Jaylen Warren pretty much blurted out what the better part of Pittsburgh's bound to be thinking right about now.
"Maybe I feel like we came out and took it lightly," he'd say of the Steelers' challenge in facing the last-place-on-merit Cardinals, this after they'd shirk and shrivel their way to a 24-10 loss that was still, somehow, so much lousier than the score and even the setting on this soggy, stormy Sunday at Acrisure Stadium. "We just can't do that. ... Maybe their record played a part in it."
Yeah, maybe. He's out there, and he's part of it, so his voice is valued.
But also, maybe not.
See, here's what I've got: One team's 7-5 and sixth in the AFC playoff picture, the other's 3-10 and hadn't won on the road since before last Thanksgiving, and it was impossible through four quarters and two lightning delays to discern the difference. Because they're more similar than most might want to concede. Because the Cardinals rank 24th in total offense, the Steelers just one spot back. Because the Steelers rank 23rd in total defense, the Cardinals just two spots back. Because the Cardinals average a pathetic 17.7 points per game, and the Steelers average an even more pathetic 1.7 less.
Following me yet?
If not, here it comes in bright neon atop Mount Washington: Don't be buying that these Steelers played down to any opponent. If only because they're nowhere near deserving of any such discussion or status. And the reason for that is that they aren't a good football team. And the reason they aren't a good football team is, very obviously, how they've been acquired, developed and coached. And the person atop all three of those pyramids is, of course, Mike Tomlin.
And that, my friends, is so much more damning than anything that can be attributed to some arbitrary lapse in motivation.
Give Tomlin, at the least, credit for not hiding behind the latter when I asked if his team had taken the Cardinals lightly:
"No," he'd respond with a shake of the head. "We look at ourselves and the quality of our play or the lack thereof. And it wasn't there today."
Sure wasn't.
"That was a horrible day at the office," he'd also say. "We didn't do much right in that game, to be quite honest with you. So we've got to own that. Obviously starting, first and foremost, with me. It was just losing football. Really was. I thought it was a significant point in the game when we got stopped in the red zone and then they drove the ball there before the half. But that doesn't tell the story of the game. We just weren't good enough throughout the game. We didn't play a good game today."
Sure didn't.
Most of the players, for fullest context, sounded a lot more like that and a lot less like Warren.
"Beat in all three facets," Cam Heyward would grumble. "Penalties. Didn't win the turnover game. Didn't convert in the red zone, didn't keep them out of the red zone. You name it, we lost it."
He didn't cite taking anyone lightly, and neither did another team leader.
"No, I don't think so," Mitch Trubisky would say after taking over for injured Kenny Pickett, something he'll do again Thursday and possibly for a while. "This is the NFL. You know anybody can beat anybody if you don't bring your best. And if you didn't know that, you learned it today. I feel like the guys were focused and locked in throughout the week. Why the penalties and shooting ourselves in the foot happened today ... I don't have that answer. But we've just got to fix it. I don't think we took them lightly."
Same here, I swear.
But if there's a difference between Trubisky's stance and my own, it's that I just might have that answer: They aren't even good enough to be considered average in any category except for two:
1. Their still-bizarre record.
2. Their continued employment of T.J. Watt
Sorry if it stings, but this was Week 12. 'Stacking wins' and other Tomlin pet phrases and philosophies that've bounced around this locker room for months now ring hollow to the extreme. All along, in multiple phases, this team needed to progress. It needed to get better. To get actually better.
The reason everyone seemed so stoked after Cincinnati, both inside and outside the Steelers' orbit, wasn't the W anywhere near as much as that they got visibly, tangibly better on offense, even as their defense registered its seventh consecutive game of holding the opponent to 20 or fewer points. That felt real because it was real. It was built on a real foundation of solid football, even if just for an afternoon.
This game, at the very least, needed to represent a continuation of that progress. Instead, it was regression across the board.
Oh, it started encouragingly, with Pickett, Najee Harris and George Pickens Cincinnati-ing their way right down to the Arizona 11, including this beauty to the kid:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) December 4, 2023
But second and third downs saw incomplete passes when they should've seen continued running and ... pfffffffffft ... field goal. What had been a throbbing crowd of 66,136 sat right back down and didn't make another peep until 'Renegade.'
That's not a team taking anyone else lightly. That's a team that should be taken lightly.
From there, the only commodity outnumbering Pressley Harvin's shanks and Mason Cole's muffed snaps were the endlessly embarrassing penalties. There'd be nine in all for 77 yards, including five of the pre-snap sort. And that's to say nothing of twice having to call timeout for having 12 men on the field ... with one of those, remarkably, coming after a lengthy stoppage.
"We were highly penalized, with some pre-snap penalties, some operational penalties," Tomlin would say of this. "Bad snaps, too. Just JV football in a lot of ways."
