Takeaways: Steelers washed-out in injury, mistake-filled game with Cardinals
Steel City Underground presents post-game takeaways from every Pittsburgh Steelers game of the 2023 NFL regular season.
There was a high level of optimism entering Sunday’s NFL Week 13 game at Acrisure Stadium where the Pittsburgh Steelers hosted the Arizona Cardinals. Things took a nasty turn on the field, and in the skies, as the Steelers found themselves in the wrong sort of rinse-and-repeat situation. Amidst two weather delays, Pittsburgh floundered due to costly mistakes that were made worse when three key players suffered injuries. The result was an ugly loss to a Cardinals team that gave a native son a homecoming to remember while handing the Steelers a 24-10 defeat.
It was a rough day for the offense. After their Week 12 performance, it was almost unthinkable that center Mason Cole would be the cause of costly errors that not only led to points for the Cardinals, but inadvertently helped set up the situation which resulted in injury to quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Cole has shown inaccuracy with snaps in the past but, on Sunday, his poor performance was devastating; that included a horrible snap to Mitch Trubisky – who entered the game after Pickett was forced out – that led to a fumble recovery by Arizona. Trubisky was unable to wrangle the ball that went between his feet.
That isn’t to say the lackluster performance was all on Cole, however. The team never seemed to get in sync. Fellow offensive lineman Isaac Seumalo also left the game due to a shoulder injury, forcing Pittsburgh off tempo as they attempted to find a rhythm with substitution.
“That was a horrible day at the office. We didn’t do much right in that game… We were highly penalized, some pre-snap penalties, some operational penalties, bad snaps. Just JV football in a lot of ways.” – head coach Mike Tomlin
After inside linebacker Elandon Roberts was forced out due to injury, the defense had flashes of its former dominance only to allow the Cardinals to take two long drives while also feeding former Pitt Panthers and Steelers running back James Conner a healthy diet of runs and two trips into the end zone.
Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray also hooked up with tight end Tre McBride for a touchdown pass on a long drive. The play before, McBride had made a catch similar to what Diontae Johnson had in Week 12. It was ruled incomplete, but the Steelers defense couldn’t keep him from making the second attempt a success.
“That hurt… We’ve got to be a better defense than that.” – Outside LB Alex Highsmith (who had 1.5 sacks in the game)
Johnson would get a late touchdown off of a nice pass from Trubisky, but it was too little, too late to mount a comeback.
The weather wasn’t the cause of the Steelers’ misery; that pain was self-inflicted. It simply didn’t help that two long delays kept Pittsburgh from getting into any type of tempo to respond to Arizona’s success.
A missed field goal, that has been uncharacteristic for Chris Boswell this season, T.J. Watt being hobbled at the end of the game, were simply byproducts of a game that the Steelers let get away from them.
They fell to 7-5 on the season and have a short recovery period as they will face the New England Patriots on Thursday Night in primetime.
Broderick Jones, Dan Moore Jr., Cam Heyward, and Alex Highsmith spoke to the media following the #Steelers loss to the Cardinals in Week 13. @TicketMaster pic.twitter.com/Cbcb1ss5VV
— Steelers Live (@SteelersLive) December 4, 2023
