PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s not encouraging when you ask a couple of the Steelers key players what is wrong with the team in the first halves of games and they each respond ‘I don’t know’.
Really, that’s a preferred answer to making something up.
“It’s getting repetitive to answer it,” Roethlisberger said of continued questions of their first halves. “I don’t know. If I had an answer, I would do whatever I could to get it fixed. We got two games left, but none more important than the next one. We will do everything we can to get it fixed.”
“We want to be able to go down the field and put points on the board. I don’t have an answer. I’m sorry.”
“It’s a myriad of things so it’s going to require our attention,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “There better be some changes.”
“Play better,” said Steelers defensive captain Cam Heyward. “There weren’t really a lot of instances where we played good; not coming downhill, not getting off blocks, didn’t use our hands well, lapses, offsides, you play a good team and you can’t spot them anything.”
“Expecting something different and not doing anything different, that’s shame on us. If we don’t execute at a high level, we get a shellacking we got today. As a defense, I expect our guys to play better. If we can’t do it. We have the wrong guys in.”
“Execute,” said rookie tailback Najee Harris. “We just have to execute.”
“It would be kind of dumb to blame it on everything else and not us. When we are at week whatever, later in the season. It’s about time we point it at ourselves rather than other X-factors.”
“We have to get together as a team. I don’t think it has to do with anything other than us. Personally and individually, we have to find to execute as a team.”
“We are not getting it done,” said TJ Watt. “We need to correct things ASAP.”
“I think we have been digging deep all year trying to figure it out. It seems like we keep having the same conversation with questions being asked with the same answers. Something has to give here.”
“I don’t think we lost our confidence,” said safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. “I know for a fact I haven’t lost my confidence.”
“I’m a professional football player, I’m going to go out there and compete. Whether we are up 40 or down 40, I’m going to go out there and compete. Play hard, play fast, play physical.”
“If you need confidence after you lose a few games, whether its lopsided or not, then you are not meant for this sport. I don’t think anyone on this team has lost confidence. Attacking next week with a chip on my shoulder.”
“You can’t pout about it. You channel your energies and your focus on what we need to improve.”
“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Roethlisberger said. “You will have games like this, we’ve had more than we want to this year. We might be young enough it might not sink in. Sometimes lack of experience is better.”
Maybe the answer is the elephant in the room no one wants to discuss. The Steelers just aren’t that good and they should accept what they are.
“Excuse my language, but I ain’t accepting s---,” Heyward said. “We got a lot of football left to play. A lot will be said in these last two games. It breaks my heart to let our fans down, let our team down, to go out like that.”
“I’m not ready to throw in the damn towel. We got two games to see where we fall.”
“Big game Monday night, two divisional opponents (left on the schedule),” Roethlisberger said. “That is going to be my message, I’m sure Cam says the same thing. Let’s focus on one game, one opponent and try to get one victory and see what happens after that.”
It’s crazy that post-season is still a conversation with this team.
Steelers have not lost at home since September and host Cleveland Monday, Jan. 3. It’s been a wild year, hard to think right now of anything wilder than the Steelers playing in the playoffs.