The Pittsburgh Steelers have dropped their last two games, the latest of which was a 20-17 heartbreaker to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. This was a rough one. Let’s get into it.

Varsity

S DeShon Elliott

Elliott may legitimately be an All-Pro this season. Whether he is on the box or lined up at his traditional safety spot, all he does is make plays. He had nine tackles, a pass deflection at the line of scrimmage, and wherever the ball went, Elliott was likely to be found. He has been the Steelers’ best offseason addition by a mile.

EDGE T.J. Watt

100 career sacks for Watt, and it’s been incredible getting to watch him for the last eight seasons. Unfortunately, it came in a loss, which has been the theme of Watt’s career- incredible individual accomplishments while the team itself has a hard ceiling on it. He had 1.5 sacks on the night and three hits on Dak Prescott.

EDGE Nick Herbig

Herbig forced a fumble on a strip sack that he and Watt teamed up on in the red zone to kill a scoring chance for Dallas. He left the game with a lower body injury, which is the last thing the Steelers’ defense needed.

DT Cam Heyward

Even at age 35, Heyward is getting consistent pressure and impacting plays. He still has a lot of good football in him.

CBs Joey Porter Jr & Donte Jackson

I’ll combine the two corners here because they both had big interceptions, but individually didn’t have over the top superb games. Both were beat for big gains at different points in the game, but their splash plays can’t go unrecognized.

LB Elandon Roberts

In what was one of the most perfect plays I’ve ever seen, Roberts launched over both lines and met Rico Dowdle at the goal line to force a fumble. Had it been recovered by Pittsburgh, they would be 4-1.

Junior-Varsity

CB Beanie Bishop

Woof. Constant blown assignments and penalties from Bishop really hurt the Steelers all night, and his bad play trickled to the back end. Minkah Fitzpatrick was constantly having to worry about what was happening in the slot while also needing to stick to his zone responsibilities on the back end and that led to multiple chunk plays for Dallas.

LB Patrick Queen

I’m begging for Queen to have a statement game and show everyone why we were excited about him all summer – that’s yet to happen. He’s still getting lost and missing assignments (see that long Jace Ferguson catch where no one was remotely close to him) and the middle of the field has been eaten alive the last two weeks.

OC Arthur Smith

Second down and long. Third down and long. Both run plays to end the first drive and all but wave the white flag to settle for a field goal. When will the Steelers ever have an aggressive offense? The run game is also just schematically bad right now. This has been a rough couple weeks.

DC Teryl Austin

Two second-half drives for the Cowboys went 15 plays or longer and ended in touchdowns. The Steelers had Brian Flores in the building and let him walk while they kept Austin. Audible sigh.

WR George Pickens

This thing may legitimately be coming to an end. Playing significantly less snaps than Van Jefferson and Calvin Austin? There’s a reason for that. Pulling Jourdan Lewis to the ground by his facemask in a cheap move as the game ended all but encapsulates the lack of maturity that plagues Pickens, and apparently every receiver the Steelers draft. I’m not acting as if I know exactly what’s going on behind the scenes, but you don’t intentionally keep your only difference-maker off the field unless there is something more to it. I won’t be surprised if the Steelers acquire a big-name receiver and move Pickens in the process.

HC Mike Tomlin

We’re always going to have these Tomlin debates. And for non-Steelers fans, they’ll always bow to him for all the reasons we know (non-losing seasons blah blah blah). Tomlin isn’t above criticism, and it is always the same criticisms that never get corrected. The constant conservatism, the slow starts, losing to inferior teams etc. We can acknowledge Tomlin raises the floor of the Steelers while also recognizing his stale, outdated approach to winning hurts the Steelers and puts a hard ceiling on them.