The Steelers season came to an end yesterday with a 31-17 loss to the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Wild Card Round, and it was their own failures that led to the defeat…the failure to protect the football, the failure to run the ball, and an embarrassing failure of the defense to tackle the guys who were literally running over them.
Buffalo jumped to a 21-0 lead in the first half and the Steelers couldn’t climb out of that hole. The Bills’ Josh Allen threw three touchdown passes and he humiliated the defense with a 52-yard tackle-breaking rumble for a touchdown in the second quarter.
The Steelers defense gave up 179 yards rushing and got no turnovers while the offense lost a George Pickens fumble in the first quarter and a Mason Rudolph interception in the end zone in the second.
Down 21-0 in the second quarter, the Steelers scored after Montravius Adams blocked a Buffalo field goal and Nick Herbig recovered it at the Bills’ 33. Rudolph then hit Diontae Johnson with a 10-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-7 at the half, and a Chris Boswell 40-yard field goal made it 21-10 in the third quarter. But the Bills matched Boswell’s field goal with one of their own and it was 24-10 to start the fourth quarter. Rudolph marched the Steelers on a 12-play 75-yard drive capped by a 7-yard touchdown toss to Calvin Austin III, but trailing 24-17, the Steelers gave up another long drive to the Bills, highlighted by two penalties against Myles Jack, for holding and unnecessary roughness, and a 17-yard Allen-to-Khalil Shakir touchdown pass after Shakir ran through Minkah Fitzpatrick’s attempted tackle and slithered into the end zone.
REACTIONS:
Coach Mike Tomlin says the Steelers were their own worst enemy.
Tomlin says the Bills took away the Steelers’ run game.
The coach didn’t speculate about what the game would have been like if he’d have had TJ Watt on the field.
Defensive lineman Cam Heyward says the Steelers have a lot of questions to be answered in the offseason, but he thinks Mike Tomlin’s future should not be one of them.
Heyward says he still has the fire to play football, but his body is hurting right now and he’s not certain of his future.
Heyward said his body will tell him about his future.
Quarterback Mason Rudolph was happy to be part of a great end-of-season run by the Steelers.
Rudolph says the Steelers dug themselves too big of a hole.
Rudolph says his future is uncertain.
The Steelers will have thirteen unrestricted free agents this offseason, none of whom are considered part of the core of the team. There is doubt about the future of Tomlin, who is wrapping up his 17th season and abruptly cut short his postgame comments when a reporter began to question him about his contract, which has one year left on it. And the Steelers now have to figure out their future at quarterback, with Kenny Pickett a healthy scratch the last two games and Mason Rudolph a free agent.
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