Airing of Grievances: Another rotten offensive start and leaks on defense result in Steelers' loss to Cowboys

While meeting with the media last week, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith borrowed Napoleon Bonaparte’s “Take Vienna” quote to illustrate the concept of coaching conviction and carrying out marching orders.

Based on how Smith’s offense performed in the first half of Sunday night’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys (3-2), forget Vienna. I would’ve been satisfied if Smith had taken North Versailles.

Well, unless Napoleon meant Vienna, Ohio. Then maybe Smith’s unit would’ve had a shot.

Maybe.

But based on all the yardage the defense allowed, Dak Prescott and Dallas’ offense would’ve rolled right over them, through Western Pennsylvania and across the state line into Ohio first.

The Steelers’ offense was sporadic. The defense hemorrhaged yards. And, as usual, there were some coaching decisions to be questioned as the fourth quarter became a Waterloo for the Steelers (3-2).

Sacrebleu!

We vent about it in this week’s “Airing of Grievances” after a 20-17 home loss to the Cowboys.

First-half failure

The Steelers’ offense in the first half was atrocious. It totaled 89 yards on 30 plays.

The team converted just one third-down snap on seven tries. Quarterback Justin Fields managed only 35 yards passing. He completed four throws while being sacked three times.

Running back Najee Harris averaged just 3.4 yards per carry on eight attempts for a meager 27 yards. George Pickens was targeted twice and had only 8 yards on one catch. Pat Freiermuth wasn’t targeted at all.

“It’s nothing mystical about the outcome. We didn’t do enough over 60 minutes to position ourselves,” head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game. “We started slow offensively. It was self-inflicted wounds, penalties and things of that nature to get us off schedule offensively.”

On the night, the Steelers had eight penalties for 50 yards. However, many of those came on special teams and defense as well. The biggest concern has to be a run game that couldn’t boast a single carry longer than 8 yards on 26 attempts.

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Coaching calamity

The most discouraging moment in the first half happened during the first drive of the night. On third-and-8 from the Dallas 28, Smith decided to run a pitch play to fourth-string running back Aaron Shampklin.

Unless the plan was to go for it on fourth down, I have no idea why he would do that. But the run gained 5 yards and Tomlin sent Chris Boswell onto the field to kick a field goal anyway.

If the Steelers don’t trust Justin Fields to throw the ball beyond the sticks in that situation, I don’t know what else to say. It makes no sense. They should start Russell Wilson next week in Las Vegas, then.

Of course, when the Cowboys pitched the ball on a third and 6 from their own 18 in the fourth quarter, it worked.

Thanks but no thanks

I also didn’t agree with Tomlin’s timeout usage late in the game.

I was hoping he’d use a timeout when he was presented the option to do so with 47 seconds left after a review. Prescott was ruled down before the pylon at the 1-yard line. The play was reviewed and upheld. However, because the clock was stopped when it otherwise would have been running, a 10-second runoff has to come into effect, unless either team elects to call a timeout.

Neither coach decided to take the timeout.

I would have done that to save 10 seconds. However, Tomlin elected to hold the timeout, only to burn it on fourth-and-goal after he got a look at Dallas’ offense.

Then again, Dallas also got to see Pittsburgh’s defense, so what was the point?

“We wanted to gather some information, see the structure they came out in and get ourselves in the right call. It was a fourth down play. No hesitation about that. We had an opportunity to win the game right there. Forget what comes after. So we took a time out. We communicated. We got in a call that we liked, and they won the down,” Tomlin said.

Out of the timeout, Dallas snapped the ball, scored and Pittsburgh was left with just 20 seconds left to pull off some sort of miracle.

Which they did not accomplish.

How they got there

The Steelers’ red zone defense was quite good, forcing a short field goal, blocking another and generating two turnovers.

But the defense struggled for a second week in a row after it looked phenomenal the first three games.

Prescott averaged 8.4 yards per attempt and converted four passes between 27-48 yards. The Cowboys ended up with 445 yards of offense and picked up nine conversions on third downs.

The real back-breaker was Dallas’ game-winning touchdown drive. The defense stayed on the field for 14 plays and over four-and-a-half minutes as the Cowboys marched 70 yards to end the game on a fourth-down pass into the end zone from Prescott to Jalen Tolbert.

4TH AND GOAL. :20 TO GO.

CLUTCH COWBOYS pic.twitter.com/yM0ObWFmnU

— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2024

Prescott and company also had a drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters. It lasted 8 minutes, 32 seconds. The Cowboys plodded 90 yards over 16 plays. It culminated in a Rico Dowdle touchdown reception from 22 yards out.

.@DallasCowboys close out a long 90-yard drive with a TD, courtesy of Rico Dowdle!

: #DALvsPIT on NBC/Peacock
: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/6r3EE7WqDT

— NFL (@NFL) October 7, 2024

“Toward the end of the game, they were running the ball well. We were allowing them to get a lot of yards after the catch. Miscommunications. A lot of stuff we usually do at a high level. We didn’t do that tonight,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said.

During the evening, the Steelers’ defense allowed Dallas to overcome 87 yards on 11 penalties.

Injuries at outside linebacker are also becoming a big problem. The Steelers already began the game with Alex Highsmith sidelined. Then they lost Nick Herbig with a hamstring injury and DeMarvin Leal with a stinger during the game.

Not a good look

Television cameras caught George Pickens wearing a message on his eye-black that read “Open (expletive) always.”

Maybe his eye black next week will read: “Caught passes (expletive) rarely.”

Because if Pickens was as open as that message suggests, the ball still barely came his way. The third-year receiver had just three catches for 26 yards on seven targets.

He also got into a little scrum with some Dallas players at the end of the game, and it appears they didn’t take too kindly to that.

“Pittsburgh need a receiver. George Pickens weak”

- Cowboys CB Jourdan Lewis
pic.twitter.com/tMVehG6Ybl

— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 7, 2024

We are five games into the season and Pickens has yet to score a touchdown.