Typically the Eye Opener follows one of two formats: A bullet-point style list going over the biggest topics in Pittsburgh sports on any given morning, or a singularly focused column on one topic.
Today, I bring you another style: The always beloved rankings, married with the much-celebrated blame game.
Without further adieu, here are the Top 10 Reasons the Steelers lost to Jacksonville yesterday:
10) Bad shoes
The Steelers have been playing at Heinz Field for over two decades now, and while the surface has been upgraded over the years, and frequent re-sodding takes place throughout the season, the grass outside the numbers yesterday looked awful.
At this point though, shouldn’t the Steelers, as an organization, be prepared for a wet day on a shoddy surface? Instead, we see players slipping and sliding all over the place, including Diontae Johnson on a potential second quarter touchdown.
9) Tight ends
Speaking of things that have been happening for decades, the Steelers’ struggles to cover tight ends/slot receivers continued yesterday, as Evan Engram caught all 10 balls Trevor Lawrence threw his way, to lead Jacksonville with 88 yards receiving.
Don’t expect a remedy for this any time soon, especially with Minkah Fitzpatrick out.
What’s more frustrating is that somehow, even with Pat Freiermuth out, Darnell Washignton’s snap count fell for a second straight week, and dramatically so. In Week 5 vs. Baltimore, Washington saw 70% of the Steelers’ offensive snaps. In Week 7 at Los Angeles, he saw just 53%.
Yesterday? The 6-foot-7, 265 lb behemoth, who spent most of training camp and the preseason pancaking defenders and toe-tapping in the end zone, was on the field for just 15% of the Steelers offensive snaps. That’s 10 plays.
That’s coaching malpractice.
8) The Trap
The Steelers found it several weeks ago in their unexpected loss at Houston. They found it some more against Baltimore and sprinkled some more in against the Rams: The trap. Inside, tackle-to-tackle, gap-blocking opened holes for Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren.
For the most part, it looked as if it was abandoned yesterday, and to the run game’s detriment. Jacksonville’s big, fast edge rushers had outside stretch, zone-blocking runs sniffed out. Meanwhile, an offensive line that was struggling to find traction on the ground was given the same pattycake-style blocking schemes in the run game.
7) Travis Etienne
On the other side of the ball, regardless of the blocking scheme, where he was lined up, or even whether it was a run or pass, Travis Etienne was the offensive engine for the Jaguars that Harris was supposed to be for the Steelers when they took him one spot ahead of Etienne two years ago.
It’s clear the Steelers have lost their way in how they try to use Harris.
6) Demontae Kazee
It’s not Kazee’s fault he’s not Minkah Fitzpatrick. But it’s something he should be aware of. He’s not the kind of safety who can ditch his side of the field in a Cover 2 in a wildly out-of-control attempt to make a play on a ball.
Which is exactly what he did on Etienne’s 56-yard TD catch that blew the game open late in the third quarter, hanging Joey Porter Jr. and his entire defense out to dry in the process.
If you’re not Minkah, don’t try to make Minkah-type plays. Just do your job.
5) Matt Canada
I know, I know, I know. I clearly missed the memo that we’re supposed to blame everything on him.
If you want to hammer him for once again dialing up the zone-blocking style run game instead of the more physical, direct, and effective gap-blocking inside run game, you can.
If you want to hammer him for personnel decisions, including Dan Moore Jr. starting at left tackle and Broderick Jones only being used in tackle-eligible situations, you can.
I’ll even be a party to complaints about the route concepts he cooks up that far too often lack layers in favor of sending three or four receivers more than 15 yards downfield while one lone option remains underneath near the line, making it far too easy for defenses to sit back in 3-deep, Cover 4, and Cover 6, prevent-style coverages and turn the quarterback in to a checkdown machine.
But Canada didn’t drop several passes in the first half. Canada didn’t fail to block up front. Canada -whether you want to put it on Kenny Pickett’s vision or George Pickens’ ability to get open- didn’t fail to target Pickens.
There’s a lot to complain about with Matt Canada. He’s not a good offensive coordinator. But he was far from the offense’s biggest problem yesterday.
4) The Officiating
I despise the constant whining and bellyaching about officiating that comes from some fans and the kind of media members who are, quite frankly, usually underprepared or unknowledgeable about the game. It’s low-hanging fruit for someone who didn’t really watch the game or doesn’t understand the game all that well -regardless of the sport- to wake up, check social media to see what the buzz-worthy moment in the game was, and yap about how instant replay or officiating is ruining the game.
