The next-to-next-to-last thing a lousy football team needs is another step backward. The next-to-last thing a lousy football team needs is a seismic, several-day distraction from a dire situation at hand. And the very last thing a lousy football team needs is a very lousy quarterback.
Which is to say, Kenny Pickett's got to stick. In Buffalo and beyond.
One would think it's excruciatingly obvious at this stage of these Steelers' 1-3 start, especially after an across-the-board awful 24-20 loss to the lesser of New York's own two lousy football teams Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, but then, this was Mike Tomlin's response when I asked afterward if his halftime decision to replace Mitch Trubisky with Pickett will hold through another weekend:
"You know, I'm not gonna talk extended as we sit here," came the reply. "We did what we needed to do to put ourselves in position to win this game. We'll do it again. But I like to keep it where we are in terms of what transpired here today. We'll deal with next week, next week."
So, why'd he make the change when he did?
"We just thought we needed a spark. We didn't do much in the first half, not enough offensively, and thought he could provide a spark for us."
And how'd Kenny fare?
"I thought he did some good things. I thought there was some energy there. We scored some touchdowns. But obviously, we also turned the ball over."
Allow me, please, after a dozen-plus years of covering the man, to translate: 'Mitch is my quarterback, all right? I know that's not what you or anyone wants to hear, but look, we both know everyone in this stadium came to bury him. If they weren't booing, they were chanting for the kid or they were dead silent. Man, it was killing us. The atmosphere might've been the worst we've ever had in my time as head coach. So I made a change to give us a 'spark' and 'energy.' Did you notice I used those two words? You did? Awesome. Next question.'
Or something in that spirit. But I wouldn't be far off.
It's borderline unfathomable to me that he'd leave this matter open-ended, for only about a billion reasons but this one above all: Kenny's the better quarterback right now.
The numbers were the numbers, as he was 10 of 13 for 120 yards with three picks -- I'll get to those -- plus two rushing touchdowns, accounting for one fewer touchdown in one half than Trubisky had through three-point-freaking-five games:
I mean, it feels insulting to even elaborate on this, but this kid's just got it. He does. Always has. And if anyone doubted that for whatever reason, consider that, leading into this one, as Kenny himself would confirm, he had no heads-up that he might get used in this game, and all of the first-team reps through the practice week went to Trubisky.
"Coach came in at halftime and said I was going," Kenny'd recall. "So I just kind of put all my preparation into play. I spent a lot of time at the facility to get ready."
But again, not with first-team reps. Asked how he's been preparing himself over the past month, he replied, "Like I'm a starter minus the reps. But that's why I have to be tuned in mentally, go through every single read that Mitch was getting in practice, in game, watch the film as if I'm the one playing, so I could be prepared if my opportunity did come. Which it did today."
That's pantomime, not practice. And that's what he took with him onto the field to open the second half, as the crowd erupted in a collective voice that fairly screamed, 'IT'S ABOUT TIME!' toward Tomlin down on the sideline:
Steelers linemen were waving the crowd to quiet down when Kenny Pickett took the field. That’s how loud the ovation was. pic.twitter.com/5SpPeJlfzy
— Colin Dunlap (@colin_dunlap) October 2, 2022
Right. Spark. Energy.
But also the skill to do a whole lot of this despite absolute zero reps as the starter, never mind the difference it makes toward mental prep to know that one's starting:
That's Pat Freiermuth up there. Remember him?
How about the middle of the field. Remember that?
"He's a gamer," Freiermuth would say of that sequence. "That's why they drafted him in the first round, to make those plays."
Well, that and the way he bounced up from a nasty hit there from New York's Quinnen Williams and, quite literally, laughed in the big man's face:
Want to talk about the picks?
One was in the back of the end zone on a Hail Mary to end the game, another came because Chase Claypool hasn't made a combat catch since his rookie year:
Ow.
"That was to me, and I wish I'd caught it," Claypool would say. "You've got to make plays when you're called upon."
