The 2016 Steelers season is in the books and the dust is starting to settle after their loss to New England in the AFC Championship Game. This was an up-and-down season. In the beginning of the year, many saw the Steelers as Super Bowl contenders. In the end, they reached the AFC Championship Game which would have seemed like a pipe dream after their 4-5 record at the midpoint in the season. The Post-Gazette used an apropos analogy for the Steelers season when they made this the cover of the Sports Page for the AFC Championship Game.
Sneak peek of cover for @PittsburghPG's #StarWars-themed @NFL AFC Championship extra section. @steelers @Patriots #illustration pic.twitter.com/6DrJJpDfsE
— Michael Campbell (@campbell_m) January 19, 2017
Going into New England was like assaulting the Death Star. However the final chapter of the season ended more like Rogue One than A New Hope. In fact, after two years of progressive advancement in the playoffs, losing to Baltimore in the Wild Card round then losing to Denver in the Divisional round, we were almost there. Like the assault on the first Death Star, we were hurling down the trench, our targeting computers locked on to the elusive goal of the Super Bowl. We knew the enemy was hot on our tails but all we could keep repeating was the mantra that we were “almost there” before we got shot down out of the sky.
The regular season kicked off on a Monday night with the Steelers routing the Redskins 38-16 and Antonio Brown twerking all over the Redskins end zone (and the beginning of a slew of fines because the NFL hates fun).
The home opener came the following week when the Bengals came to town. The animosity was slightly diminished without Vontaze Burfict in the game, but thanks to a late forced fumble by James Harrison on Tyler Boyd, the Steelers emerged victorious and sent the Bengals season into a downward spiral from which they would never recover. Remember when people picked the Bengals as preseason AFC Champions?
The Steelers were riding high at 2-0 and went to Philadelphia to face rookie QB Carson Wentz. Things did not go as planned. The defense got no pressure on Wentz and the Eagles speedy running backs were routinely able to get the edge and produce big plays.
There was a sense that perhaps this team was not as invincible as we had thought in the preseason and tensions started to rise with the Chiefs coming to town for a Sunday Night game. However, the Steelers did what they do on Sunday Night Football and went right for the jugular, throwing deep balls all night on the Chiefs defense.
The New York Jets came to town the next week. The once-vaunted Jets secondary had been torn apart all season and Ben continued the trend. Sammie Coates had the best game of his career with a 72-yard touchdown catch and finishing with 139 yards (and another score). Unfortunately Coates also broke his fingers that game and wasn’t the same the rest of the year. This game was also the beginning of the end of Ryan Fitzpatrick as his good juju ran out he would be pulled the following week in favor of Geno Smith.
The Steelers were riding high at 4-1. But the wheels started to come off the bandwagon on a trip to Miami against the 1-4 Dolphins. It should be noted that many Power Rankings had the Dolphins listed below the Browns and dead last in the league at this point in the season. But Jay Ajayi ran all over the Steelers defense and Ben got hurt, rendering him entirely ineffective for the second half of the game. Ben had knee surgery the Monday after the game and it looked like the season might be lost.
With Ben out, this meant that Landry Jones was promoted to the starting role to face New England – a less than ideal scenario. Jones acquitted himself fairly well but an interception in the end zone and a missed field goal undermined the Steelers effort. Oh, and once again failing to cover Rob Gronkowski.
Coming out of the bye week, the Steelers travelled to Baltimore. Despite not having beaten the Ravens since 2013, not many took them as a serious threat. The Steelers came out playing like it was a second bye week in one of the worst displays of football this side of an AFC South game. The Ravens blocked a punt and had a commanding 21-0 lead. The Steelers scored two fourth quarter touchdowns to make the result look closer than the game was.
Riding a three-game losing streak with the NFL-best Dallas Cowboys coming to town was not a good scenario. The Steelers put up a heck of a fight but in the end could not stop Warwick W. Wicket doppelganger Ezekiel Elliot from feasting. Elliott scored 3 times, including on a 32-yard run right up the gut with 9 seconds remaining to give the Cowboys the victory. (This was also the game Mike Tomlin went for two 4 times and failed every time.)
The losing streak was now at 4 games and the Steelers had sunk to 4-5 on the season. Next up was a trip to Cleveland to face the winless Browns. If ever there was a dangerous situation for the Steelers fanbase, it was this one. Cam Heyward had just been lost for the season and the defense was in disarray. But the team responded with an 8-sack performance against Cleveland’s dismal offensive line. Bringing the hammer down on the Browns was the spark this team needed to kickstart the second half run.
A trip to Indianapolis on Thanksgiving night promised a Big Ben-Andrew Luck showdown after a day of turkey feasting. However, Luck had suffered a concussion the week prior and was held out on a short week with a Thursday game. The Steelers rolled over the hapless Colts whose best play was a fake punt that Pat McAfee threw. Antonio Brown scored 3 times and the turkey was (literally) on the table for this team.
The Giants were kind of the forgotten “good team” in the NFC this year. Entering December they had the 2nd best record in the NFC but trailed the Cowboys in their own division by 2 games. They were 2 games up in the Wild Card race when they came to Pittsburgh. Chris Boswell had strained his abdomen the week prior so the Steelers signed Randy Bullock off the street and he converted 3 field goals en route to victory.
