Ok, um.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really know where to start.

I don’t really know what to say.

But, that’s sort of what I do around here, so, I guess I’ll have to figure it out.

1: On The Way To One-And-Done

The Steelers played some of the most uninspired games of football I have ever seen. While Baltimore solidified their AFC North title before kickoff in Pittsburgh, the Steelers still had tons to play for in this matchup:

• The chance to improve their seeding and guarantee themselves the fifth seed
• The chance to knock out a divisional rival from playoff contention, always a sweet treat
• The chance to stop the bleeding, gain some momentum, and right the ship before the postseason

The Steelers looked like a team that were just begging for the season to be over. Unfortunately for them, they still have at least one more game they have to play.

At the time of this publishing, it’s still unclear who the Steelers will play in the postseason. If the Los Angeles Chargers lose tomorrow, Pittsburgh retains the fifth seed and will go to Houston.

However, the Chargers play Las Vegas tomorrow…so, it’s likely that the Steelers will slip to the sixth seed and go on the road to Baltimore. You know, the same team that thrashed the Steelers 34-17 just a few weeks ago.

But to tell you the truth, it really doesn’t matter who they play. Unless something drastic, and I mean drastic, happens to this team in the next week, it would not matter who they played on Wild Card Weekend: they would get crushed.

And that is incredibly disheartening.

2: I Think I’m Done With Russell Wilson

This was supposed to be the Russell Wilson redemption game. A redemption game for the way he played for the last three weeks. A redemption game for the way this fan base has slowly turned on him. A redemption game for his offense, which is now rivaling last year’s abysmal squad in both production and vibe.

So what did Wilson do? He went 17/31 for 148 yards and a touchdown. Yeah, he had drops from some key players (oh boy, we will get to George Pickens in a moment) but I do not want to hear it. He looked awful. Completely, bitterly, deeply awful.

Wilson had completed four passes at halftime. The Steelers had 91 total yards at the end of the third quarter.

Even in the fourth quarter, when Wilson was able to connect on a few passes, the offense was still sluggish, and Wilson still made mistakes.

That four yard run that killed valuable seconds was a boneheaded and egregious error by Wilson and potentially cost the Steelers a chance to kick a game-winning field goal.

It was just the latest in now a month of terrible football for Wilson, and I seriously worry that this kind of play from him is now a permanent fixture of having him in the game. He looks the way Denver Broncos fans warned he would…perhaps they were just a little early in their predictions.

I would be completely fine playing Justin Fields in the Wild Card game, which brings me to by next point.

3: Justin Fields In The Postseason?

Screw it, I’m down.

Fields played six games for the Steelers to open the year, going 4-2. Here are some important stats during that time frame:

• Fields averaged 184.3 passing yards per game
• Fields recorded 10 total touchdowns and two total turnovers
• Fields completed 66.3% of his passes
• Fields averaged 38.5 rushing yards per game
• Fields was sacked 16 times in total (2.66 per game)
• The Steelers averaged 20.6 points per game

Now let’s take a look at Wilson during this four-game stretch. Now in complete fairness to him, he has missed Pickens for considerable time during this, but I would expect a veteran like him to be playing better than he is, given his experience in this league. In the last four games, Wilson’s stats are:

• Wilson averaged 174.5 passing yards per game
• Wilson recorded five total touchdowns and four total turnovers
• Wilson completed 61.8% of his passes
• Wilson averaged 27.75 rushing yards per game
• Wilson was sacked 14 times in total (3.5 per game)
• The Steelers averaged 15.3 points per game

I don’t know man, the numbers are not kind to Wilson at all. Can it really get any worse with Fields?

At the very least, Fields can escape the problems that the offensive line is currently suffering. In addition to that, getting Fields his first ever playoff experience could go a long way in his consideration for the quarterback job in 2025.

4: George Pickens…

I have long been a defender of George Pickens. You can scroll the archives on this website for proof. I’m a big believer in his talents and in getting him the ball as many times as possible. He is the biggest factor in Pittsburgh’s offense. I have defended him from a growing number of people that are trying to run him out of this town.

But I can’t defend anything about him from this game.

Pickens was targeted six times and only came down with the ball once. He ended the day with NO receiving yards and was a disaster on offense. He had multiple key drops and was borderline unplayable in the second half.

The anti-Pickens crowd will no doubt run wild with this game, using it as their new Exhibit A as to why the Steelers need to get rid of him as soon as possible.

I’m not going to say any of that, but he let the Steelers down big time tonight, and he needs to own up to what was maybe the worst game of his NFL career.

5: Steelers Needed TJ Watt To Be Better

For the Steelers to win a game like this, the Steelers needed TJ Watt to be at his best. After not recording a sack in back to back games, the Steelers needed Watt to have a big bounce back in a must-win game for the team.

You wouldn’t have even known he played in this game. He did not record a single stat, and went a third straight game without a sack, the longest drought since Weeks 12-14 of the 2018 season, his second in the league.

It only gets worse when you see what his counterpart, Trey Hendrickson, did in this game. He terrorized Wilson and recorded a stunning 3.5 sacks, the second highest one-game total of his NFL career.

Watt finished the regular season with 11.5 sacks, the second lowest number in any healthy season, only above his rookie year.

With Watt now at 30 years old, the Steelers need to be in a place where they aren’t relying on him every single game to make one (or sometimes more) game-wrecking plays. However, they still are, and Watt did not deliver his specialty in this game or in the last two before that.

He was robbed of the Defensive Player of the Year award last season. He should not be a finalist this year.

(Featured photo from USA Today)