"They're still the Steelers."
This was Larry Ogunjobi. It was a few days ago. He's a fifth-year defensive tackle with the Bengals. Good player. Good talker, too.
A Cincinnati reporter had asked Ogunjobi about Najee Harris, and what's above is how he opened his response.
At which point, though, he detoured: "You know, they've always had the backs. But it's their offensive line that was together for a long time ... they knew how to play with each other. Maurkice Pouncey. David DeCastro. Alejandro Villanueva. They've had some young troops and they had to rotate when they lost Ramon Foster, but you had guys that had been in the league a long time. One of the best things you can have is experience."
One of the worst things you can have?
How about Bengals 24, Steelers 10?
How about 1-2, with losses in seven of the past nine games?
How about the most lopsided loss in Pittsburgh to this perpetual divisional doormat since 1995?
And how about that loss being rooted, maybe most excruciatingly, in a way that makes everyone -- friends, enemies, insiders, outsiders alike -- realize that they aren't still the Steelers?
Certainly not in that way.
Want to see what Ogunjobi meant with that statement, in a way his words could never paint?
That's Kevin Dotson. Wearing skates, seemingly. Watch No. 69 above at left guard, then watch Ojunjobi shove him way into the backfield like he's a cart at Sam's Club, then swallow up Najee whole.
That's pathetic.
That was one of six Cincinnati tackles for a loss, to go with four sacks, seven quarterback hits, a forced fumble, two interceptions and four passes defensed.
Want to see more of where all that started?
That's beyond pathetic. That's the Steelers, In apparent panic mode after three offensive series that produced no first downs, two punts, three penalties on the offensive line and an interception, sending all three tight ends -- Pat Freiermuth, Eric Ebron, Zach Gentry -- out for the first snap of the ensuing series.
It's not just that it resulted in a sack. It's that left tackle Dan Moore should've been called for a hold. And that right guard Trai Turner's beaten to the inside. And that center Kendrick Green blocks ... um, air?
Now, sure, Ben doesn't spot Freiermuth over in the right flat. And Ben was bad, in general.
Heck, so was almost everyone associated with this offense. Seven of the 10 penalties were committed by the offense, two each by Dotson, Green and Chase Claypool. There were 11 drops -- three by the tight ends, four by the wide receivers and four by Najee alone! -- including a fitting three straight to finish the game. Count those 11 drops as completions into Ben's passing stats, and he'd have gone 49 of 58, rather than 38 of 58 for 318 yards. And that's to say nothing of Matt Canada's latest reprise of the Randy Fichtner playbook.
As Ben worded it, "It's not all on the guys up front, by any means."
Repeating: Ben was bad.
Re-emphasizing: So was everyone else.
Doubling down: It starts with the line. Because all five of them, left to right -- Moore, Dotson, Green, Turner, Chuks Okorafor -- have been ... not bad, but outright brutal.
And yet, the line itself was formed with what's been by far the biggest mistake the Steelers made in 2021, and it's about time that becomes topic No. 1 when it comes to this football team: How in hell can Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin or anyone who answers to Art Rooney II -- or Rooney himself, since he ordered the ground game to be the top priority back in January -- possibly justify having entered this season, of all seasons, like this?
The questions are endless on this:
How is it that they're currently sitting on as much as $11 million in cap space, when Omar Khan's annually hailed as some sort of cap wizard?
How is it that they, principally Rooney, can justify pushing Ben to cut his salary -- for the stated purpose of building up his supporting cast, I might add -- only to sit on as much as $11 million in cap space?
How is it that Turner was the only significant free agent added, and even then only after David DeCastro's injury-based release?
How is it that DeCastro's injury appeared to have caught everyone off guard that late in the offseason?
How is it that the only other free agent added, B.J. Finney, stood on the sideline for every snap while Dotson was being devoured all afternoon?
How is it that Rashaad Coward, who Tomlin called 'excellent' early in training camp, has yet to get a hat?
How is it that, regardless of how strongly Colbert and the internal evaluators feel about the potential of Dotson, Moore and/or Green, they could've misfired this badly when it came to those kids' readiness for 2021?
