Airing of Grievances: Predictable problems end Steelers’ season without a playoff win yet again
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During his call of the Steelers’ playoff loss Monday, CBS play-by-play man Jim Nantz said he had been locked in his snowbound hotel for so long, it was starting to feel like “The Shining.”
Well, however frightening Nantz’s stay was in Buffalo’s version of the Overlook Hotel, it couldn’t have been as psychologically disturbing as it was for Steelers fans to sit through their team’s effort in Orchard Park.
As it turned out, delaying the start of that Super Wild Card Weekend game by 27 hours because of a Western New York blizzard did nothing to derail the momentum of the hometown Bills. But it did freeze whatever good vibes the Steelers had going over the last three weeks with Mason Rudolph at quarterback.
The Bills rode a five-game win streak into the contest and then rode right over the Steelers at the start of the game. They jumped out to a 21-0 lead and held on for a 31-17 victory.
That does it for the Steelers season. It wrapped up like so many others over the last seven years. A troubled, roller-coaster regular season that ended with a late scramble and help to get into the playoffs, only to fail in a late comeback after a hideous start in a playoff game.
So, despite pulling themselves back from the playoff cliff at 7-7 and despite the fun Mason Rudolph renaissance story, the Steelers are left to watch the playoffs after their first game.
Here is our final “Airing of Grievances” for the 2023-24 campaign.
Felt familiar: In general, the NFL playoffs are highly unpredictable. Over their last four trips to the postseason, though, you can always count on the Steelers to get off to a bad start.
They got down 10-0 and 17-6 in New England in the 2016 AFC Championship game. They trailed 21-0 within the first 19 minutes at home against Jacksonville in the divisional round the next year. Cleveland jumped out to a 28-0 first-quarter lead in 2020’s first round at (then) Heinz Field. And they were losing 28-7 before the 20-minute mark in the wild-card round of 2021 in Kansas City.
Monday was no different in Buffalo. The Steelers trailed by three touchdowns at the 7:01 mark of the second quarter.
The Steelers’ first five possessions were three punts, a fumble and an interception. The first four of those sequences lasted five, three, one and three plays. The longest of those drives lasted just 2 minutes, 25 seconds.
The Steelers ended up losing the time-of-possession battle 33:19 to 26:41. They couldn’t run time off the clock to keep quarterback Josh Allen and the Bills offense on the sidelines. And they couldn’t lean into their run game for production as much as they did over the last three weeks.
Just as predicted: All week long, the Steelers talked about needing to contain Allen as a runner.
Talk didn’t turn into action.
The Bills’ third touchdown of the game was a 52-yard romp from Allen through the Steelers secondary after no one kept him in the pocket up front.
JOSH ******* ALLEN!!!!
????: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/PdKuDqemFI
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 15, 2024
The tackling on that run — how can I say this? — left a little something to be desired.
Damontae Kazee bounced off of Allen. Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace couldn’t get off of blocks. And Minkah Fitzpatrick let up on the play when he thought Allen would go down, then he couldn’t catch up to him in the open field.
Allen ended up with 74 yards rushing on eight carries to go along with 21 pass completions for 203 yards and three touchdowns. He had no turnovers, two sacks and a passer rating of 121.9.
Related:
• First Call: Najee Harris says Steelers need more discipline; Gene Steratore has mixed reviews of officiating in loss to Bills
• Tim Benz: Mike Tomlin’s abrupt press conference exit felt calculated. So what’s he calculating?
• Mark Madden: Steelers going nowhere with Mike Tomlin, overpaid defense
So much for that: Another point of emphasis from the Steelers defense was a stated desire to minimize the impact of Allen’s tight ends.
That didn’t work out either.
The two first touchdowns were to tight ends Dawson Knox and Dalton Kincaid.
DAWSON KNOX FOR SIX!
????: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/IOht4RlESp
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 15, 2024
Tight ends going back-to-back. ????
????: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/Ygmhv12d9v
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 15, 2024
“We’ve had our issues with tight end matchups over the second half of the year. We adjusted in-game. But they made some plays definitively early on,” coach Mike Tomlin said after the defeat.
According to the CBS broadcast, it was the first time in NFL history that two different tight ends scored touchdowns in the first quarter of a playoff game.
Gee, go figure. A tight end record being set against the Steelers? What a shocker.
Long day at the office: A few Steelers in particular had a game they’d like to forget.
Inside linebacker Myles Jack was in coverage on Kincaid’s TD catch. He also got flagged for a fourth-quarter defensive holding call in coverage and a late hit on Allen during a drive that resulted in Khalil Shakir’s fourth-quarter touchdown reception.
HOW IS THIS REAL?!?!
????: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/C3iUd0VyW0
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 16, 2024
“When you get a major penalty on a drive on defense, that’s usually going to produce points. That was the case. That put them back up by 14. The rest was academic,” Tomlin said.
Fitzpatrick, obviously, missed a tackle on that TD as well. So he had a rough afternoon, too.
And let’s not leave punter Pressley Harvin off the list. He had punts of 31, 42 and 30 yards in the first half. Buffalo’s Sam Martin pulled a hamstring during the game chasing down a blocked field goal late in the second quarter. But the only time he was called upon to punt in the second half, he hit a 45-yarder on one leg.
Big miss for Mason: Rudolph needed to throw a better pass to Diontae Johnson on his end-zone interception in the first quarter. Or just not throw it at all.
KAIIR WITH THE INT‼️
????: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/bhJ4dIGLfl
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 15, 2024
That kept the score at 14-0.
“I have got to put that ball much more outside. Us or nobody. But (Kaiir Elam) made a great play,” Rudolph said after the loss.
Rudolph is right on both fronts. It was well executed by Elam. And he does need to get the ball outside more. It was Rudolph’s only big mistake in his four games as a starter this year. But why not keep the ball on the ground there?
It was only second down. Don’t put the ball in harm’s way until third or fourth down. Don’t risk a pass there with two more cracks at the goal line. Especially with the way Najee Harris has been getting the ball in the end zone lately. He had four touchdowns over the last three weeks. Harris was given the ball only 12 times for 37 yards. Jaylen Warren had 38 yards on eight carries.
The ensuing possession ended up with Allen’s touchdown run.
Rudolph finished the evening 23 of 39 for 229 yards with a pair of touchdowns and an interception. Good for a passer rating of 80.
Now we’ll see if Rudolph is back next year and if he is given the chance to start, or if the job is just given back to Kenny Pickett.
But, hey, at least there won’t be another depth chart controversy until training camp.