3 Pittsburgh Steelers most to blame for painfully hapless Wild Card loss to Bills

2. Patrick Peterson looked like the game was literally passing him by

There were a lot of people who were excited about the Steelers signing veteran cornerback Patrick Peterson to help upgrade a secondary that has struggled for much of the year. I was not among that group as it looked to me like the three-time All-Pro had clearly lost a step and might not be anything close to what he once was in this league. 

Though he had his moments, the idea of losing a step was never more evident than on Monday night. 

Whenever they showed a Bills highlight from the first half as Buffalo jumped out to their big early lead, it seemed like Peterson’s No. 20 jersey would always end up on the screen in some unflattering light. He whiffed on what seemed like an easy sack of Josh Allen that resulted in a big gain, he was burned in coverage on a number of key Bills passes to keep drives moving or pick up chunk yardages, and he also put forth a poor effort on Allen’s 52-yard touchdown run. 

Peterson simply looked like an older player running in quicksand when it came to defending this Bills offense. Granted, the poor tackling and poor discipline was something that was echoed throughout the Steelers defense throughout this game and cost them more than a couple of times. But the cornerback just seemed to always be in the wrong place at the wrong time, which is more often than not a sign that the player is the one not getting their job done. 

It was a two-year contract that the Steelers signed the veteran to this past offseason, but after this game, no one in Pittsburgh should be looking forward to another year of what Peterson looked like on Monday should the team choose to retain him.