And the other was principally Pickett's fault:
Bad decision. He either needs to chuck that into the 10th row or eat it whole. As he'd admit in saying, "Yeah, I wanted it higher than that, definitely. Either Pat was going to get it, or it was going to be out of bounds. I didn't put it high enough. I can't throw an interception there at that point in the game."
Nope. Again, bad decision.
But proper context for that bad decision could also include throwing at all at that point in the game. The Steelers led, 20-17, only 3:42 remained in the fourth quarter, it was second-and-15, and the ball was at the New York 36. With Chris Boswell fresh off a stadium-record 59-yard field in the first half, no more than another nudge or two was needed to get within range again. And, by the way, to keep the clock churning. And with Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren having run for a combined 119 yards, 74 of those by Najee, the blueprint couldn't have been clearer.
Najee touched the ball twice in the fourth quarter.
What the hell was Matt Canada thinking?
As ever, we've got to wait till the following Thursday to find out, as that's the coordinator's only media access point.
Also, more proper context: Pickett made 13 total passes in this game. Of those 13, the only one that didn't hit his receivers in the hands was the Hail Mary, and even that landed in the right spot in the end zone.
Make no mistake: A change in quarterback would solve nothing more than the team's most prominent problem, with still too many others to count. I'm not pretending otherwise, and neither should anyone else. Even a change at quarterback and coordinator wouldn't achieve that. Not when the receivers are dropping the ball, the running backs are bulldozing their blockers' rear ends, and don't even get me started on the run defense.
But make no mistake about this, either: It's eminently worthwhile to address the most prominent problem. Particularly when, you know, it's just been addressed.
Ask Diontae Johnson.
"When he came in, we were just more efficient," he'd say of Pickett. "You could see the energy. He played with swag. That makes us want to play for him. We have to get him better and prepare for next week."
Of Trubisky, he'd add, “It’s tough on him. He has a lot of stuff he has to think about, certain stuff he’s already thinking about, I’m sure everybody else is thinking about, as well. But it’s football. Next man up. Somebody has to step up and get the job done. I’m not saying he doesn’t get the job done, but it’s football. Next man up.”
Mm-hm.
"I just played with an edge," Pickett would say of his approach all through his NFL debut. "I think that was something I wanted to bring to the table ... I think I have a little bit of an edge to me. I want that to rub off on everybody. I want us to have an attitude with us out there on the field."
Nah, leave it on the sideline. Right next to the 1-3 coach who can't concede a mistake.
JOE SARGENT / GETTY
Chase Claypool allows a Kenny Pickett pass to clang off his hands and result in a New York interception for Jordan Whitehead.
• This team's toast for 2022. A 1-3 start heading into a gauntlet of Bills, Bucs, Dolphins and Eagles -- with all but Tampa Bay on the road -- and missing T.J. Watt and seeing Tomlin completely clueless about this offense ... this is bad, bad, bad, and about to get a bunch worse.
I don't type that lightly. This'll be Tomlin's first losing season, so it's not as if there's precedent. But this is the one.
• All those bettors setting that over-under on the Las Vegas line were right, and almost all of the rest of us were wrong.
• I asked Cam Heyward, the defensive leader in every way, about the team's confidence level now.
"You can't run from this. You've got to grow from it," he replied. "You've got to continue to just keep looking in the mirror. How can we be better? How can I be better? How can I get off blocks faster? How can I be more of a force in the run game? What is it going to take for to us get over the hump? I think all of us have to be concerned with winning the game. Doesn't matter what the stats look like. Doesn't matter who's our quarterback, who's not. We want to win a game as Pittsburgh Steelers."
• Run defense would help. Even a little.
It wasn't so much the stats this time -- Breece Hall's 66 rushing yards were four times greater than anyone else's on the New York side -- but, rather, that the Jets, after going down by 10 in the fourth quarter, grounded out consecutive drives of 11 plays, 81 yards, then 10 plays, 65 yards. Boom, boom, boom the length of the field.
"Toward the end of the game, we all need to look at ourselves in the mirror," Alex Highsmith would say. "We can all be better."
Sounds like a fresh shipment of mirrors is in order.
