Steelers Neutered by Patriots Again

Steelers Outpost Podcast

Steelers 3 Patriots 33

“Coach Tomlin…. Zero point zero..I have notified your local draft board and told them that you are eligible for military service…”

Whaddya say about this 33-3 drubbing? NO MATTER WHAT the Steelers do, it ends up in futility in the hands of the inscrutable genius of Bill Belichick.

Three silver linings:

The Steelers won the coin toss

Chris Boswell hit his sole FG attempt from 19 yards

Jordan Berry was money

This game was a reversion back to the mean, proving that last year’s victory sat two standard deviations from the top of the bell curve.

James Conner busted a couple of runs, but ultimately this running “attack” sputtered with 32 yards. Worse, the Steelers had four opportunities to gain a first down with one yard to go and went oh-fur.

The passing game? Try as he might, Ben couldn’t catch the passes for his receivers. One might think that Donte Moncrief was secretly traded to the Patriots as he proceeded to dropped three passes (one in the end zone). Ben Roethlisberger placed a beautiful ball in James Washington’s hands for what we hope to be his weekly 45 yard reception.

We assumed JuJu Smith-Schuster would be blanketed by two Patriot defenders all night, but he managed to pull in six of his eight targets for 78 yards. We were mystified why Vance McDonald wasn’t even targeted until 1:22 LEFT IN THE GAME!!

Defensively, this looked like every other game we’ve played against the Pats where we remove coverage from the middle of the field to allow Tom Brady easy access to his 5’2” receivers and an unimpeded lane to many, many additional yards after catch. Kameron Kelly may have impressed in the pre-season, but he ain’t ready for prime time. We’re still waiting on Bud Dupree. He spent most of the game lost between the pectoral muscles of Isaiah Winn.

Well, we get the Seattle Seahawks at home next week. Can we shift gears? History shows that the Steelers can sustain a blowout and still make the playoffs. This team seems to need more time than others to sleep in, in the morning.

Please drop us a note:

Check us out on Instagram @Steelersoutpost

Hit us up on Twitter at @Steelersoutpost

Leave us a note at the website – www.Steelersoutpost.com

Shoot us an email at [e-mail]

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.