Gerry Dulac: Steelers' talk of fixing long-standing problems rings hollow one last time
Published in Football
BALTIMORE — They said they wouldn't die on the hill doing the same old thing. And they did.
They said it was a new season where the slate was wiped clean and everybody started the same. And it wasn't.
What happened Saturday night at M&T Bank Stadium was much of what has transpired in the past five weeks, only now there is no more time for the Steelers to bounce back and talk about fixing their problems.
They lost their fifth consecutive game and had another one-and-done stay in the AFC playoffs when the Baltimore Ravens ended their season with a 28-14 victory in an AFC wild-card game that extended their playoff victory drought to eight years.
"I'm worried less about the regular season," coach Mike Tomlin said. "I'm really just disappointed in how we performed tonight, given the opportunity we had."
It was the Steelers' sixth consecutive playoff defeat, going back to the 2016 AFC championship game, tying the Miami Dolphins for the longest active streak in the league. They have allowed an average of 38.8 points and been outscored in the first quarter 63-0 in the past five postseason games.
It was not what they expected after team owner Art Rooney II declared after last season's early exit that it was time to start winning playoff games.
"It's not an easy day today," said quarterback Russell Wilson, who briefly tried to rally the Steelers with a pair of touchdown passes in the third quarter. "This one definitely hurts."
It was the eighth time Tomlin has lost in the opening round of the playoffs, putting him just one behind the dubious record held by former Cleveland Browns and Kansas City Chiefs coach Marty Schottenheimer, who suffered nine one-and-done appearances in the postseason.
"I'm just assessing what transpired tonight," Tomlin said. "I told you guys earlier in the week — those are my bags, not the collective's bags. Certainly it came to a disappointing end."
Above everything else, it was another uninspired playoff performance by the defense, which allowed the Ravens to rush for 299 yards, the most by a playoff opponent in franchise history. Just three weeks after he ran for 162 yards against them in Week 16, Derrick Henry went for 186 more, including 100 in the first half, on 24 carries and two touchdowns.
The killer was his 44-yard touchdown after the Steelers had cut the lead to 21-7 in the third quarter. It quickly threw water on whatever momentum the Steelers might have gleaned from the first of Wilson's two touchdowns that made it 21-7.
"That big run by [Henry] kind of quelled some of that," Tomlin said.
The Ravens finished with 469 yards, 29 first downs and possessed the ball for nearly twice as long (39:33) as the Steelers (20:27). 40 minutes. It was the fifth consecutive game in which the Steelers failed to score more than 17 points.
"They lined up in front of us and they beat us," safety DeShon Elliott said. "No excuses on that. They definitely put the belt to butt tonight."
Wilson made it look interesting when he completed 10 of 13 passes for 187 yards and touchdowns of 30 yards to Van Jefferson and 37 yards to George Pickens in the third quarter to make it 28-14.
Wilson had six completions of at least 21 yards and threw for 226 of his 270 yards in the second half.
"We came into the game believing we could win it," said Wilson, who was eliminated in the opening round for only the third time in his 17 postseason starts. "The best part about the game is the guys didn't give up. Sometimes guys check out, and they didn't."
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson passed for 175 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another 81 yards on 15 attempts, but most of the damage he inflicted came in the first half when he did whatever he wanted against the Steelers defense. The two-time league MVP passed for 144 yards and ran for 64 more on 11 attempts in the first half.
What's more, he engineered first-half scoring drives of 99, 85 and 90 yards.
"The X-factor was Lamar's unique talents," Tomlin said. "It seems like every time we got him behind the sticks, he made up for it. He extended and won those circumstances, and we never really found a fluid answer all game."
The game was over by halftime when the Ravens had a 21-0 lead, and the damage was palpable: They led in yards (308-59), rushing yards (164-19), passing yards (144-40) and first downs (19-2). It was just all part of recent playoff history for the Steelers.
It was just another lackluster performance on both sides of the ball for the Steelers and sends them into another offseason marked by question marks and serious staff decisions.
Imagine what it might have been if the Steelers didn't elect to receive after winning the opening coin toss. That was part of Tomlin's plan to be aggressive, but it backfired when the Steelers punted after six plays.
But it shouldn't have been a surprise. It was the 21st consecutive game, counting the postseason, in which the Steelers failed to score a touchdown on the opening possession.
Even when the Steelers showed some life to start the second half, when Wilson threw a 30-yard touchdown to Jefferson to complete a 98-yard, nine-play drive, the Ravens needed only four plays to answer with another touchdown to make it 28-7.
And it was Henry who gouged their defense again, this time going 44 yards for a touchdown. It was already the sixth play of at least 20 yards allowed by the Steelers' once-stout defense.
And the culmination of a late-season meltdown in which they blew a two-game lead in the AFC North division and finished the regular season with four consecutive losses for the first time since the 1998 season.
"We [expletive] the bed at the end," Elliott said. "We got to figure out what's the problem. We got to figure out how to get better. We got to figure out how to get past that point. We got to figure out how to finish strong and go into the playoffs hot."
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