Playoff-bound Steelers are still searching for answers

The AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers are in free fall with no apparent relief in sight.

It can’t get much uglier than it did for Mike Tomlin’s club in the first half of the team’s clash with the Bengals at Cincinnati. The Pittsburgh Steelers came into this clash with an 11-game overall winning streak in this longtime rivalry and had also won seven straight games in the Queen City, including a wild card encounter in 2015.

Yes, the AFC North leaders brought a two-game losing streak into the Monday night contest and had looked pretty pathetic offensively in the setbacks to the Washington Football Team and Buffalo Bills.

But who could have foreseen the team’s first-half performance against the 2-10-1 Bengals? Pittsburgh failed to score a point, turned over the ball three times, and gained a grand total of 40 yards offensively and trailed after 30 minutes, 17-0.

Tomlin’s club came out after intermission and scored quick 10 points to narrow the gap. But the Steelers would trail by 14 points early in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was awful early, played better in the second half and drove the team to a score that narrowed the gap to 24-17. It was fourth-and-10 with 1:56 to play and a throw to James Washington was way too high.

An ill-timed losing streak is putting the Pittsburgh Steelers in a bad spot.

Make it three straight losses for Tomlin’s team. And it’s now four consecutive contests in which the Black and Gold has failed to score at least 20 points.

The 27-17 setback was the first loss within the division for the Steelers, who looked better at times in the second half but couldn’t close the deal. And now the club’s lead in the AFC North is down to one game and Pittsburgh faces the 10-4 Indianapolis Colts (at home) and the resurgent 10-4 Cleveland Browns (on the road) to close out the year.

What was once a quest for the top seed in the conference is now a question: Can Tomlin’s team can hold off the Browns for the AFC North title?

Thanks to Benny Snell, there was a semblance of a running game. But the team’s first-half performance, which would prove costly indeed. The Pittsburgh Steelers are scratching their helmets at the moment.

They remain unbalanced on offense and the defense can only do so much. This is a club that’s not playing complementary football at the moment. In fact, it’s hard to find something about the Steelers to compliment at all these days.