Sure was. All unforced by the 2-10 opponent. All having nothing do with the 2-10 opponent.
Who's taking who lightly again?
Pickett drove the Steelers to the Arizona 1 as the first half faded, only to get stuffed ... and hurt:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) December 4, 2023
His ankle will need a minor procedure tomorrow that'll keep him out a couple weeks to a month.
Independent of that, he didn't take a stride forward here. He didn't continue what he'd started against the Bengals. He was just another guy again, fleeing at the first sight of a pass rush, then falling apart once the Cardinals realized all they had to do was send the house.
This might come across as insensitive, though it's not intended to, but I can't say with certainty he'll be missed at the position. In fact, I can't say with certainty that there's any meaningful gap between quarterbacks 1-3 on this depth chart, stretching to include Mason Rudolph.
Know what they say about football teams with three quarterbacks?
Uh-huh: They don't even have one.
And know what they say about football teams that lose their starter and have it barely register a blip with the fan base, as I'm expecting will happen this week?
Yep.
So Trubisky came on, Tomlin tasked his offense to go for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1, and this was the result:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) December 4, 2023
I loved Tomlin's call there, but I wasn't at all surprised by what happened. Because Warren's a better back than Harris in every way, but the coach forever ago made Harris his pet, and nothing changes that.
"We've got to be able to get a yard there," Tomlin bemoaned. With no mirror in sight.
The Cardinals then made the embarrassment complete by pushing this previously respectable defense backward 99 yards -- 109, if one includes a 10-yard penalty they had to overcome -- toward this touchdown bullet from Kyler Murray to Trey McBride:
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPSmedia) December 4, 2023
Even as the Steelers were keeping their own tight end, Pat Freiermuth, in storage after a nine-catch output in Cincinnati.
I could go on. I won't.
Watt would say, barely audible, "We got our ass kicked today," and that's dead-on. My God, I hadn't even mentioned Miles Killebrew committing not one, not two, but three penalties ... as the special teams captain. Like it was the punchline to a 'Saturday Night Live' skit.
I've covered uglier losses for the Steelers, but not many. What makes this one stand out for me can't be described by simply repeating the narrative about Tomlin having some extensive history of losing to bad teams. He's actually got one of the best winning percentages against sub-.500 teams of any NFL head coach this century and, just for fun since his more venomous critics only ever compare him his two esteemed predecessors, he's within decimal-point range of both in this category:
• Chuck Noll: .725 (137-52)
• Tomlin: .724 (104-39-2)
• Bill Cowher: .723 (102-39)
Crazy, right?
Whatever. Good luck combating any false narrative once it's filled with a fresh tank of fuel.
But if Tomlin's critics, venomous or otherwise, would eschew lazy repetition of everything they'll read or hear on social media or talk radio in the coming week, they might come to the same kinds of more overarching conclusions I'm reaching with each passing week: It's not working.
It's been six full seasons since the Steelers' most recent playoff victory, Jan. 15, 2017, in Kansas City, Mo.
Six. Full. Seasons.
It felt fair following the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger and resultant search for a replacement, albeit not being accompanied by some full rebuild, to give Tomlin a further chance. He'd expressed excitement about this uncharted territory, spoke of embracing it, spoke of how he'd need "to stand and deliver, to live out what we believe in."
It's been a while. This ain't it. That's the problem, and all else -- real or narrative -- is a senseless distraction until it's solved.
BRENDAN BERKLEY / FOR DKPS
Rainbow appearing to the left edge of Downtown after the second of the two lightning delays Sunday.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Highlights
• Team feed
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE IN-GAME INJURIES
• Steelers: Kenny Pickett, quarterback, exited in the second quarter with an ankle injury and didn't return. He was downgraded to out at halftime. ... Minkah Fitzpatrick, safety, sustained a broken left hand in the second quarter but missed no time because he was fitted for a cast. ... Isaac Seumalo, left guard, exited in the second quarter with a shoulder injury and didn't return. He was downgraded to out at halftime. ... Elandon Roberts, inside linebacker, exited in the first quarter with a groin injury, returned for one series in the second, then was downgraded to out. ... T.J. Watt, outside linebacker, exited for a series in the fourth quarter because of an apparent ankle issue, but he returned for the final series and was adamant he's 'fine' when I asked him twice afterward.
• Cardinals: Emari Demercado, running back, exited in the first quarter to be evaluated for a concussion and neck injury. He was cleared of a concussion but didn't return. ... Hollywood Brown, wide receiver, exited in the third quarter with a heel injury and didn't return.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE SCHEDULE
Next up are the Patriots, right here Thursday night. Kickoff's 8:15 p.m.
THE CONTENT
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