Madden Monday: Expect Steelers' return to Baltimore to go from 'bad to worse'

There is some hope within the Pittsburgh Steelers fanbase that a second time around in Baltimore will be better than the first.

There is a good reason for that.

That reason is it couldn’t go much worse than the first time.

The Steelers dropped their regular season road game against the Ravens, 31-17, back on Dec. 21. It was the second of four consecutive losses Mike Tomlin’s club endured to close out the regular season.

Along the way, the Steelers allowed 418 yards of offense, never got any three-and-outs, committed two crucial turnovers and yielded 220 rushing yards.

In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLive isn’t expecting Saturday night’s playoff rematch in M&T Bank Stadium to go any better.

“I think it might be even tougher on the Steelers than that one,” Madden said. “I think this team is checked out mentally. I think that shows when you come out flat at home against an opponent you should beat (Cincinnati) after you’ve just lost three straight, and there’s still something on the line in terms of playoff seeding. I think it’s going to go from bad to worse. Maybe much worse.”

The most head-scratching element about last Saturday’s 19-17 loss to the Bengals in the regular season finale was the lack of offense against a Cincy defense that had yielded 520 yards and 44 points in the first meeting between the franchises on Dec. 1.

“I was stunned by how flat the Steelers came out in general,” Madden said. “But then again, we shouldn’t be surprised because they didn’t score a touchdown on their opening possession for all 17 games. We have to ask ourselves the questions at this point, ‘Is Arthur Smith really any better than Matt Canada?’ He’s got his quirky stuff, like making sure (Cordarrelle) Patterson gets touches. He threw the fade route to Darnell Washington, who was ill-equipped to handle it. (He) doesn’t have the hands, doesn’t have the agility. I think he’s done a really bad job as offensive coordinator. So, I agree that the offensive ineptitude is shocking. I don’t think it’s surprising at this point.”

However, Madden doesn’t want to throw too much blame at Smith because he thinks the offensive roster is poorly constructed.

“We shouldn’t ignore the lack of personnel on that side of the ball. I’m not saying Smith couldn’t do better. I think he could do much better, but their offensive line stinks. Dan Moore? It hit midnight for him against Cincinnati. He turned into a pumpkin. Those rookies (Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick) have been overrated since Day 1 because they’re rookies. The wide receiving corps has always been bummy because they could never find the No. 2 once they got rid of Diontae Johnson.”

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Perhaps most importantly, Madden thinks it is becoming clear that the Steelers still don’t have a long-term answer at quarterback.

“Russell Wilson? Can’t bring him back. Not at the price he’s going to want,” Madden added. “Here’s a guy who looks worn out. He looks a billion years old, and he didn’t play in the first six games of the season. He should hardly be worn out, but he is.”

Despite all these problems with the Steelers, Madden is expecting a status quo offseason, even if the Ravens make short work of the team in the playoffs.

“I think they’re going to bring Wilson back regardless. I just think they’re going to do what’s safe and easy in perpetuity with this franchise,” Madden continued. “They’ll extend Tomlin when the time comes. I bet they bring Arthur Smith back. I bet Teryl Austin, the defensive coordinator, is the sacrificial lamb. They should trade T.J. Watt for a couple of first-round picks. They should let (George) Pickens go. There’s so many drastic changes that will need to be made once Baltimore knocks them out of the playoffs to end the season by having lost five straight — and they’re going to make none of those changes.”

Also, in the podcast, Madden and I kick around ESPN’s suggestion that a few teams may want to trade for Tomlin. We dive into some Penguins talk and we analyze Penn State’s upcoming playoff game against Notre Dame.