17 hours Ago By LeeAnn Lowman, Steeler Nation
The Pittsburgh Steelers have suffered three devastating losses in the past 11 days. While everyone expected the games against the Philadelphia Eagles , Baltimore Ravens , and Kansas City Chiefs to be the toughest of the year, few expected the team to look as inept as they did. This is especially worrisome as the Steelers have already secured a playoff spot.
After the latest loss, word broke that several players were hinting that there is someone specific they hold responsible for the losses. The day after the Chiefs loss, Mark Kaboly from The Pat McAfee Show joined Pat McAfee and his team to discuss the disappointing contest. Kaboly said three losses in 11 days wasn't where the team saw themselves at this point of the season.
He added that after the game, there were a lot of one-on-one conversations happening as the players tried to figure out what was going on with the once-successful team. Cam Heyward: “When 10 guys do their job and one guy doesn’t, we are screwed." McAfee asked him about the veiled comments from players, and Kaboly said he thinks someone is trying to do too much to the detriment of the entire defense.
Captain Cameron Heyward seemed to imply the same thing by saying it is hard to be successful when 10 guys do their job, and one doesn't. This has led to rampant speculation about who that player is. "Apparently, this has been happening for a couple weeks now," said Kaboly.
"I know Patrick Queen had mentioned it last week, about people doing their jobs, and not being in their right positions. But that's normally just player talk after a game, you know, 'We all have to be accountable.' But something was a little off yesterday after the game.
You could tell people wanted to say something about somebody specific, but they bit their tongue. But they made it known that somebody, one, two, three people, who knows, are going outside of their capabilities maybe, trying to play maybe hero ball, and that's not really working very well in their goal of winning." Kaboly said there have been a lot of uncontested touchdowns.
In his opinion, that usually means a communication error, as Patrick Queen indicated after the Week 16 loss to the Ravens. Those kinds of miscommunications are what you expect during the first couple of weeks of the season, but certainly not in the last few. Head Coach Mike Tomlin didn't pull any punches in his postgame press conference , calling their play "junior varsity.
" The Steelers need to figure out what has gone wrong during their mini-bye week before their final game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The losses have all but knocked them out of contention for winning the AFC North since the Ravens beat the Houston Texans. Now, the Steelers need to win a game that many thought would be irrelevant against the Bengals to hopefully face the Texans in the playoffs instead of the Ravens or the Buffalo Bills.
Steelers Players Express Their Frustrations As Kaboly said, the players expressed their frustrations in the locker room after the game. That included TJ Watt , who echoed the sentiments of many others, saying they need to take a long look in the mirror and get back to work. DeShon Elliott , who the Steelers were relieved to have back on defense, said they must stop leaving opponents wide open.
Calvin Austin III explained he finds a loss like this more frustrating because it feels like they gave the opponent the win. In addition to his comment about one player's lack of effort, Heyward added they have played like s**t the past three weeks. That's hard to argue with.
Not much went right during these losses. They turned the ball over, failed to stop opposing offenses, continued to have slow starts that later stalled, and the offensive line seems to be regressing. They have their work cut out for them to be able to win a playoff game.
Who do you think is playing "hero ball?" Click to This article first appeared on SteelerNation.com and was syndicated with permission..