How is it that, since the great Mike Munchak left for Denver, he's been supplanted by nobodies in the coaching ranks?
How is it that, after firing Shaun Sarrett, in the whole wide world of football, they simply promoted his assistant, Adrian Klemm, into first-year duty at that level?
And really, how is it that, in the broadest sense, the franchise that's always taken such pride in stability on the offensive line, the home to Hall of Famers Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawson, Walt Kiesling and now Alan Faneca, the place where all those players Ogunjobi cited were a fixture for nearly a decade ... how is it that, out of nowhere, it became not that big a deal?
Yeah, I'd like answers, too. They aren't available. Rooney speaks once a year to media, only in January. Colbert speaks only in the offseason. And Tomlin won't address any subject that isn't fastened to one Sunday or the next.
All Tomlin spoke when asked earlier if he planned changes to his offensive line was, "No."
All he spoke when asked on this day if he still sees the line as progressing, as he'd previously expressed, "Certainly. Not reflected in today's performance, but if you're asking me my level of optimism, sure, I believe in these guys."
Digging in on a mistake?
Maybe I'll just go interview Ogunjobi before the rematch in Cincinnati. He seems to get it.
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Najee Harris gets tackled by the Bengals' Sam Hubbard in the fourth quarter Sunday at Heinz Field.
• I'm not suggesting there's some magical player out there Colbert could sign for $11 million or even $1 mililion to cure the line. There isn't one.
But I'm also not suggesting they should stand pat.
Get Finney back in the mix. I grasp it hasn't gone well for him since leaving Pittsburgh a couple years ago, but I'm guessing he didn't force Colbert to bring him back here at gunpoint. Must've been something they liked. And if there wasn't, then that mistake ranks right up there with the rest.
Get Coward back in the mix. Yeah, he's a journeyman, but he has NFL starts and NFL pedigree and, again, he had a solid early camp. Besides, the bar's so low at the moment that all he'd need to do is perform above disaster-level.
Get someone, anyone in here. I saw Max Starks in the stadium on this day. Max remains, unsurprisingly, big enough that he could just stand at a tackle spot and be more effective than Moore or Chuks.
Also, if the current positional coach can't coach, find one who can. Lots of those out there, and they don't cost anything in football equity.
• This took some doing, but Dotson was the worst player on either side. And this after allowing both of the Raiders' sacks the previous week.
Anyone remember who I singled out over the summer as having been a deep disappointment to the coaches?
My source never said it was about being out of shape, so it must've been something else. Maybe we're witnessing it. Preparation comes in lots of forms.
• Hate to be repetitive on the line, but it really reverberates through everything. If the offense can't move the ball, can't stay on the field, it kills all the rest, barring the rare exception like the victory against the Bills. That wasn't a fluke. It was the defense at its best, it was the special teams producing splash, it was Buffalo's coaching staff doing something stupid, and it was, eventually, the Steelers' offense showing life for a brief spell.
Well, there was a brief spell against the Raiders, too. And there was a 15-play, 86-yard, seven-first-downs touchdown drive in this one, too.
Why?
Because, for a brief spell, the offensive line didn't stink. And half of the other 10 possessions were three-and-outs.
Brief spells don't cut it.
• Neither has Canada to date.
Behold a play call almost as stupid as the one I just cited by the Bills:
That's fourth-and-10 at the Cincinnati 11. Three minutes left. Down 14. A touchdown's a must.
I can't. I just can't.
Ben tried: "They have a type of defense—we call it a picket fence—where they just sit back. And we anticipated that. That's what they showed, so we were going to try to get it to him to get guys out front to block for him, see what we could do. You're a little limited from that far out on what you can do except maybe throw a ball up or, you know, in hindsight, we wish we would have taken a shot in the end zone. I wish I would have done that."
Limited?
"We had fired all of our bullets at that juncture in terms of some of our play selection," Tomlin replied when asked about it. "It just wasn't a good enough play to get in there. They had a picket fence, if you will. They're going to allow you to probably throw and catch the ball in front of them, but you've got to do some things after that."
Fired all of who what?
The playbook was emptied?
Here again, I just can't. And maybe Canada can't, either.
