Madden Monday on Steelers' playoff loss: 'Coaching couldn't have saved that game' — or the season
The Pittsburgh Steelers offense is catching most of the heat for the team’s failings en route to a 42-21 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday night’s playoff game.
Rightfully so. By halftime, the team converted all of two first downs, was 1 for 8 on third downs, and was outgained 302-44.
But as Mark Madden said on this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, don’t let the offensive futility sway you into thinking the defense is without blame.
“The defense stinks, too,” Madden said. “Out and out stinks. They allowed a touchdown on six consecutive possessions at one point. … My point is, no one on the Steelers is blameless.”
To Madden’s point on defense, consider some of these storylines from the game.
• Once the Chiefs got rolling, the Steelers couldn’t stop them. They scored 42 points in roughly 26 minutes of game time. Much like the 36-10 result in the regular season, if Kansas City’s offense needed to score more, it easily could’ve done so.
• Kansas City barely tried to run — or needed to — when the game was in the balance. Yet whenever they did keep the ball on the ground, they averaged 4.8 yards per carry on 22 attempts for 106 yards. By Steelers standards this year, that’s actually considered a better effort than normal. But the anemic run defense helped the Chiefs passing game by getting into good down and distance situations.
• Five different Chiefs receivers caught touchdown passes (Byron Pringle caught two). Five players averaged more than 10 yards per reception.
• Quarterback Patrick Mahomes was 30 of 39 for 404 yards, five touchdowns and one interception. That’s a passer rating of 138.2. He did all that damage after being 6 of 12 for 45 yards and no touchdowns (with that interception) and a passer rating of 24 in the first quarter.
Madden acknowledged that, yes, coaching was a part of that equation. But he said those focusing on simply putting the heads of Matt Canada and Keith Butler on the chopping block are missing the point.
And that point is that the roster needs major upgrades this offseason. On both sides of the ball.
“In the wake of losing, there is a great outcry to fire Keith Butler and Matt Canada, the two coordinators. Coaching couldn’t have saved that game. Coaching couldn’t have saved that season. It’s just a really bad football team who somehow overachieved and made the playoffs,” Madden said.
Madden was quick to point out, however, not to read too much praise from the phrase “overachieve.” He’s still of the opinion that this season is far from being one that should be celebrated.
“When I say overachieve, I just didn’t expect them to make the playoffs,” Madden said. “For them to do that — although it did them no good—that is slight yet pretty significant overachieving. I mean, you always want to make the playoffs … until you get beat 42-21.”
Also in the podcast, Madden and I look at what will take place at the quarterback position next year with Ben Roethlisberger retiring, the need to rebuild both lines of scrimmage, and the rest of this year’s AFC playoff bracket. Plus, we talk Penguins as Mark is in Las Vegas for Monday night’s game between the Penguins and Golden Knights.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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