Can we talk about how awful the Steelers should feel right now?
By Josh Hill
Let’s stop piling on the Browns and talk about how awful the Steelers looked Week 1.
It’s easy to pile on the Cleveland Browns. Not only has the team failed to win a game in almost two calendar years, but we all saw dirty laundry aired on Hard Knocks. Anyone who watched that series, or have watched the Browns at all since 1999, knows that the team is not in a good place.
A black hole absorbs all light and destroys everything, and Cleveland is exactly that. Rather than talking about the real story Week 1, everyone is making the same joke about the Browns ending a losing streak without actually winning.
The real story is that the game technically counts as a tie but is hard to see as anything but a loss for the Steelers.
Pittsburgh is habitually penciled in as AFC North victors and in the conversation with New England as the best team in the conference. Nothing on Sunday indicates that this is a team that can compete within its own division let alone with an NFC titan.
Ben Roethlisberger turned the ball over four times, including a fumble in overtime that should have ended the game. As a team, the Steelers committed five turnovers and only scored 21-points. A similar performance was turned in last year against the Jaguars, a team that was talented enough to not squandered such an opportunity. Cleveland’s defense is good but isn’t as great as Jacksonville, yet it was able to bully Pittsburgh’s offense much in the same way. Conditions were garbage and Week 1 is always wonky, but the Steelers offense couldn’t break free from the Browns.
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James Conner was the lone bright spot, rushing for 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but his success is against the backdrop of Le’Veon Bell’s absence. Pittsburgh losing doesn’t help quiet the debate that the offense needs its playmaking running back to win games.
This is all be prefaced with the typical it’s only Week 1 talk, but the road doesn’t get much easier from here for Pittsburgh. Next week is a showdown with Kansas City’s explosive offense, a road trip to a surprisingly good Tampa Bay team, followed by games against the Falcons and Ravens. None of those games were going to be easy to begin with and now those teams smell blood in the water.
No one should feel good about what happened in Cleveland on Sunday, but the Steelers should feel especially bad.