Le’Veon Bell had somewhat quietly been taking over the lead role in the Steelers offense but exploded onto the scene in Buffalo. Ben Roethlisberger threw 3 interceptions on a cold and blustery day but Bell led the way with 236 rushing yards and 3 TDs. He also added 62 receiving yards to break the Steelers single-game record for yards from scrimmage. The Steelers had won 4 in a row and with the Ravens loss to the Patriots were back in a tie atop the AFC North.
The rematch with the Bengals in Cincinnati carried much less weight than we had anticipated early in the season. Burfict was back but the Bengals had been tripping over themselves all year and were on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs. The Steelers did the deed, thanks to 6 field goals from Chris Boswell. The Bengals rolled through the first half, building a 17-3 lead after a Jeremy Hill touchdown run. But Hill made the mistake of spiking a Terrible Towel and the Curse of Cope caught up with the Bungles. Hill had negative rushing yards the rest of the game after spiking the Towel and the Steelers out-scored the Bengals 15-0 in the second half.
Steelers. Ravens. Christmas Day. The AFC North title on the line. The Steelers did not take the Ravens lightly as an opponent this time around. However, the offense struggled to get things going against the Ravens D and held just a 7-6 lead at halftime. Baltimore capitalized on two interceptions in the third quarter to build a 20-10 lead. With the season on the line, Ben caught fire in the fourth quarter. Le’Veon Bell scored on the ground and on a short pass to put the Steelers ahead 24-20 at the halfway point in the quarter. But Flacco led the Ravens back and engineered a 6-minute drive that culminated in a Kyle Juszczyk touchdown run with just 1:18 left in the game. Not to be outdone, Ben led the Steelers back down the field, hitting 5 different receivers to work the ball inside the 4 with under 15 seconds to go. In the play that would define the season, Ben hit AB on an in-breaking route at the goalline and despite being stacked up by 3 Ravens, Brown refused to go down and somehow managed to extend his arm across the goal line for the go-ahead score. Brown’s touchdown with 9 seconds left buried the Ravens and gave the Steelers the division title.
With the #3 seed secured, the Steelers rested their primary offensive starters for the finale against Cleveland. The Browns were coming off their first win of the season. In case you were wondering if the Steelers could still beat the worst team in the league without Ben, Bell, Brown, and Pouncey, the answer was…..barely. This game was essentially a pillow-fight that went to overtime with the Browns playing absolutely hilarious football the entire time. As my dad so eloquently put it, “When you go to see the Browns, you definitely see the Browns.” Landry threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Cobi Hamilton in overtime and the Steelers ended the season on a 7-game winning streak.
Entering the playoffs with a rematch against Miami, Primanti Brothers decided to run a “No Fish” campaign despite the fact that Dolphins are mammals. Social media basically turned into a Calvin and Hobbes strip for the week.
On a frigid cold day at Heinz Field, Antonio Brown scored 2 early touchdowns and the defense stepped up by forcing multiple turnovers. Le’Veon Bell was absolutely dominant, setting a Steelers playoff record with 167 rushing yards as the Steelers squished the fish.
Expectations were high heading into Kansas City, where the Chiefs had not won a home playoff game since 1994. Kansas City scored first on a beautifully scripted drive by Andy Reid that had the Steelers defense completely lost. The Steelers were able to move the ball at will against the Chiefs defense, but stalled out time after time in the red zone. Chris Boswell booted 6 field goals for the second time this season. Unfortunately, not scoring touchdowns kept the Chiefs in the game and Alex Smith drove Kansas City the length of the field, converting 2 fourth downs. Spencer Ware scored a touchdown and the Chiefs seemingly converted a 2-point try but a flag came out for Eric Fisher doing to James Harrison what happens to James Harrison on every play. The attempt was moved back to the 12 and Sean Davis broke up the pass for the end zone, preserving the Steelers 2-point lead. Ben converted a 3rd down pass to AB after the Chiefs burned their last timeout to seal the nerve-wracking victory.
The road to the Super Bowl was always going to have to go through New England. The Steelers had not faced Tom Brady in the playoffs since Ben’s rookie year in 2004. Unfortunately, the Steelers defensive gameplan against Brady also hasn’t changed since 2004. They decided to rush 3 and drop 8, getting no pressure all game and simultaneously letting the Patriots receivers run free through the secondary. The corners played off zone coverage the entire game rather than even trying to press or bump the Patriots receivers at the line to try to throw off their timing. The Steelers were out-coached and out-matched offensively and defensively. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, kind of like the Steelers defensive gameplan against New England.
Ultimately, the Steelers fell flat in New England after having built up so much momentum over their 9-game run. It wasn’t like they even came close in the AFC Championship Game. They were visibly short of the mark against New England.
So now, we’re on to the offseason to lick our wounds and regroup. More analysis will be coming over the next few weeks. It was a fun season despite ultimately falling short of our goal and the preseason expectations of a trip to Houston.
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