Airing of Grievances: Offense, defense flop as Steelers suffer dreadful upset loss to Cardinals

Sunday was as bad of an afternoon as I can ever remember at Acrisure Stadium for a Steelers game day.

There were two weather delays for high winds, lightning, heavy rain and hail.

In December. In Pittsburgh.

On top of that, the Steelers (7-5) lost a 24-10 slopfest to the Arizona Cardinals (3-10), one of the bottom-feeders in the NFL.

And it took 4 hours and 19 minutes to complete.

“We have to go into games like these and realize we have to play our best ball,” safety Minkah Fitzpatrick said after the loss. “I don’t understand why games like this … we should be winning by a lot of points. Playing great defense. When we don’t play our best ball, that’s not the case. They are an NFL team. They get paid, too. So they are going to take advantage of us not playing our best ball.”

Plus, quarterback Kenny Pickett, linebacker Elandon Roberts and guard Isaac Seumalo got injured and didn’t return to the game. Even Fitzpatrick suffered a broken hand. But at least he was able to continue playing and is expecting to do so again next week.

Now the Steelers have a short turnaround to play the 2-10 New England Patriots on Thursday night. If you thought Sunday’s game was ugly, wait until that doozy comes up later this week.

Because if the Steelers are capable of losing to Arizona, they are capable of losing to anyone. Even that dreadful offensive unit from Foxborough.

Here is this week’s edition of “Airing of Grievances.”

Offensive regression: Whatever strides the Steelers made in Game 1 without Matt Canada as the offensive coordinator last week, they evaporated Sunday against a Cardinals defense that is one of the worst in the NFL.

In the first half, the Steelers failed on six of their first seven attempts to convert third or fourth downs. They were also 0 for 2 in the red zone. The Steelers had the ball for 17:24 seconds and managed just one field goal.

“It wasn’t our day. Our execution, we shot ourselves in the foot too many times. Unacceptable penalties. Illegal formations. Didn’t convert on possession downs a lot,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said.

Very little improved in the second half, as the team finished 4 of 12 on third-down conversion attempts. The strides made by the offense, putting up 421 yards in Cincinnati, dipped to 317 this Sunday. Seventy-five of those yards came on a touchdown drive on their last possession, trailing 24-3, after the game was well within Arizona’s control.

So Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan might not be the saviors we were making them out to be seven days ago.

Mason’s miscues, Miles’ mistakes: Center Mason Cole had at least three low shotgun snaps. One of them resulted in a fumble when backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky couldn’t catch the ball cleanly down by his shins to end the club’s first drive of the third quarter.

Scooped pic.twitter.com/R3nWIZMopL

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 3, 2023

That one was catchable, but it was still low. Trubisky blamed himself for not doing a better job to pounce on the loose ball.

Meanwhile, normally reliable special teams captain Miles Killebrew had a brutal day. He drew three flags on punt coverage: a facemask, a running into the punter (declined) and a fair-catch interference.

There were 15 penalties in this game. The Steelers were flagged nine times.

Take the points: I wasn’t wild about Mike Tomlin’s decision to go for the touchdown on fourth-and-goal in the second quarter with five minutes left. With scoring at a premium, I would’ve just taken the three points.

Especially given that the Steelers were taking the snap with a backup quarterback and a backup offensive lineman. Pickett and Seumalo had left the field after the previous play when Pickett scrambled and came up just short of the goal line.

The Cardinals knew it was going to be a handoff with Trubisky coming in cold. The Steelers weren’t going to have him throw there or sneak because Pickett had limped off already. And with Nate Herbig taking his first rep of the day upfront, too, why not just be happy with the three points?

If they tried it for field position purposes, that backfired anyway, as the Cardinals shoved the ball down Pittsburgh’s throat for 15 plays and 99 yards.

Since I brought it up: That 99-yard scoring drive by Arizona at the end of the second quarter was atrocious. The Steelers had 15 plays to create some negativity during the Cardinals’ drive, and they couldn’t do it.

They even let the same guy score twice. Tight end Trey McBride had a touchdown overturned by replay, then caught a TD pass on the next snap.

This Trey McBride TD counts!

: #AZvsPIT on CBS
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/xvCjbLUIcN pic.twitter.com/YWNZagYINv

— NFL (@NFL) December 3, 2023

“We couldn’t get off the field on third down,” linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “We had them in position to do that. We just didn’t make the plays that needed to be made.”

The Cardinals converted five third downs on that drive. They were 0 of 4 before the drive started.

Salt in the wounds: The cherry on the sundae was that ex-Steelers running back James Conner stuck it to his former organization for two touchdowns.

James Conner's second TD against his former team!

: #AZvsPIT on CBS
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/xvCjbLUIcN pic.twitter.com/NW9wolNZ6A

— NFL (@NFL) December 3, 2023

Conner was the best running back on the field Sunday. He ended the game with 105 yards on 25 carries.

The Steelers also had no answer for McBride. He ended the day with eight catches for 89 yards and that score. Fitzpatrick admitted after the defeat that the defense “didn’t give him the respect he deserved” early in the game.