For a brief moment, it looked like the Pittsburgh Steelers had finally turned a corner. Their win over the Cincinnati Bengals—and shutting down that high-powered passing attack—lifted team morale and gave them a chance to stack wins for the first time since early October. That’s why the Week 12 loss to the Chicago Bears stung perhaps more than any other game this season.
“I think that one hurt a little more. A little more hushed in the locker room,” Dulac said on 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann. “I don’t know if that’s a byproduct of being on the road or not. I don’t really think so, but I noticed that. They’re not the type of team to panic, but the losses are mounting, and that’s four in the last six games.”
The most frustrating part of it all is the Steelers’ maddening lack of consistency. The defense was bad for the first several weeks of the season, but it seemed to solve many of those issues with the new safety tandem of Jalen Ramsey and Kyle Dugger in place. Yet the Steelers allowed 239 yards and three passing touchdowns to Caleb Williams. The secondary looked hapless in the second half.
This is now the fourth time that Pittsburgh’s defense has allowed over 30 points; the fifth time if you count Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks with the kick-return gaffe.
Mason Rudolph claimed that the team is not panicking about falling out of first place in the AFC North, but the demeanor in the Steelers’ locker room tells a different story. Patrick Queen could barely hide the emotion on his face as he blamed schematic issues for the defense’s shortcomings. Jalen Ramsey gave one-word answers and stormed off after a question he didn’t like during his media availability. And Cameron Heyward noted that the sand is passing through the hourglass as they run out of time to turn things around.
Barely any player gave more than a one- or two-word answer from the limited footage that surfaced after the 31-28 loss in Chicago. It was easy for the Steelers to say they weren’t going to ride the rollercoaster when they had both a lead and buffer in the division to figure things out. But that time is up. They not only fell out of first place in the AFC North, but out of the playoff picture altogether.
Not only are they on the proverbial roller coaster, but each drop seems to plunge lower than the previous one.
Not winning a playoff game this season would seem like a failure. Failing to make the playoffs altogether after all the moves they made to be competitive? That would be inexcusable.
