The running game had 172 rushing yards, the most allowed by the Browns in a game this season. The defense allowed only 13 points and 259 yards, the fewest scored and gained by the Browns in a game since Week 3. The special teams had no major miscues, and Chris Boswell made his FG and XP comfortably. The offense did not turn the ball over, and the team finished with a positive turnover differential once again. Overall, Mike Tomlin coached his team well enough to play a clean game.
So why did the Steelers lose? Because the passing game utterly failed, and the play-calling on the final two drives of the game was some of the worst situational football I’ve ever seen in my 30 years as a Steelers fan. This is all on Kenny Pickett and Matt Canada. I have officially withdrawn my support from Pickett after this game, and Matt Canada can walk home, for all I care. The Steelers had no excuse for losing this game, and Kenny Pickett and Matt Canada lost it for them.
At least the rest of the team is good, generally speaking. That’s the only silver lining to any of this.
Kenny Pickett was bad, he needs to play better, but he hasn’t yet. Matt Canada sucks and I don’t think anyone would disagree. Mike Tomlin, and the Steelers organization as a whole, have failed by not taking any significant action to pair a young new QB with an offensive coordinator who could develop any potential he may have had.
One of our biggest mistakes was rolling with Canada in the off-season, Bieniemy was available, and we stuck with Canada; it’s frustrating. Kenny needs to be better, but I have no confidence in any one on the staff being able to help coach and develop a young QB, so you end up with regression rather than progression.
The worst part is that they didn’t even need Kenny to be good.
He just had to not be dogshit bad. Too much to ask, I guess.