It was the biggest down of the Steelers' season. Faced with a 4th-and-10 from the Bengals' 11-yard line with three minutes left, Ben Roethlisberger needed to convert if they were going to have any chance of staging a miracle comeback, or at the least, escape Heinz Field with their dignity.
And they simply ran out of plays. Roethlisberger dumped off the ball to Najee Harris, who was immediately tackled behind the line of scrimmage. The Steelers have a Hall of Fame quarterback and plethora of dynamic wideouts. Yet, they just waved the white flag.
"We had fired all of our bullets at that juncture in terms of some of our play selection," Mike Tomlin told reporters afterwards. "It just wasn't a good enough play to get in there."
The Bengals' 24-10 win Sunday dropped the Steelers to 1-2, but more consequently, it signified the end. The Steelers have lost two of their last four home games to the Browns and Bengals, the division's two perennial basement dwellers. Both clubs feature an excellent young quarterback and appear ready to embark on years of prolonged postseason contention.
Meanwhile, the Steelers are stuck trying to pick themselves off the turf — literally and figuratively.
For the third straight week, Roethlisberger received little time in the pocket and was hounded by Cincinnati defenders all afternoon. He was sacked four times, bringing his season total to eight. For comparison's sake, he was sacked just 13 times all last year.
But the problems extend beyond a porous offensive line. Roethlisberger is at the end of his career and playing like a quarterback who should be enjoying his Sunday afternoons on the couch rather than retreating into check downs. Only five of his 58 passes Sunday were thrown more than 16 yards down the field, and just one was completed.
An astounding 17 of his balls were thrown behind or at the line of scrimmage. Big Ben threw two picks as well, both of which found the outstretched arms of linebacker Logan Wilson. They each led to touchdowns.
Make no mistake: Roethlisberger is playing like the old and washed up pass-thrower who limped through the end of last season. Over his last eight games, he's thrown 15 touchdowns and 11 interceptions and has a pedestrian 82.2 QB rating. During that time, Roethlisberger has had an entire offseason to heal and regroup, and training camp to get acclimated with a new offensive coordinator. But none of it is working. The Steelers are getting dominated on both sides of the ball.
On Sunday, they also failed to register a sack or even hit on Joe Burrow. Yes, T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are both nursing groin injuries. But that is an inexcusably anemic effort.
The lone bright spot of this season has been the improvement of Harris, who had 28 touches for 142 yards Sunday. So at least the first-round running back seems to be working out. Unfortunately, he has no offensive line in front of him, and a weak semblance of a once-great quarterback beside him.
The Steelers have 14 games left, so technically, there is plenty of time for them to turn their fortunes around. But there's also plenty of time for things to get worse.
Given how the half-year has gone, I would bet on the latter.
