Things have gone from not good in recent weeks to much, much worse for the Pittsburgh Steelers, thanks to their Sunday loss to the Chicago Bears.
The Steelers coughed up the AFC North lead after falling 31-28 in Chicago, and now they are on the outside looking in on the AFC playoff picture. Just a few weeks ago, the Steelers looked like a proverbial lock to make the playoffs. Now? They might not even get a chance to have the typical one-and-done in the postseason under Mike Tomlin.
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, the Steelers’ odds to make the postseason sit at 50%. In mid-October, prior to losing a Thursday Night Football matchup to the Cincinnati Bengals on the road, Pittsburgh’s odds to make the playoffs were nearly 85%.
Now, it’s a coin flip, and the schedule is about to get a whole lot tougher.
“The hourglass is going and the sand’s falling through,” Cam Heyward told reporters after the loss to the Bears, according to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor. “There’s not a lot of time for mistakes.”
You hate to say there’s no margin for error in sports, but that’s exactly what the Steelers are looking at right now. They’ve lost four of their last six games, and things have been largely a disaster since their Week 5 bye week.
It’s going to get tougher, too, as the Buffalo Bills come to town in Week 13 for a huge AFC matchup. After that, the Steelers hit the road for an AFC North showdown with the Baltimore Ravens in Week 14. A game at the Detroit Lions still looms later in the season, as does a second matchup with the Ravens in Week 18.
The division could be on the line that week. Or the season could be all but over for the Black and Gold. That’s how poorly things have gone in recent weeks for the Steelers. If it’s not the defense struggling to stop anyone and giving up major chunk plays, it’s the offense failing to do anything significant in the passing game, leaving far too much heavily lifting for the run game.
It all turned into a very bad combination Sunday at Soldier Field. Though T.J. Watt’s strip-sack and Nick Herbig’s recovery for a touchdown was a huge spark, the defense had no real answers for Caleb Williams and the Bears’ passing attack. That led to some pointed comments after the game from linebacker Patrick Queen about schematic issues.
Watt was angry after the game, too, stating that it’s the same story over and over again with the Steelers, which it is. They rely too much on turnovers and can’t find a way to slow down opponents consistently. Realistically, they’re being outschemed and outcoached, and it’s putting the players at a disadvantage.
It’s the same thing on the offensive side of the football, too. And that was never more apparent than on the Steelers’ final drive Sunday. Chicago sat on the underneath slant routes and then sat at the sticks on fourth down, winning the game. The Steelers never even targeted the middle of the field beyond 10 yards in a game in which the Bears were without their three starting linebackers.
So, the time for mistakes is growing smaller and smaller. As Heyward said, the sands are running through the hourglass. And with that sand dwindling, so too is the Steelers’ playoff chances.
