Feats of Strength: Some individual applause for beating Browns, but big picture grievances as Steelers miss playoffs
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Our biggest grievance this week is that this will be our final “Airing of Grievances” for the 2022-23 season. That’s because the Steelers didn’t get all the help they needed to qualify for the playoffs, despite beating the Cleveland Browns, 28-14, at Acrisure Stadium Sunday.
But that’s not entirely true, is it?
The real reason the Steelers aren’t going to the playoffs is because they were lousy to start the season against too many mediocre teams from the AFC. Before the bye, the Steelers dropped decisions to the Jets, Patriots, Dolphins and Browns. Of that group, only Miami finished above .500, and that was the team that managed to slide into the final playoff spot instead of the Steelers.
In the second half of the season, the Steelers also blew a second-half lead at home against the Cincinnati Bengals and couldn’t beat the Ravens at home with backup quarterback Tyler Huntley under center Dec. 11.
There are other “Feats of Strength” from Sunday’s win that we won’t outline below. For instance, rookie receiver George Pickens had a touchdown and an impactful 72 yards. Connor Heyward stepped up big with three clutch receptions and a first-down run. Alex Highsmith had 2½ sacks, and Cameron Heyward had two.
It’s hard to focus on just the positives, though, when the Steelers are good enough to at least be playing next week. No doubt, they’d get throttled in Buffalo — as they did earlier this season — if they had to visit there again to open the playoffs.
But their own shortcomings were magnified with a 2-6 start to the season. Yet another horrid beginning to a campaign that cost them a playoff berth. Just like 1-4 in 2019. Or 0-4 in 2013. Or 1-2-1 in 2018.
And now, a sixth straight season without a playoff win.
So get ready for plenty more grievances to air in September if coach Mike Tomlin can’t figure out a way to reverse that trend at the start of next season. In the meantime, here’s our praising and venting for Week 18 this year.
Feats of Strength
RB1s: Nick Chubb might have been on the field for Cleveland. But running back Najee Harris was his equal, if not better at times, during the game Sunday afternoon.
“Late in the season, your featured runner has to be the best runner in the stadium,” Tomlin said of Harris. “It was not only about challenging our defensive front, but it was about challenging our offensive front to make sure that Najee had a good day. I think we checked both of those boxes.”
Despite a goal line-fumble, Harris had 84 yards on 23 carries and a touchdown. He also had a 45-yard reception wiped out by an ineligible-man-downfield penalty.
Granted, Chubb was really good when the Browns let him have the ball. He had 77 yards on 12 carries. He also had 45 receiving yards, plus a touchdown. But Harris helped his team to a win.
Pick ’em off: The Steelers had two interceptions: one by Damontae Kazee, another by Levi Wallace.
The Steelers converted a field goal after the Wallace pick and a touchdown off of Kazee’s. They now have 20 on the season. That’s the most in the NFL entering play for the late Sunday games. San Francisco and Green Bay started their contests with 17 apiece.
The Steelers needed those picks because they have produced just three fumble recoveries, fewest in the NFL. Meanwhile Steelers rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett threw just one interception during his final eight games.
Wrangling Watson: If the Steelers are going to be facing Deshaun Watson twice a year, they better get pressure on him like they did Sunday. The Steelers totaled seven sacks on the afternoon, and Watson escaped numerous others. In all, he was hit 10 times.
“Obviously, he’s a problem,” Tomlin said of Watson’s future in the AFC North. “Particularly as he runs around and extends plays. That’s probably not going to go anywhere.”
That said, the Steelers did to Watson and the Browns roughly what they managed to do against Derek Carr and the Las Vegas Raiders two weeks ago. They managed to contain a former Pro Bowl quarterback and a deep threat wide receiver while not allowing a star running back to go crazy on the ground.
Josh Jacobs had only 44 yards. Nick Chubb was limited to those 12 carries and 77 yards. Davante Adams had only two catches for 15 yards for Vegas. Cleveland’s Amari Cooper had two for 51.
The Cleveland big three was better than Vegas’. But not good enough to get the win.
Grievances
Not enough help: The Steelers won, and the Patriots lost. That was two-thirds of the three-leg parlay the team needed to qualify for the playoffs.
But the Jets couldn’t beat the Dolphins in a battle of third-string quarterbacks. Skylar Thompson and the Dolphins “outdueled” Joe Flacco and the Jets, 11-6.
“When you don’t take care of your own business, you don’t control your own destiny. That’s just what happened,” Pickett said.
The Jets-Dolphins game was tied 6-6 with less than a minute to go. Miami kicked a late field goal and got a safety when the Jets tried to lateral their way to victory.
The Dolphins’ field-goal drive was aided by a very controversial horse-collar flag against the Jets. To Pickett’s point, if you are putting your fate in the hands of the Jets and the officials, maybe you aren’t a playoff team in the first place.
Bad start: The Steelers goal-line sequence on their first drive was a nightmare.
After Diontae Johnson was tackled at the 2-yard line — continuing his season-long touchdown drought — Harris was stopped short of the goal line on first-and-goal. Tomlin didn’t challenge the play. But upon replay, it appeared Harris stayed on his feet long enough to break the plane of the goal line.
Even CBS officiating guru Gene Steratore said he believed Harris avoided going down before breaking the plane.
This was a 1st and Goal play in #CLEvsPIT that Pittsburgh elected not to challenge. I understand rushing to catch the defense off-guard and attempting to quickly score, but it appears that Najee Harris' knee is not down prior to the ball crossing the goal line. pic.twitter.com/yLVJ2AmfED
— Gene Steratore (@GeneSteratore) January 8, 2023
On second down, Pickett didn’t make it in on a quarterback sneak. Harris then fumbled attempting to leap over the top on third down.
From the moment Johnson got tackled at the 2-yard line, it was a series of bad events rolling downhill.
Checking your ‘makeup’: Referee Clete Blakeman’s crew was guilty of the most egregious, intentional officiating makeup call I’ve ever seen.
In the third quarter, Steelers defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi sacked Watson by his facemask.
Wow, the refs did NOT call this a facemask penalty on Deshaun Watson.
Almost any QB easily gets this call.pic.twitter.com/BaC7kCs9f0
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 8, 2023
There was no flag. How that was missed, I have no idea. The officials seemed bound and determined to find a makeup call somewhere. And they did. Or they just invented one.
I submit as evidence the phantom roughing-the-passer call on Heyward, which would’ve forced a third down in the red zone.
This was just called roughing the passer on the Steelers. pic.twitter.com/rcDMIQY3Kf
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) January 8, 2023
That was a makeup call so blatant, so premeditated, it should’ve made even NHL officials blush. The Steelers need lots of work in the offseason, but the officials need even more.