It’s easy to be a fan when your time is winning playoff games and Super Bowls.
This week? Not so much.
This is the first loss for the Steelers since December 21st of last year. It’s been a long time.
Strangely enough, I’m not too upset about it. The reason the Steelers lost today wasn’t because Chicago was a better football team so much as it was the Steelers didn’t execute. Dropped passes. Blown coverages. Missed kicks.
These kinds of things catch up to all teams at some point and Chicago’s ultra-conservative game plan made the Steelers mistakes killer.
Whatever.
It’s week two of the season and if you are wanting any drastic changes go root for the Cowboys. Even good teams play bad games sometimes.
Now onto the grades…
Grades
Bears coaching staff – B+
It’s pretty obvious at this point that the new blueprint to beat LeBeau’s defense is attacking with quick passes before the pressure shows up. The Bears ate up a lot of yards this way but didn’t score many points. Still, it worked in the end and somebody on their staff knew what to do.
Santonio Holmes – C
If he catches one or two of the five or six balls he just missed, the Steelers win this game. There were a few teams in the early going that one first down could have blown the thing wide open. Tough day for Holmes.
Matt Forte – C+
Possibly the most overrated player heading into the season. Didn’t show much even though the Bears were living off of short passes.
Tyrone Carter – C+
The guy has the impossible task of stepping in for a Hall of Fame talent. He is not going to be Troy Polamalu so I feel bad for Ty when those comparisons are thrown out there. Still, he was victimized on a few TD passes.
Alex Brown – A*
A as in “asshole.” You left college like 6 years ago. Stop doing the gator chomp.
Willie Parker – B-
A fair effort against a decent run defense. I saw the “burst” that people say is gone today for a few plays.
Steelers LBs – D
A rare off game for this group. Their rush was always a step late and the pass coverage was exploited over and over again by the short passing.
Big Ben – B-
Would have went down as the hero in the 4th quarter again if Jeff Reed makes a field goal. His WRs were open all afternoon and he missed a few easy throws. I also wish he would have went downfield more often.
Rashard Mendenhall – A-
That is what I have been waiting to see from him. About time.
Jeff Reed – F
He’s won us a lot of games and probably doesn’t get enough credit, but this one will obviously be lumped on him.
WTF Moment of the Game
Probably the 3rd and 2 play late in the 4th when Roethlisberger just missed Holmes on a long throw to the endzone. I like the play action call there but it would have been nice to throw a more high-percentage pass. I’m sure the Steelers were confident in Reed and that is why they felt they could gamble, but that play was definitely the big X-factor in the outcome of the game.
Guy we’d like to see in a Steelers uniform
Greg Olsen. He’s turned into one of the best receiving TEs in the game. He wouldn’t be a great fit into the Steelers offense but the Bears have quite a weapon in Olsen.
Game ball
Cutler. Sure, he was running a JV-style offense and rarely threw downfield, but he was the model of efficiency and didn’t make any real mistakes.
The final word
I’m furious but the Steelers were long overdue to play an off game. It’s really not that big of a deal to drop a week two game and I’ll probably shut down this blog if Chicago is a better team than Pittsburgh come December. Now, time to sulk.
