Steelers at a crossroads after humiliating loss to Bengals

The Steelers really got one over on Tyler Boyd, that’s for sure.

You may remember that Boyd, the former Clairton and Pitt star, and current Bengals wide receiver, suggested that the Steelers quit at the end of Cincinnati’s 24-10 win in late September.

Boyd’s exact words were, “The last plays of the game, they gave up. You could see it. They had three drops in a row…I know me, I know us, we’re not going to give up. We’re going to continue to try and make something happen. But they portrayed it to the whole nation on TV what they were about and how they gave up.”

Well, if the Steelers did in fact quit in that first meeting, they certainly didn’t do it Sunday. It’s hard to quit in a game if you never show up to begin with.

If Mike Tomlin has helmed a more humiliating loss, I can’t remember it. Since Tomlin took over, the Steelers have given up lots of points, like the 55 they surrendered to Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots back in 2013. They’ve been beaten badly by a divisional opponent – the Ravens’ 35-7 pasting in 2011 comes to mind – but they’ve never rolled over and played dead like this.

The Bengals always felt like “little brother,” even when they were division titlists under Marvin Lewis. They always found a way to lose when it mattered most. More than anything, a game against Cincinnati, even a good version of the team, always felt like a game the Steelers should win. On the rare occasions they didn’t, it felt like a fluke.

Sunday’s result was anything but fluky, and the way the Bengals went about achieving it was just as damning as the final score. Losing 41-10 is bad enough, but getting bullied physically from start to finish is exponentially worse.

The Steelers are no longer the AFC North’s tough guys. They are paper tigers. Cincinnati, from the very first snap, played like a team that knew it was superior and intended to leave no doubt for everyone watching. They did just that.

The Bengals didn’t just bloody the bully’s nose, they knocked them out cold, then added a few extra punches for good measure. Had Zac Taylor been inclined to run up the score, his team could have won by 50.

Cincinnati ran for 198 yards and held the Steelers to 51 on the ground. There were missed tackles galore, and the Bengals’ offensive line continually pushed the Steelers back. There’s no sense in belaboring the point; the more talented, clearly superior team won. Baltimore might have the AFC North’s best record at 8-3, but Cincinnati, a game back and already with a blowout road win over the Ravens in their back pocket, looks like the class of the division.

The question for the Steelers moving forward is simple: What now?

Cam Heyward wasn’t about to look for positives afterward, saying, “There’s a lot of football to be played, but if we do what we did out there today, we won’t win another game.”

That doomsday scenario seems like a distinct possibility, because the Steelers don’t appear capable of playing defense, at least not against good teams. For that matter, they don’t appear capable of playing offense, either. Ben Roethlisberger was powerless to do anything against Cincinnati’s defense, and his pick-six to Mike Hilton – the same guy the Steelers let get away in free agency this offseason without so much as making an offer – functionally ended the game just before halftime.

To hear Tomlin tell it, changes could be afoot as the Steelers ready themselves for their last stand against the Ravens this Sunday at Heinz Field. “We’re open to doing whatever is required to change what’s trending,” Tomlin said after the game. “So you may certainly see changes.”

Do those changes involve replacing half the roster? It is painfully obvious that the Steelers have no defensive depth whatsoever, an overmatched offensive line, and maybe one truly good receiver. Their talent procurement and evaluation has been wretched beyond belief. The secondary? A complete joke.

Yes, that’s the same secondary that didn’t need Hilton or Steven Nelson anymore.

I’ve seen several people suggest that this game might have a silver lining; namely, it might convince the people in charge that this team is fundamentally broken and needs to be rebuilt. If last year’s late-season collapse and humiliation by Cleveland in the playoffs didn’t convince Art Rooney, Kevin Colbert and Tomlin, why would this? If tying the Detroit Lions didn’t convince them, why would this?

The Steelers are the NFL’s consistency fetishists. Assuming this team doesn’t get off the deck and make the playoffs – and they won’t – this will mark the first five-year stretch without a playoff win in the Noll-Cowher-Tomlin administrations. Will Rooney even express cursory anger about this?

Will the first losing season in Tomlin’s career – a near certainty – get the coach’s attention? I doubt it. He’ll double down on the usual defiant platitudes and keep doing things the same way, content in the knowledge that he has ironclad job security.

Colbert? He can retire and walk away from this after this year, if he wants to.

After this latest debacle, I couldn’t blame any fans who would do the same.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Steelers at a crossroads after humiliating loss to Bengals