorious.
There are no simple solutions, and time is of the essence.
