Commentary: Hello darkness my old friend, the Steelers could go 7-10

Fans of the macabre are no doubt disappointed there are no opponents on the Steelers' remaining schedule that can deliver a result as ghastly as that to which they're suddenly accustomed. Unless the NFL schedule can be instantly rejiggered to include the Steelers against one-win Carolina, which has the worst record in the league, or someone can arrange one of those Acrisure Stadium beatdowns of Wofford that Pitt seems to favor, then we're stuck with some absolutely unprecedented post-mortem implications. At least I can't find a single instance, anywhere in this Rooney venture going back 90 years, in which the football team lost to a 2-10 team on Sunday, then lost to another 2-10 team four nights later. At home. Granted, that's a little more dramatic as presented than it needs to be. Until the 1960s, the entire NFL season was 11 or 12 games, and it wasn't until 1990 that the NFL instituted bye weeks, and only then was it even possible to play teams with identical records back-to-back. Am I saying it's not as bad as it sounds? No, it's every bit as bad as it sounds. The Steelers woke up a week ago with a 7-4 record, in solid playoff position and facing back-to-back games against teams with a combined record of 4-19, one of which would be shut out 6-0 in the next few hours. Today their only semblance of momentum is that which propels them toward 7-10, because if you can't beat these tawdry versions of Arizona and New England at home, whom can you beat? I know. Wofford. Maybe. Like every NFL team in every December ever, the Steelers have a built-in excuse, even for unprecedented ineptitude — injuries. And to be sure, when you're snagging inside linebackers by hanging around AARP meetings, you're in trouble defensively. Sometimes you don't know exactly how much trouble until someone named Bailey Zappe plants a passer rating of 115.2 on you, the most thorough shredding of the secondary all season. Not even MVP candidates Brock Purdy of the 49ers and C.J. Stroud of the Texans mistreated Mike Tomlin's defense to that extent, and those two guys beat him by a combined 60-13. Nonetheless, the Steelers had the perfect strategy for beating New England, the same one they used in a handful of previous victories over dynastic Patriots editions — keep Tom Brady off the field. The strategy was helped immeasurably by the fact that Brady was retired and hadn't played in New England for nearly four years. Still, you might remember that in the four games the Steelers actually beat Mr. Terrific, they kept him off the field for an average of 36 minutes. If it could work against the greatest quarterback of all time, it could work against Mr. Zappe, but there was a flaw, you might say. To keep the football, you've got to have a competent offense that at the very least can get out of its own way. Ah well. There doesn't seem to be anyone left in the building at 3400 South Water who can draft, develop and coach a quarterback into an actual weapons grade passer, unless you count the not infrequent fourth quarter gyrations of Kenny Pickett, currently on the shelf. Thursday night was Pittsburgh's 25th consecutive game without a 300-yard passing performance, the last being the first start of Pickett's career, Oct. 9, 2022 at Buffalo. In the season that unfolded from there, Pittsburgh scored a league-worst 27 touchdowns. With four games remaining in the 2023 season, they have 20, two of them from the defense. Last year they converted 44.92% of their third-down situations. This year the figure is 34.83%. Football stats are often among the most misleading in sports, as many of them don't have the flexibility to reflect a team's intent at different parts of a game or a season. A handful of them are still persuasive, though. Wins is a good stat. So is points. Football men will tell you that turnover ratio and yards per pass attempt are most always determinative, but don't dismiss good old time of possession As Week 14 began in the NFL, seven of the top 10 teams in time of possession had winning records, and only two of the bottom 10 had winning records, one being the Steelers. Last year, despite their indifferent 9-8 record, the Steelers kept the ball at least 30 minutes 11 times, five of them after Dec. 1. But again regression is evident in 2023. In the first 13 games, the Steelers have won the possession battle only five times. The worst part is, I'm not sure I know the answer to this question: Do I want this offense to have the ball more? For what?