This is not one of those games.
In the first half, the officiating crew, through three terrible calls against the Steelers and one horrible non-call against the Jaguars, caused at least a six-point swing in the game.
Let’s start with an atrocious defensive pass interference call on James Pierre that not only sustained Jacksonville’s opening drive, but put it in field goal range. +3 Jags
Then we had a roughing the passer penalty on Keanu Neal for gently placing Trevor Lawrence on the ground. It came with Lawrence dropping a dime in to Christian Kirk while being hit, and didn’t lead directly to points because eventually Kwon Alexander forced an Engram fumble, but a terrible call nonetheless, especially when compared to something that happened just minutes later.
With 17 seconds left in the first half, Kenny Pickett unloaded a throw just before all 290 pounds of Adam Gotsis landed on top of him, a personal foul for roughing the passer if there’s ever been one since the “bodyweight” portion of the rule was added in 2018 because -*!GASP!*- Aaron Rodgers had his collarbone broken against the Minnesota Vikings the previous season.
Yet no call. Instead of being at the Jacksonville 23-yard line with a 41-yard field goal available, the Steelers were left at the Jaguars’ 38.
Then the compounding action of a brutal, offsides penalty on Isaac Seumalo on Chris Boswell’s 55-yard field goal that Mike Tomlin said he hadn’t seen in 17 years as a head coach in the NFL.
And then a 61-yard field goal that, given the field and weather conditions, was unsurprisingly missed. -3 Steelers.
I can’t stand when people try to tell you all about how the NFL is “rigged,” but damned if they didn’t get to add another game to their arsenal yesterday.
3) The Hope Defense
Hope, it’s a dangerous thing. It can drive a man insane.
Maybe that’s what happened to George Pickens earlier in the week when he threw red meat into a pen full of hungry dogs.
Clearly, the Jaguars, who came in middle-of-the-pack in Yards Allowed but Top 10 in Points Allowed per Game and #1 in Turnovers Forced , heard Pickens.
Ben Roethlisberger said it on his podcast a week ago, but the Steelers as organization have to start asking Pickens to reign in his yapping. Whether it’s a 15-yard penalty in L.A. or the between-games bear-poking, it’s not helpful to the cause.
And Ben would know a thing or two about working with a wonderfully talented receiver whose demeanor won’t stop getting him in trouble.
3) Mitch Trubisky
Like it or not, the Steelers offense may not have looked great, but it still had a chance to tie the ball game with 10 minutes left.
Then Trubisky went and Mitched all over himself, throwing a ball into triple coverage on 2nd & 3 that was picked off by Andrew Wingard at the Jacksonville 41-yard line. A little less than five minutes later, a Brandon McManus field goal made it a 10-pint game and effectively ended the Steelers’ hopes.
2) The offensive line
With this offensive line, even the best quarterback of all time and the best offensive coordinator of all time working together would struggle.
Poor run blocking. Porous pass blocking.
When your backup quarterback is your leading rusher late in the third quarter, as Trubisky was, your offensive line isn’t just doing some things wrong, it’s doing all of the things wrong.
Some of it is on Tomlin and Canada for not committing to Broderick Moore at left tackle, absolutely. But this offensive line has been a mess for years now, and the moves made by Omar Khan haven’t been good enough or haven’t been committed to by the coaching staff.
As long as this group is the starting group – and there’s no reason to believe anything is going to change in the next 72 hours – it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is or who the offensive coordinator is: They’ll struggle to score points.
1) Diontae Johnson
They weren’t technically drops according to the stat sheet, but Johnson had multiple opportunities to blow this game open early for the Steelers and failed to do so. It will be difficult for some to hammer him they way they should because he ended up having a very Diontae-like game: 8 catches on 14 targets for 85 yards and no touchdowns.
The reality is, a day like yesterday is exactly why Johnson isn’t a Top 20 wide receiver in the game. He’s a very good WR2, but only a serviceable WR1.
An elite, high-end WR1 catches those first two balls, one of which could’ve been a breakaway touchdown, doesn’t slip in the end zone on what would’ve been another touchdown catch, and ends up with an 11- or 12-catch day for 170 yards or so and 2 TDs.
And then probably doesn’t have to spend his postgame press conference complaining about the officiating rather than focusing on his inability to make big plays.