This game sucked, man.
Prior to the game, it was pretty clear that the Jacksonville Jaguars were going to give the Pittsburgh Steelers all they could handle.
With Trevor Lawrence at quarterback and various weapons on both sides of the ball, the Jags were set to once again give the Steelers a hard time.
But it was a lot more than just that. And of course, we won’t be able to talk about this game without talking about the atrocious refball that we saw today.
But we’ll get there when we get there.
I should have known better. After the Steelers offense looked like they may have made the biggest improvements in the entire Kenny Pickett era, they reminded us of exactly who they were, and who we should always see them as.
I actually really liked the opening play call. On the first snap of the game, the Steelers dialed up a nice route for Diontae Johnson, who had Pickett delivered just a tad of a better throw, Johnson could have been gone and the Steelers start up 7-0 just seconds into the game.
Instead, we get a three-and-out…and another…and another…AND ANOTHER.
Four straight drives without a single first down. That’s disastrous for any offense, but it’s especially frustrating to see that the Steelers were still in it the whole time.
The defense held the Jaguars to just 6 points in that time, as well as forced a fumble and picked off Lawrence in the endzone.
But it took 5 whole drives for the anemic Steelers offense to finally move the chains.
After Damontae Kazee’s interception (during which Kazee stupidly ran out of the endzone and stepped out at the 2), the Steelers were able to put together a field goal drive. But that was about as good as it got for a long time.
Jacksonville tacks on another 3 points, and with just about a minute left, the Steelers try to put an extra field goal on the board before halftime.
…*sigh*
Here is where we will discuss some of the worst officiating I have ever seen. We’ll start with the no roughing the passer call. On a passing play, Pickett gets absolutely driven into the ground by a Jaguar, landing right on his shoulder.
There was no flag on this play, which would have been the wrong call in any sense, but is 200% worse when you contrast that hit with this one by Keanu Neal on Lawrence:
I honest to god need a detailed, five paragraph essay as to how the top play is NOT roughing the passer, and the bottom one is. Kenny Pickett
But however you feel about this first awful referee decision, we have another one to talk about that happened just seconds later.
While trying to kick a field goal from 56 yards, Boswell successfully boots it through, but the play is called back on a flag: offside on the OFFENSE, which takes the kick back 5 yards. Boswell’s attempt from 61 yards is no good, and the Steelers go into the half down by 6 instead of 3.
The broadcast team did not agree with the call, as they stated when coming back to start the second half, and neither did Fox’s NFL rules analyst (and former VP of officiating) who took to Twitter to say that officials are not supposed to call that.
Despite initially being designated as probable, Pickett did not return for the second half, and was later ruled out for the remainder of the game, forcing backup Mitch Trubisky to come in for Pickett.
Trubisky finished the day with 15/27 passes completed, 139 yards, 1 touchdown, and 2 interceptions, although a decent amount of virtually all those stats came in garbage time for Pittsburgh.
We got almost the full Mitch Trubisky experience in this game: a few highlights, some athletic runs, horrible defensive reads, and a guaranteed interception.
Of those highlights, however, Trubisky did lead a touchdown drive that ended with a spectacular hurdle by George Pickens for the score.
In the end, as could have been predicted, the defense could not drag the Steelers to a win against a very good Jaguars team.
Jacksonville’s running game absolutely dunked on Pittsburgh’s (surprise, surprise), and Trevor Lawrence out-dueled both Pickett and Trubisky on the field.
The defense did their part, securing three separate turnovers from the Jaguars, but they couldn’t force the offense to score. Aside from one bad play (the 56-yard touchdown to Travis Etienne), I thought the defense played a solid game.
But the offense, oh that offense, it disappeared when they needed it most. Pickett wasn’t there to lead a fourth quarter comeback this time,
We’re sitting here talking about the same old things once again this week, only this time, we don’t have a win to fall back on.
More thoughts down below:
-Cole Holcomb was very noticeable today, in a good way. Maybe his best game of the year today.
-I really like Kwon Alexander. His punch out for a fumble was huge (recovered by Holcomb) and he seems to come through with splash plays in crucial times.
-I’m a sucker for a backup QB coming in and winning the game type story, so I had high hopes for Mitch when he came in after the half, and was hoping we’d get to see the sequel to his efforts vs Tampa Bay last year. But I was incredibly underwhelmed by his performance. Too many bad decisions and not nearly enough to make up for it.
-The run game was awful again. Nothing else to say about that.
-Diontae Johnson was incredibly critical of the refs in this game, understandably so. He was far from the only player/coach to be furious with this officiating crew.
-Jaguars are one of the very few teams to mess with the Terrible Towel and still win (and no, I’m not talking about Trevor Lawrence)
-Rookie QB Will Levis threw 4 touchdowns today…so, be prepared to see that stat a lot as we discuss Pickett’s present and future NFL career
Odd stat of the game: Running back Najee Harris was the third highest rusher on the team with 13 yards, behind Jaylen Warren’s 19 yards and Mitch Trubisky’s 18 yards
(Featured photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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