Jim Nantz is one of the all-time great play-by-play men who’s responsible for an array of memorable calls. But his description of the Steelers’ effort while the Chiefs were beating them down Sunday may have been his accurate call yet.
When Patrick Mahomes found Byron Pringle for a 16-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter, Nantz lambasted Pittsburgh’s sorry performance. Pringle shook off multiple defenders on his way to the end zone, heading in for an easy walk-in score.
“The Steelers are just sleepwalking through this one,” Nantz said. “They’re getting beaten on every play physically, emotionally. It’s just not there.”
That’s certainly one way to describe the Steelers’ showing in their 36-10 defeat. Once again, they failed to score in the first half, and were never competitive on either side of the ball. In a season full of devastating defeats, this may have been their worst.
Following the Steelers’ third turnover (Roethlisberger’s fumble in the fourth quarter), Tony Romo described Pittsburgh’s problems thusly. “Very dejecting. It’s been a long day for coordinator Matt Canada and Ben Roethlisberger,” he said.
It was such a long day, that CBS abandoned the game on its national feed with over 11 minutes left so they could show viewers the end of Raiders-Broncos, which featured Las Vegas taking knees to run the clock.
That’s right: the Raiders icing a victory was more dramatic than the Steelers getting pulverized.
The Steelers still have marquee matchups left on their schedule, with games against the Browns and Ravens coming up. But after being on Steelers duty for the last month, it’s hard to imagine Nantz and Romo getting assigned to another potential Steelers shellacking.
As Nantz said, their effort is just not there.