by Bo Marchionte
Pittsburgh – Cam Sutton sat at his locker after the 17-14 loss the Patriots.
Obviously distraught after the gimme interception from Mac Jones that he failed to secure. Hands on his head in disbelief. He had a chance at a golden opportunity to cause a turnover that possibly could have helped changed the outcome of the game.
“Just dropped the ball,” Sutton said. “Just moving to the ball and I dropped the ball.”
His demeanor left anyone looking at him felt deflated as well. It was the dictionary visual of the hurt a loss brings to a professional athlete.
The locker room was basically down to training staff cleaning up the game worn gear and piling up the laundry for cleaning. A handful of players remained who had already showered and were getting dressed to exit Acrisure Stadium.
Sutton still was sitting.
Wearing his uniform, he had not even begun the process of washing off the defeat that dropped the Steelers to 1-1, in a short week, with the Browns their next opponent this Thursday in Cleveland.
Pittsburgh had its moment and Head Coach Mike Tomlin said as much during his postgame press conference. The team failed to move the football. Lacked a pass rush without T.J. Watt and the fumbled punt by Gunner Olszewski left them in trouble.
“We had our moments,” Mike Tomlin said after the loss. “We won some possessions downs. On offense we won some possession downs and on defense.
“That seven points in the two-minute circumstance and their ability to put seven points on the board after we weren’t able to handle the punt were the significant parts of the game.”
The loss comes along with chants from the crowd for rookie Kenny Pickett to get his shot under center. As the offense sputters to find a real identity the patience is going to wear thin of the Steelers to keep their first-round pick off the field.
The only way to silence those chants is for Mitchell Trubisky to move the offense more efficiently. He finished 21 of 33 for 168 yards passing with one touchdown and interception. His back-to-back games with a passer rating below 79 leaves this offense amid a possible change at quarterback.
Sutton drop a potential interception, but it was another drop that most will pinpoint as the reason Pittsburgh failed to get the victory over New England.
Former Patriot Gunner Olszewski fumbled a punt away on the Steelers 20-yard line. Compiled with a roughing the punter penalty put the ball half the distance to the goal. The result was a Damien Harris touchdown that built the lead to 17-6.
“I got to catch it,” Olszewski said. “I didn’t catch it. There is no excuse.”
A quiet off-season acquisition was named the 2020 AP All-Pro first team as a punt returner. When the ball hit the ground and bounced into the Patriots special team ace Brenden Schooler.
0 to 158.3
Those numbers are a measure of the performance of quarterbacks. The NFL scale goes from 0 to 158.3 and quarterback Mitchell Trubisky is a lifetime passer at 86.8 prior to today’s lackluster performance. In two starts for the Steelers, Trubisky has managed a pathetic 76.2 passer rating. The mark is well below the league average.
It’s basically the mark for the bottom dwellers of the NFL. These numbers do not quantify that the loss was on Trubisky, but with fans in Acrisure Stadium chanting, “Kenny, Kenny, Kenny,” means he’ll need to get this offense purring to remain under center.
Oddsmakers
Last weekend the Steelers traveled to Cincinnati and beat the defending AFC Champion Bengals 23-20 in overtime. The Patriots lost 20-7 to the Miami Dolphins. Oddsmakers still pegged New England to beat Pittsburgh in Week 2.
“I don’t give a damn about point spreads,” Cam Heyward said earlier this week. “It comes down to winning games. People who think they know before we actually play are stupid.”
The oddsmakers must be a little smarter than Heyward gives them credit for because the Patriots won their first game of the year at the hands of the Steelers, 17-14.
Photo Credit Frank Hyatt