Following the Steelers' last two losses, Mike Tomlin pointed to a particular play or trend from the game that played a significant role in the outcome. But Tomlin didn't do that following Pittsburgh's 30-13 loss to the Colts on Saturday. Instead, Tomlin offered a grim assessment of his team following a third straight defeat.
"Let's be honest, right? We are a fundamentally poor football group right now," Tomlin said. "We're playing losing football and I take responsibility for that. By losing football I mean we're just not doing fundamental things well enough. We're not.
"We're turning the ball over, we're highly penalized, we don't play good in situations and so, I'm just acknowledging that," Tomlin continued. "I don't necessarily have the answers as I we sit here today. If I had the answers we would've played differently today. But, I will acknowledge things won't continue the way that they are. We're not going to keep doing the same things that we're doing and expect or hope for a different result. So, we got a seven-day turnaround -- we'll see what those days hold for us. But, I'm just acknowledging right now that we're playing losing football, and I own that. Not a good day."
Tomlin's assessment of his team is accurate. The Steelers' offense has failed to score at least 20 points in five consecutive games. The defense is running out of healthy players. The special teams hasn't been great, either, with Chris Boswell missing either a field goal or an extra point in two of the last three games.
Also contributing to Pittsburgh's most recent loss was eight penalties that added up to 101 yards, compared to the Colts' two penalties for 10 yards.
If there's one things we've learned over the last three weeks, it's that Kenny Pickett might be more valuable to the Steelers than some may have thought. The Steelers were 7-4 with Pickett before he went down with an injury against the Cardinals. Pittsburgh ended up losing that game and hasn't won since Pickett helped lead them to a win over the Bengals in Week 12.
Speaking of the Bengals, Cincinnati leapfrogged over Pittsburgh in the AFC standings after defeating the Vikings on Saturday. The Bengals will now look to hand the Steelers their fourth straight loss next Saturday while all but ending Pittsburgh's season.