• When Tomlin was asked if Canada might be struggling to adjust to the NFL, he replied, "We’re just not playing well enough or coaching well enough. You can frame it however the hell you want to frame it."
OK, Coach, but only because permission was granted: Your offensive coordinator's drowning in plain sight. But don't take it from me. Take it from all four of the offense's touchdowns so far.
And hey, clip and save that quote to share with the next person who suggests this head coach has any level of warm-and-fuzzy with the media.
• Feels unfair not to show Freiermuth's first NFL touchdown:
So there it is. Good for him. He'll be outstanding.
• As will Najee. Yeah, the running game's still garbage in net terms -- 14 carries, 40 yards -- but he had an insane 14 catches that represented a franchise record for a running back, third-most by anyone at any position. Also, as Freiermuth noted on his own when I'd asked about the running game in general, "Najee had three runs of 10-plus yards that got called back because of a holding call."
At one point in the second half, Najee seemed down on the sideline bench, though that's obviously conjecture on my part.
Asked afterward if he's receiving any advice from teammates, he replied, "Yeah, a lot of guys did. A couple guys came to me and just said, 'This isn’t like college. Every week you’re playing somebody good. You’re not going to win every game.' So, really, just keep level-headed and not losing focus of the ultimate goal, is what they were telling me. It’s obviously not good to lose, especially back-to-back, but we’re still just finding the rhythm of the team offense-wise. It’s a lot of young guys. We need to step up."
• They need to get healthy, too.
JuJu Smith-Schuster, the offense's most dependable player so far, was felled by a rib injury and didn't play in the second half. With Diontae Johnson already out ... yeah.
Also, Okorafor left with concussion symptoms in the fourth quarter. Zach Banner can come off IR next week, but ... yeah.
Oh, and let's not forget Ben came into this with the pec injury and got slammed around again. Asked how the pec held up, he replied, "Everything hurts."
And speaking of injuries ...
• Cam Heyward predictably put forth a terse, "No excuses. No excuses," when it was broached that the defense might've missed having T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu, as well as backup tackle Carlos Davis.
That's how Cam rolls, it's real, and it's worthy of respect. It's also ridiculous.
The Steelers' NFL-record sack streak ended at 75 and that was because they recorded zero official hits on the quarterback, this despite Joe Burrow having been rag-dolled throughout Cincinnati's first two games. That's no accident.
The only reason to doubt this defense would be health. So far, unfortunately, that's been a valid reason.
• Two home games, two losses, and don't even get me started on 10,000-plus no-shows with an official turnstile count of 58,076 amid a capacity of 68,400.
To remind, every single ticket's sold. The problem remains that roughly half the season-ticket base doesn't live anywhere near Western Pennsylvania, with people having clung to their plans years or even decades after moving. And those people, when dispirited, don't travel and, in turn, don't distribute their tickets to someone else.
There's got to be a solution for it. I don't know what, but I'd at least consider implementing a use-it-or-lose-it policy for the recurring offenders.
Pittsburgh's got zip to do with this. The easiest thing in sports business history would be filling those 10,000 seats with Pittsburghers.
• Better yet, put the current offensive line in charge of gate security, and see who they stop from getting through.
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Heinz Field's southwest rotunda Sunday.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
• JuJu Smith-Schuster, Steelers wide receiver, injured his ribs in the third quarter and was immediately declared out.
• Chuks Okorafor, Steelers right tackle, was evaluated for a possible concussion in the fourth quarter after committing a false start and was immediately declared out.
• Kendrick Green, Steelers center, injured his knee in the fourth quarter and didn't return after being declared questionable.
• T.J. Watt, Steelers linebacker, was out with a groin injury
• Alex Highsmith, Steelers linebacker, was out with a groin injury
• Diontae Johnson, Steelers wide receiver, was out with a knee injury
• Carlos Davis, Steelers defensive tackle, was out with a knee injury
THE AFC NORTH
• Baltimore
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland
THE SCHEDULE
Next stop: Green Bay. The Pack's 2-1 and fresh of a last-second win over the 49ers late Sunday night in Santa Clara, Calif.
THE MULTIMEDIA
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THE CONTENT
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