On Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost a heartbreaker to the Miami Dolphins 16-10 and fell to 2-5 on the season. It was tough to watch a game come down to the final moments and fail to make enough plays. Here are our big takeaways from the loss.
The running back workload is all wrong
Najee Harris had 17 carries while Jaylen Warren had only three. This still makes not sense and the stubbornness of the Steelers coaches is limiting the opportunities for Pittsburgh to have balance on offense.
Pass rush non-existent
T.J. Watt is scheduled to return after the bye week and it can’t happen soon enough. The Steelers pass rush fell flat on Sunday with zero sacks and only one quarterback hit. This is completely unacceptable and frankly defensive coordinator Teryl Austin must be held accountable.
Time to worry about Kenny Pickett?
Rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett had a career-high 257 passing yards on Sunday but we cannot overlook two of those three interceptions. These are plays Pickett had lulled us into believing weren’t too big for Pickett to make. I’m not going to panic about Pickett at this point but it was an ugly performance without a doubt.
Is this the real Steelers?
Through seven games, we’ve seen the Steelers pull off two huge upsets, get blown out once and play four games close only to lose. That’s what happened on Sunday night and it feels like this is who the Steelers are. Bend but don’t break on defense, maybe make enough splash plays to pull off an unlikely win and an offense that can’t stay out of its own way.