• Three of the Steelers' four interceptions went off the Steelers' hands, one each by Claypool, Freiermuth and, on a Trubisky throw, Johnson. Freiermuth had no chance to come down with his. The two to the wide receivers did, though Johnson's had also been tipped at the line.
"We've got to play better," Johnson said. "Hold onto the ball. Make those tough catches in the tough moments."
On the other hand, George Pickens, who must've forcibly introduced himself to Canada earlier in the week, was suddenly targeted eight times for six catches and 102 yards.
Fine. Flip the order. It's not about paychecks or profiles. It's about production.
• Trubisky was ticked off, and it wasn't difficult to detect from watching/listening to him at his stall, so this one requires a press of the play button:
Yikes.
It's a natural reaction to be disappointed, and I get that part. But the defiant tone's without justification. Without pouring on, he's been the NFL's worst quarterback for a month now, not just in going 7 for 13 for 84 yards, the pick I referenced, and taking three more sacks.
Bluntly put, he's got no business saying after a game like this: "I got pulled at halftime. That's just how it goes sometimes. It's just business as usual."
Really?
If he believes that being pulled at halftime is "business as usual," then either he's already been told he'll face the Bills, or he's delusional beyond words.
• While discussing delusion, what could Minkah Fitzpatrick, one of the smartest guys in any room, have been thinking by publicly dissing the Jets after this?
Asked how frustrating this was, he replied, "It's very frustrating. It's frustrating losing to people that you know that you're better than, more talented than. Especially when you have the team that we have. We have a great team with a lot of talent, a lot of great young players. I think we're way better than what we've been putting on display."
The latter sentiment's both fair and fair to share. But the Jets' miserable history notwithstanding, they've now got one more win than the team they just beat ... on both sides of the ball.
• It won't help that the defense took four more hits in this one -- Minkah (knee), Heyward (elbow, ankle), Cam Sutton (hamstring) and Terrell Edmunds (concussion protocol) -- before taking on Josh Allen. Without Watt and Ahkello Witherspoon, as well ... yeah. That's a lot of carryover bruises, at best.
• Don't question the heart, regardless. Minkah took some big blows in this one, coming off concussion protocol, and never stopped. Heyward revealed that he needed an X-ray at halftime, and he could barely walk through a second half in which he, too, never stopped. They're invested.
• For those scoring at home, Canada's now at four first-quarter offensive touchdowns in his 21 games as an NFL coordinator. Including the zero in this one.
• About as encouraging a chart as a quarterback can have with Canada calling the plays:
NFL NEXT GEN STATS
• It's not as if it's hindsight to point out that Tomlin could've made this move after Cleveland, giving Pickett 10 days to prepare, and he'd have won this game. Since only everyone was clamoring for it.
• I tried to get Pickett to talk about his visible, passionate emotion upon both of his touchdowns, as well as the warm welcome from the fans upon entering.
It went nowhere, and for all the right reasons:
"A lot of emotions," was as close as he'd come to acknowledging it. "But the only thing I'm thinking about is winning out there. I was kind of staying in tune with the game and what we needed to do to come out with the win, and that didn't happen. It's something I definitely need to learn from quickly and get a fix for whenever my next opportunity may come."
Should be next Sunday. Should be all of the Sundays for the foreseeable future.
• Thanks for reading my football stuff.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
The national anthem at Acrisure Stadium, Sunday afternoon.
THE ESSENTIALS
THE INJURIES
Hurt in the game: S Minkah Fitzpatrick (knee), DE Cam Heyward (elbow, ankle), CB Cam Sutton (hamstring), S Terrell Edmunds (concussion protocol), with Edmunds being the only one not to return
The inactives: CB Ahkello Witherspoon (hamstring), QB Mason Rudolph, LG Kendrick Green, WR Steven Sims, DE Isaiahh Loudermilk, LB Mark Robinson, LB David Anenih
THE SCHEDULE
Next Sunday, it's a shuffle up I-79, across I-90 and through Orchard Park, N.Y., to see the Bills. Kickoff's 1:02 p.m. at Highmark Stadium.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
Visit our team page for everything from our football staff of Chris Halicke, Eddie Provident, Ramon Foster, Matt Williamson and myself.