Oh, it absolutely could've been worse.
Take that back at once.
Think about it: Steelers up by five. Couple minutes and change on the clock. Third-and-6 at their own 17. And the franchise quarterback, bless his bold soul, thought this laissez-faire lob was his best bet to protect that lead:
My. God. Count the purple helmets. Then count James Washington's helmet.
That'd be ballgame, of course. Sanity prevailed after that, with Ben Roethlisberger handing off to Benny Snell the rest of the way, and the Steelers themselves prevailed, 19-14, over the Ravens on this ... (checks notes) ... Wednesday evening at a chilly, windswept Heinz Field.
Or, as Ben would brutally word it afterward, "I mean, obviously, we won. But it sure doesn't feel like it."
No, it most certainly doesn't. Not with Bud Dupree likely lost for the season to a torn ACL. Not with more of the abominable run-blocking that's only worsening by the week. Not with one of the most embarrassing round of receiving drops in recent memory. Not when needing to bite nails against a roster the size of Clairton High School's junior varsity.
And heck, not when the winning coach, in addition to assessing his team with the creatively adjectival term "really junior varsity," proceeds to blister, "To be bluntly honest, we're really disappointed. We did enough to win, but that's all. It was all three phases. We couldn't run the ball effectively when we needed to. We dropped too many significant passes. Very catchable, makable passes. We didn't make significant plays in the special teams game. Our kickoff coverage unit wasn't good enough. We turned the damned ball over."
Pausing here to note that the Steelers' media relations staff deleted the "damned" from that quote on transcripts. Not me. You need to read it, and they need to hear it.
Proceeding ...
"We gave up big plays in critical moments on defense. Can't have it. They converted a long run on a possession down before the half. Unacceptable. They had a 70-yard touchdown late in the game. Unacceptable. We're fortunate tonight. It's good to have the victory. I acknowledge that. But not a lot happened tonight to be proud of or to be excited about other than that."
He's right. Almost.
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Watch it once more, but this time try to match Washington's own intensity in doing so:
To be clearer than I might've been above, this is a really bad idea. I mentioned the game situation, but I'll now add that Ben's leaning back on his right foot as he basically just flicks this baby up for grabs.
At the same time, it's beautiful. Really is. Beyond even the confidence and precision of the throw.
For one, Washington's blanketed by two Baltimore defenders, outside linebacker Tyus Bowser and strong safety Chuck Clark. Bowser's applying his left arm to Washington as he nears the ball and Clark, once he closes, tries to rip Washington's arm from its socket in a blatant attempt to ... well, rip his arm from its socket.
That's what Washington does. He's a "combat catch" guy, as the label was affixed in his college days at Oklahoma State. As Mason Rudolph, his quarterback there, has often attested, all he ever had to do was heave it up and watch Washington out-fight everyone to bring it down.
Now, bear all that in mind while sitting through this:
Don't skip that. Seriously, the rest of this column will self-destruct if you skip it.
Wonderful, so now I don't need to engage in any deep dive about how horrific almost all of Ben's receivers were in dropping an outrageous eight of his passes, per a film analysis by our Chris Carter. Of those eight, three were by Diontae Johnson, two each by Eric Ebron and Chase Claypool, one by JuJu Smith-Schuster. Of those eight, five came on third down, three came in the red zone, and two of them cost touchdowns.
That's not even touching the three total fumbles by wide receivers, if one counts Ray-Ray McCloud's muffed punt.
Some of it was lack of focus. Some of it was lack of effort. Neither's acceptable in this setting. Not at this stage of the game, with playoffs a month away.
Embarrassing, as I said.
Asked to what all this could be attributed, Tomlin bit back with two words: "Us sucking."
JuJu, who caught the offense's only touchdown -- on its seventh drive! -- lumped the receivers with the rest when asked only about the receivers: "Wide receivers not catching balls, not making plays when they're supposed to be made, going down in the red zone and not putting points on the board, special teams doing turnovers on special teams ... multiple reasons why we fell short today. So honestly, all around, offense, defense, and special teams."
Well, sorry, no, that's not how this will work. At least not if this team's ever going to establish any sort of upward curve toward ... man, is it somehow taboo to talk about any 11-0 team ascending to the Super Bowl?
Sure feels like it with this one.
Want to know how, at least from this one press-box perspective, it could and should work?
