The Pittsburgh Steelers are entering the playoffs on a four-game losing streak and have to travel to face off against their rival the Baltimore Ravens for the third time this season. It's never a positive sign when a team goes into the playoffs in a slump and the question has been if the Steelers would truly be ready to face off against a Ravens team who has won their past four games. It'll be a challenge going into enemy territory, but the Steelers will need to learn from their past mistakes throughout the four-game skid.
A problem for the later half of the season was the defense, but most issues seemed to be fixed against the Cincinnati Bengals. This time, all eyes were on the offense, who only scored 17 points and had 193 total yards in Week 18. Many variables can be factored into the recent offensive struggles, but Russell Wilson can take some blame for his regression each game.
Wilson has had some costly mistakes and decisions lately. One came from late in the Bengals game. Arguably the most important drive of the game, the Steelers were trying to get down the field to either score a touchdown or give Chris Boswell a chance to kick a game-winning field goal. On the fourth play of the drive, Wilson scrambled and instead of trying to get out of bounds, he went forward with his shoulder to try and get extra yardage. In a situation with a minute left and one timeout, that's not the time to do that. Ben Roethlisberger talked about this play on his Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast and didn't like the play from Wilson.
"In that situation, getting out bounds is the most important thing," Roethlisberger said. "Get out of bounds and save the time. No one’s going to look at you and be like, 'Oh, he’s soft, he got out of bounds,' no, they’re going to look like that’s a smart play... Know when to do that and when not to."
After Wilson didn't go out of bounds, he got sacked the next play, wasting a lot of time and making Head Coach Mike Tomlin use his final timeout. It wasn't an ideal situation for the offense to try and set Boswell up for a field goal. The Steelers had to rush instead of settling down and executing a good play. Boswell never had a chance to try a field goal as Wilson threw an incomplete pass to Pat Freiermuth with 15 seconds left in the game.
Roethlisberger credits Wilson for trying to be the tough guy during Week 16's game in Baltimore. Wilson seemed to have a wide open lane to the end zone to score, but instead of sliding once a defender came along, he lowered his shoulder and went for the extra yards. The ball ended up coming out of his hands and the Ravens recovered just outside of the end zone. It was a brutal turnover as that is what realistically changed the outcome of the game.
Being a veteran, Wilson still makes some mistakes that someone with his experience shouldn't be doing. He's not stepping up in the pocket and has taken 33 sacks in 11 games this season. Some of that can be blamed on a young offensive line who hasn't played altogether for more than a season. However, Wilson knows that and needs to make quicker decisions to get the ball out of his hands. He has one more guaranteed chance on Saturday to prove he should stay with the Steelers this offseason or else Steeler Nation won't want him back.
Steelers' Legend Ben Roethlisberger Doesn't Think The Next Quarterback Is On The Roster
It was easy when Steelers fans had a future Hall of Fame quarterback for 18 seasons, but when Roethlisberger retired, a whole new cycle needed to start again. After failing with drafting Kenny Pickett and eventually trading him, the Steelers went to Wilson and Justin Fields to fill their quarterback room. Wilson was never going to be the long-term answer, but Fields also hasn't fully proven he's the next guy for Pittsburgh.
Fields is talented with his legs and has proved he can throw well, but fans haven't seen a whole season of him in Pittsburgh to show he can get it done for 18 whole weeks and win in the playoffs. Roethlisberger detailed on his podcast that the Steelers may need to have a down season to draft earlier on in the NFL Draft to get that young quarterback that can develop over the years. However, with Tomlin never having a losing season, that'll be tough to accomplish.
