Now that we’ve had some time to digest everything about the Pittsburgh Steelers playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills, it is time for some big takeaways. The Steelers fell behind 21-0 and after trying to mount a comeback fell just short 31-17.
Attention to details was absent for the defense
The Steelers defense has dealt with injuries all season long so not having T.J. Watt was just part of doing business. The problem on Monday was that the most fundamental parts of playing defense were absent. Poor angles to the football and horrific tackles continued to put this team in awful positions and gave the Bills far too many extra opportunities.
Mason Rudolph shined again
Yes, Mason Rudolph got off to a slow start. The entire team did. But once things got moving it was Rudolph who once again stood out. Rudolph had such command of the offense and you can just see that the entire team feeds off of his confidence and energy.
The officials yet again
Another week and another handful of very questionable calls by the officials that didn’t go the Steelers way. Two Steelers were knocked out of the game on hits that should have been flagged and weren’t and the officials just chose not to call an obvious pass interference on the Steelers final four-down play that would have kept the drive alive. And don’t even get me started on the hit on Josh Allen and was flagged.
They never gave up
It would have been easy for the Steelers to fold up their tents and give up when the Bills went up 21-0 but they didn’t. This alone is something to build off of going into the offseason. Even though the comeback fell short, the effort was there all the way through.
Defensive line is an issue
When you only play two down linemen, even against the run, they had better be dominant. Pittsburgh rotated several guys in on Monday but the Bills were still able to run the football with relative ease. Cam Heyward’s future is uncertain but regardless, this group still needs a true run-stuffing interior defensive lineman.
