Steeler woes: Ten thousand no-shows yesterday — time to re-evaluate?

Not what we wanted to see

… “Steelers playing like their best days are behind them”

Remember when you could not beg for a ticket to a Pittsburgh Steelers game? On Sunday, only 58,000 season ticket holders showed up for the Bengals game. 

Talk about fair-weather fans. They gave up after the pathetic performance last week against the Raiders at home. Steelers Nation that started in the 1970s is in dire straits. Mike Tomlin, the coach who has won 65 percent of his games in the regular season but is woeful in the post-season, is now starting his downhill slide with the team. 

Is this hyperbole? They have rebounded before in their history, but then, they had superb talent. 

Perhaps no game was as discouraging as the 24-10 loss to the Bengals. 

And the 10,000 fans who did not show knew what they would be missing. 

Things will probably get worse before they improve. 

Next, the Packers. 

Ron Cook: Defense “witness protection program”

The Post-Gazette’s columnist Ron Cook did not show any mercy after the game. Less than two hours after the debacle against the Bengals, a 24-10 loss, he wrote this, in part,

You made it pretty clear Sunday how you feel about your football team, didn’t you, Pittsburgh?

More than 10,000 of you had tickets but were no-shows at Heinz Field for AFC North division action against the Cincinnati Bengals on a spectacular autumn day. The 58,000 of you who did come out didn’t need long to wish you, too, had stayed away. You were hoarse by halftime from booing the offense’s pathetic play on an afternoon that made you wish for the Duck Hodges days. 

You had hardly any energy left to boo the defense, which was playing with guys who could have been in the Witness Protection Program, after it gave up a killer 34-yard touchdown pass with 37 seconds left before halftime.

“We sucked today,” Cam Heyward said.

Ron Cook, “Steelers playing like their best days after 

behind them,” Post-Gazette, September 26, 2021

I still remember the bad old days

How bad are they? Well, they are not yet at the level of the 1950s or the Buddy Parker days of my youth. In fact, let’s be clear. The Steelers never amounted to anything until they hired Chuck Noll. 

Chuck never intended to create Steeler Nation, but his success did so, and that has lasted for about 50 years. They have had some bad years with a few losing seasons, but even with Cowher’s two bad years, there was always hope. 

Now, they have a QB who should have retired last year but his ego would not permit it. Now, while he is not the only problem, it is time for change — but can Tomlin deliver that?

The future looks bleak, and I wrote last summer that no Super Bowls looms on the horizon until 2034. I did that mathematically, but this is how bleak the present is,

Maybe you were expecting the same, old Bungles, who had lost five consecutive games here and 11 of 12 overall in the series. I tried to warn you last week. These Bengals clearly were the better team on the North Shore lawn. They are going to be better than the Steelers for the next several years because they have a quarterback for the future and the Steelers don’t.

For the third week in a row, Ben Roethlisberger and his offense couldn’t produce even a single point in the first quarter. They have managed just four touchdowns in three games. Things were so bad after Roethlisberger threw his second interception midway through the third quarter that I would have switched to Mason Rudolph for a change of pace.

I had a couple of reasons: One, Rudolph couldn’t have done any worse. And two, to show a little mercy for Roethlisberger, who was sacked four times and hit seven others. That’s eight sacks and 23 hits in the first three games.

Ron Cook, Post-Gazette, September 26, 2021

We shall see. Perhaps they can bounce back, but injuries and poor drafting philosophy have left them in a bind. 

Even in Chuck Noll’s last years they struggled, mainly because of Bubby Brister and horrible drafts of the 1980s. 

So, maybe hope is there. I will always remain a Steelers fan, but …