Play Washington. And anyone else who's outperforming anyone else.
Or, for further context, let's flip to Merriam-Webster:
See also: Play Washington. And anyone else who's outperforming anyone else.
When a reporter asked Tomlin if Snell's effective late running was a positive, he answered, "It's a positive in terms of the efforts of Benny Snell, to be quite honest with you. Too many unblocked people at the point of attack and things of that nature. It's more reflective of the individual efforts of Benny Snell."
Ow. And wow. Can anyone recall the last time Tomlin criticized his offensive line in any context?
Well, fine. So do something about it. I'm aware there aren't a ton of options, just as I'm aware that pass protection -- an enduring strength -- is paramount. But a comment that sharp strongly suggests a dissatisfaction with the effort in run-blocking. And that's borne out with my own eyes, I'll add. These guys, left to right, look like they'd rather watch a tree lighting than to knock someone backward.
Should Kevin Dotson, the rookie guard, see more snaps?
The kid got burned for a goal-line loss in the first half, but he's been inactive for a while and, earlier this season, the Steelers did some of their best running directly behind him.
How about Vance McDonald?
He's 10 times the blocker Ebron is, he's the ultimate effort guy, and he couldn't conceivably fare worse at catching a football than Ebron at times.
Meritocracy 'n' at. Make it happen. Anywhere it's needed. Even it's just short term. Even it's just to push, to prevent anyone from feeling as comfortable with their starting jobs as half these guys have looked half of this season.
Mostly, though, this is about Washington.
See, that colossal completion at the end was symbolic, too. He was Ben's primary target breaking off the line, and he was chosen, presumably by the quarterback himself, to catch the game's biggest catch. And there are real reasons for that: He's got only 23 receptions for 263 yards, entirely because of his bizarre reduction in usage, dropping from logging 63% of all offensive snaps through the first five games to 22% over the past six. And all he's done through the latter is scratch, claw and catch nearly everything sent his way.
This was the focus of my postgame questioning.
First, I asked Tomlin what it'll take for Washington to get more snaps, more targets, and all I got was this: "He answers the bell when called upon. We're appreciative of that. Week to week, we make plans that benefit us in terms of the matchup, and sometimes it includes him, and includes him heavily, and sometimes it doesn't."
Hm. So next, I asked Ben what he can do as quarterback to get Washington more involved, but only after reminding him that, a couple weeks ago, he'd told me he was actually yelling toward the sideline to have Washington sent onto the field, and I got this:
Now, that was quite some response, particularly if parsing this portion: "James Washington's a guy who's getting on the field and needs to get on the field more. It's not because anybody's not doing good, but just because he's a player who can make plays. We always talk about guys staying fresh. We need to rotate guys, get him on the field, because he's hungry, wants to be out there and make plays for us."
What I culled:
• He needs to play more
• He's hungry
• He makes plays
Sounds like the kind of guy who could make a difference in more ways than one, on more days than one.
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It's not about this fiasco, awful as it was, awful-er as it nearly was.
If it were, it'd be a blip everyone could safely ignore, simply learn a lesson and hope to improve. But no, it's become a -- no, the -- recurring theme of this season. This is an 11-0 team that's currently pieced together exactly one complete 60-minute effort, that coming moons ago against the Browns. Otherwise, it's been a good half here, a good half there, a late burst here, a survival there, the day-long debacle in Dallas ... and now this, the ugliest of all.
I get it. A game getting delayed three times messes with the mind. As Ben brought up, "It's been a very challenging few days." I also sensed, as I suspected a lot of people in the place did, what a downer it was to be right back to 68,500 almost entirely empty seats, with only friends and family permitted inside.
But dammit, I saw the Clairton JV roster over on the other sideline, with 36 players in uniform and eight of them making their NFL debuts.
And I saw the franchise's archrival.
And I saw John Harbaugh, of all people, whining about delay of game.
And worse, I've seen this scenario on endless autoplay now.
Tomlin's talking. Ben's talking. A couple other players are talking, too, though only three total with reporters after this game, which was a lousy look in and of itself on all involved. But something significantly more authoritative is a must right now. Meaning action. Meaning whoever's getting results gets the Xs and Os to match. Meaning whoever's unjustifiably comfortable with a starting job can take a comfortable seat Monday vs. Washington.
Meaning more of Washington vs. Washington.