Five Thoughts: Things Get Worse for the Steelers QB.

Ever since the Pittsburgh Steelers easily lost to the Arizona Cardinals, the word “bleak” has been bandied about a lot. That seems to encapsulate the sentiment rather nicely, since the Steelers have found difficulties with their once-easy schedule. To make matters worse, they have to play the New England Patriots, another terrible team, at Acrisure Stadium on Thursday night with little notice. Notably, they won’t have a few important players with them.

Kenny Pickett will be sidelined for two to four weeks while he recovers from surgery on his injured ankle. Although Elandon Roberts’ precise injury is unknown, it seems absurd to expect him to play on a short week, especially considering the Steelers are currently without three of their starting inside linebackers. Although Minkah Fitzpatrick will play despite having a broken hand, there should be a slight decrease in output. Even T.J. Watt, who had a minor ankle injury, left for a short while.

When you combine all of that, you have a potentially disastrous recipe for a team that is in desperate need of any positive news heading into their Week 13 meeting with the Patriots. QUARTERBACKBACK CONDITION This season, Pickett has been on and off the injury report for a considerable amount of time. Although he has persevered through numerous injuries, things weren’t looking good when he left the game and was spotted on the sidelines with a walking boot. They’re not very good, but at least he wasn’t lost for the entire year. That’s significant news.

Perhaps you have faith in Pickett. Perhaps you don’t. However, it is now clear that Mitchell Trubisky is not the best choice for a team that might frequently need to rely on a backup quarterback. The former Pittsburgh second-overall pick has been on the verge of collapse.

Compared to Pickett, Trubisky takes more risks, but the majority of those risks result in turnovers. That’s just not what a backup quarterback can do. Turbisky has demonstrated his incompetence in handling game management and ball security, which ought to be the top priorities.

While many are clamoring for Mason Rudolph, is that really a much more viable option? The last time we saw him on a field, he tied a winless Detroit Lions team in 2021. He missed Ray-Ray McLoud on a very short touchdown pass, under-throwing him by two yards.

Pickett might not be a franchise-altering quarterback, but he is at least better than the Steelers’ alternative options. Having your starting quarterback hurt before a short week is not ideal. Trubisky doesn’t get many snaps with the starting offense in practice and will have limited opportunity for that this week. Thursday has the potential for another ugly game.

SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITIES Now at 7-5, the Steelers have missed a few chances to be as high as the one-seed at this very moment over the past few weeks. The loss in Cleveland hurt pretty bad. Losing at home to a two-win football team is much worse.

If the Steelers take care of business, they would be 9-3 right now alongside the Miami Dolphins and Baltimore Ravens. Instead, they sit 7-5 alongside a bunch of other mediocre teams in the AFC Wild Card race. As things stand, they are the fifth seed in the AFC. If they suffer a disastrous loss to the Patriots, they very well could be on the outside looking in come Week 15. That’s how small a margin for error-middling AFC teams have at the moment.

Entering the week, the Steelers had the second-easiest remaining schedule in the AFC. Talk about a great opportunity to make headway. Instead, they squandered an opportunity to enhance their playoff chances. The remaining quarterbacks they’ll face are Bailey Zappe/Mac Jones, Jake Browning, Gardner Minshew, Geno Smith, and Lamar Jackson. They face some quarterbacks that are beatable, without a doubt. It’s whether or not they can take advantage of the chances at hand. They, too, will be employing a backup quarterback for a few games going forward.

THINNING MIDDLE LINEBACKER DEPTH Cole Holcomb spent the early part of the season coming into his own as the team’s alpha middle linebacker. He went down with a knee injury that ended his season. Luxuriously, the Steelers still had Kwon Alexander and Elandon Roberts to fill the void or the “division of labor,” as their head coach likes to say. Fast forward to Week 12, and none of them are currently available to the Steelers. This is a less-than-ideal time for a less-than-ideal injury situation.

Alas, it is one the Steelers will face. Mykal Walker is the starting inside linebacker opposite of Roberts and played a not-so-strong game in the Steelers’ loss. Mark Robinson will likely start with Blake Martinez and recently un-retired Myles Jack, potentially seeing some playing time in spots. None of this is inspiring for the Steelers. They’ve got some depth issues to work through and have to hope whatever options are available to them on the short week get them through to their mini-bye with the chance to get Roberts back that week.

MOST TORTUROUS GAME IN RECENT MEMORY? Regardless of whether it was the worst loss in Mike Tomlin’s tenure, Has there been a game that has been more painful to watch? The tide began to turn when Pickett got hurt, and the Steelers’ next play was a 4th-and-goal with their backup quarterback coming on to try and punch the ball in for six. They got stuffed at the one and then promptly allowed the two-win Cardinals to drive 99 yards for a touchdown of their own right before the half.

All of this happened with a storm blowing over Acrisure Stadium that delayed the start of the second half. Upon coming back out, the game was delayed again after former Pitt Panther and Pittsburgh Steeler James Conner scored to make it 17-3. The Steelers missed a field goal on their first drive after the second delay before conceding another touchdown and looking like a Matt Canada-led offense with Trubisky at the helm. If that nightmare played in your head while you were asleep, you’d probably wake up thinking that the Steelers were the two-win team in this game if you hadn’t known any better.

THURSDAY’S GAME MAY BE BIGGEST OF SEASON Thursday night games are already a burden for many NFL teams. The damage you take on Sunday and having to turn around four days later to play again is not a fun thing, and players have made that clear over the years. Add in that the Steelers will be reeling from a horrible loss to the Cardinals and now have to face another two-win football team, and this might qualify as the biggest game of the season for the Steelers.

The Steelers have taken teams lightly over the years, but, in all honesty, it happens to every team at least once a year. Tomlin in primetime has been very good; that is the spot the Steelers will be in on Thursday. He’ll be facing the other longest-tenured coach in football, Bill Belichick will be on the other sideline. Three years ago, this might’ve been the biggest Thursday Night Football game of the season.

This year, it is just another test for Al Michaels to stay awake for. If the Steelers fall to 7-6 following this game, their season will be teetering on the brink and Pickett’s return will mean nothing more than a small handful of games to evaluate him on before having to make a decision at that position this off-season. At 8-5, the Steelers can ensure that they’ll hold on to a playoff spot for at least another week as they head into a game against the red-hot Indianapolis Colts, a team with a similar 7-5 record.