After an 85 minute weather delay, three takeaways, and one blocked field goal, the Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to lose their second straight game and fall to 3-2 at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys in a sloppy game on both sides of the ball.

This was every Steelers game you’ve seen for the last three seasons. Pittsburgh did next to nothing offensively in the first half, scoring just three points on 84 yards of offense. And as per usual, they seemed to have been injected with adrenaline on the first drive out of the half as a combination of Justin Fields and Kyle Allen led Pittsburgh down the field and capped off the drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Connor Heyward to take a 10-6 lead. The Steelers wouldn’t score again until their second-to-last drive when they went 12 plays to take a 17-13 lead on a Fields touchdown toss to Pat Freiermuth from six yards out. Unfortunately, the defense let Dallas march down the field, kill what was left of the clock, and win the game.

Overall, the offense was mostly dreadful. The play-calling from Arthur Smith was bland and frustrating. On the Steelers’ first drive, they ran the ball on second down and third down and long, basically surrendering themselves to the Cowboys and settled for a field goal. Credit where it’s due to Fields for taking some deep shots, but none were successful and Pittsburgh lacked any sort of explosiveness. This was Fields’ worst day as a Steeler. He didn’t turn the ball over, which continues to be a plus, and he wasn’t awful per se, but 15-of-27 for 131 yards just isn’t going to beat above average teams. Pittsburgh also continues to struggle with running the ball, and if you can’t run against Dallas, you can’t run against anyone. The Cowboys entered this game with the worst defensive EPA against the run in the NFL, and Pittsburgh managed to get 92 yards on 26 carries with their longest run on the night being eight yards.

What has been the most frustrating component of the Steelers’ offense is that every play is excruciating – nothing comes easy. On every pass, you hold your breath. Every run is the most chaotic two yard gain you’ve ever seen. And against a Dallas team that didn’t have DeMarcus Lawrence or Micah Parsons, this was a complete flop offensively.

Let’s also briefly discuss the George Pickens-sized elephant in the room. Something has to be going on behind the scenes. Mike Tomlin said they limited Pickens snaps because of “snap management” and that it was nothing more than that, but then that just means this was a display of awful coaching. Van Jefferson played 47 of 58 snaps offensively. Calvin Austin played 44. Pickens played just 34. It certainly feels like Pickens is in the doghouse for something, and I’m very curious as to what will happen next.

Van Jefferson played 47 of 58 snaps
Calvin Austin played 44 of 58 snaps

George Pickens played 34 of 58 snaps

Cam Heyward played 55 snaps, and he’s 35 years old. https://t.co/Z6RJWZx16T

— Jon Ledyard (@LedyardNFLDraft) October 7, 2024

Now for the defense.

I said after Week 2 that this was the best defense the Steelers have had since 2010 – I would like to rescind that statement. And while the loss doesn’t completely fall on the defense, they came up short when it mattered most. Despite the three takeaways and the blocked field goal by Isaiahh Loudermilk, the Steelers gave up two touchdown-scoring drives in the second half of 15 plays or longer, including a 16-play drive that saw the Cowboys take the lead with 20 seconds to go. They once again could not get off the field on third down, as Dallas went 9-of-15 on third-down conversions and ate up the middle of the field and downfield for multiple chunk plays. Where is Patrick Queen? Has anyone seen him? I haven’t. T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig, Cam Heyward, DeShon Elliott – those are the four guys that you can count on. Everyone else is a coin flip on any given play.

Beanie Bishop was a black hole at nickel, and that effected the rest of the secondary. On multiple chunk plays, Minkah Fitzpatrick was trying to wear two hats at once, making sure the slot receiver or tight end was accounted for while also trying to give help on the outside, and Dallas took advantage of that for multiple deep completions. And all of that could have been dealt with after celebrating a win if the Steelers could have stopped Dallas on the final drive after Fields and the offense gave them a late lead. Instead, they let (checks notes) Rico Dowdle and Hunter Luepke march down the field to get down inside the five. Elandon Roberts almost had the play of the season by forcing a fumble in mid-air to prevent a touchdown, but the Cowboys recovered, which led to a Dak Prescott touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert for the kill shot.

This isn’t a great football team right now, and the cracks are evident. The lack of receiver continues to be a huge problem, the defense can’t get off the field on third down, and the offense can’t take advantage of the splash plays they do get. Now after a 3-0 start that showed a ton of promise, the Steelers have crashed back down to Earth. And just when we begin to take them seriously, they show us why we shouldn’t.