The Debacle in Cleveland

Christian McCaffrey leads the 49'ers

 to 42-38 win over Bears

Why, you may ask, am I leading with a photo of Christian McCaffrey of San Francisco if I am going to be writing about the Steelers God-awful, and there is no other word for it, 13-6 loss to the Browns yesterday?

Well after watching that road apple that the Steelers dumped upon the field in Cleveland and then watching  the 49'ers and Bears stage that terrific game on Sunday night, sandwiched around  watching Josh Allen in his Superman cape (albeit in a losing effort), made me come to three conclusions:

• Despite the fact that they can still make the playoffs, the Steelers are just not a very good team.  If you watched Chicago and San Francisco last night, do you believe that this 2025 Steelers team is anywhere close to being able to compete with them?  If the Steelers played each of those teams ten times, they would be lucky to win twice against either of them.
• The Steelers desperately need a quarterback.  Brock Purdy and Caleb Williams were playing a different game than anything that I have seen from the Steelers since Ben Roethlisberger retired.  Maybe that guy is Will Howard, who was derailed in training camp this year by a hand injury, but it sure isn't Mason Rudolph or a 42 year old Aaron Rodgers, and I say that with all due respect to Rodgers, who has played heroically at times this season.  The team took a shot to go all in with Rodgers for the season, and at times it looked like it was going to work, but in the end, it just isn't going to work out as everybody had hoped.
• Again, watching that SF-Chicago game last night, it is obvious that the Steelers....game planning?...coaching?....just isn't cutting it.  Watching the offenses that are being produced by guys like Ben Johnson, Kyle Shanahan, John McVey and others makes you want to just scream at what Arthur Smith (and Matt Canada before him) are sending out there week after week.  I love Mike Tomlin, but if he and the Steelers decided to part ways after this season, I'm not sure how upset I would be about it.  Some hard decisions are going to need to be made at season's end.

For all that, the Steelers could still win the AFC North and make the playoffs, if they beat Baltmore on Sunday night.  This is the same Ravens team that beat Green Bay this weekend 41-24, with Derrick Henry rushing for 216 yards and 4 touchdowns.  If Henry has a game half as good as that on Sunday, I can't see the Steelers winning that one.  It could be a real ugly scene at Acrisure Stadium come around ten o'clock Sunday night.

Anything can happen when the Steelers and Ravens play each other, but I'm sure not feeling positive this morning about this meeting.