3 Pittsburgh Steelers most to blame for painfully hapless Wild Card loss to Bills
Given Mike Tomlin's streak of winning seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, many people would probably be surprised to find out that the club hasn't won a playoff game since the 2016-17 postseason, a year in which they made it to the AFC Championship Game. And after Monday evening in a still-thawing Buffalo, that playoff drought will continue for another year.
It looked like the Bills might put the Steelers out of their misery quickly in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs as they jumped out to a 21-0 lead midway through the second quarter of the game that was postponed from Sunday to Monday due to the massive snow storm in Orchard Park. But hats off to Pittsburgh for fighting back, cutting into the lead before halftime and actually pulling within one possession early in the fourth quarter.
The comeback, however, wasn't meant to be for the Steelers. They came up just short when it was all said and done with a phenomenal Khalil Shakur catch-and-run touchdown serving as the nail in the coffin.
Pittsburgh was definitely the underdog in this game on the road with a third-string quarterback starting, but fans are always ready to point fingers nonetheless. And we know exactly which Steelers need to be blamed for the Wild Card loss.
3. George Pickens dropped a TD and had an ill-timed fumble
Yes, when you look at George Pickens’ stat-line, it’s hard to say that he had that bad of a game. After all, the young wide receiver finished second on the Steelers in receiving yards and tied for the team-high in receptions, finishing the game with five receptions for 50 yards. When you start to look at the minutia of how the pass-catcher played, though, it starts to look quite a bit worse.
Perhaps the best place to start is the fact that Pickens led the team in targets with 11 but caught fewer than 50 percent of the passes thrown his way. Part of that was undoubtedly due to some subpar quarterback play (which we will be discussing further), but some of it was also the always-frustrating parts of Pickens’ game. There were lapses in concentration, a would-be touchdown that possibly should’ve been caught, a late sideline blowup, and even an argument that he should’ve caught the fourth-down pass on the Steelers’ last truly meaningful drive.
On top of all of that, though, Pickens contributed heavily to Pittsburgh being behind the 8-ball from the jump in this contest. After the Steelers went down 7-0, they forced a three-and-out from the Bills on their second possession. On the first play of the ensuing drive, though, Pickens committed a fumble that Buffalo recovered (which was called correctly after replay reversed the initial call), and the opposing team scored to go up 14-0 on the next play.
That’s the type of game-swinging and momentum-changing play that the Steelers simply could not afford to happen. And in the context of the up-and-down nature of Pickens’ performance, it only makes him more of a scapegoat for this playoff loss.