The Steelers are now 1-13 all-time in Chicago following Sunday’s 31-28 loss to the Bears. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had.
1. The Steelers had the right gameplan — and then they didn’t
Outside of an early Mason Rudolph interception, the Steelers
offense was largely efficient in the first half. The run game was churning out chunk gains, and the passing game kept finding success in the screen game.
Down their top three linebackers, the Bears had a clear weakness on defense. Like last week against an inexperienced Cincinnati linebacker core, Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith tested the opponent’s sideline-to-sideline range with plenty of short passes in the flats. He also added more creativity than usual to his run game, with plenty of varying concepts and misdirection.
Smith’s best moment of the afternoon was a fake tush push on a fourth and short that turned into Pittsburgh’s biggest play of the game.
The Steelers finished the day with 186 rushing yards. Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren looked great.
But in the second half, the Steelers offense stalled in a big way. In the third quarter, Pittsburgh punted twice and fumbled once on just 11 offensive plays. As the adage goes, the other guys are paid too, and Chicago figured out the perimeter runs and started to tighten up defensively.
But the Steelers didn’t have an answer offensively. The deep ball, even with Mason Rudolph at quarterback, remained nonexistent. And despite Chicago’s secondary and linebacker woes, Pittsburgh still failed to threaten the intermediate middle of the field.
Play calling and execution faltered down the stretch. The Steelers had two shots at a game-winning, or tying, drive, and both failed. On the first, Mason Rudolph converted a big third down, but it was called back for an illegal formation penalty that the drive never recovered from.
On the second attempt to get into field goal range, Rudolph’s final two completions of the game were for two yards each, with the latter staying in-bounds — with no timeouts and under 40 seconds remaining.
As a result, the Steelers forced themselves into a hurried, must-have fourth and six situation that went about as well as you’d expect.
Pittsburgh only put up 21 points offensively on Sunday against a Bears defense that was in the bottom quarter of the league in most metrics. Sure, the Steelers had their backup quarterback starting, but that’s still a poor mark given the number of injuries Chicago was dealing with.
Sunday’s loss — once again — revealed the lack of talent on this Pittsburgh offense. And it wasn’t a great look for Arthur Smith and Mike Tomlin’s in-game adjustments, either.
2. The quarterback situation is a non-story
The number of Mason Rudolph versus Aaron Rodgers takes I saw before, during, and after the Bears game was and continues to be ridiculous. I just don’t think it makes that much of a difference.
Let’s start with the game itself. Rudolph went 24/31 for 171 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. His average depth of target was hilariously low — while he definitely tried to make the deep ball a thing, it wasn’t there — and his final stat line looked an awful lot like Rodgers’ have this season.
As expected, Rudolph looked less skittish in the pocket, but also less aware. He was sacked twice, and as evidenced in the fourth-down video above, he was missing the quick reads Rodgers usually nails.
Also, it appears Rodgers caught the aforementioned illegal formation before Rudolph or anyone on the field did:
Is that to say the 41-year-old should’ve started on Sunday? Not at all. Maybe Rodgers would’ve played better against the Bears, but his performances in recent weeks haven’t exactly been a head and shoulders above what we saw from Rudolph. And it doesn’t make sense for Mike Tomlin to have made Rodgers inactive for any reason but health.
I can assure you with near-certainty that Rodgers’ 24-5 career mark against the Bears — a team he hasn’t played since 2021, mind you — would not have magically healed a broken wrist on an already aging quarterback.
On the flip side, Rudolph’s performance, while acceptable for the backup quarterback he is, proved once again that he’s not a starting-caliber passer who’s been waiting to save the Pittsburgh offense.
It’s pretty simple: Rodgers hasn’t been playing well as of late, and given his injury it didn’t make sense for him to suit up against the Bears. Rudolph came in and played like Rodgers’ backup. I’m not sure if there’s a narrative there beyond the fact we knew already: Pittsburgh could really use a true franchise quarterback.
3. Odds and ends
- I don’t have a lot of takeaways for this particular game as it went about as expected. Don’t get me wrong: The Steelers were beyond frustrating at times, especially in the second half, but it was an entertaining game against a Bears team that’s a lot better than some are giving it credit for. I’ve said my piece about the structural issues of this team plenty of times in earlier columns.
- One storyline that did matter in Steelers-Bears was how dependent each team was on turnovers. Chicago and Pittsburgh were the top two teams in the NFL, respectively, when it comes to generating turnovers, and both were in the top five in turnover differential. In Sunday’s game, the turnover battle ended in a tie, with each team earning two. But the Bears did more with theirs, turning both into touchdowns while the Steelers only managed one.
- T.J. Watt leapfrogging J.J. Watt on the all-time sack list while J.J. was on the call — and the play ending in a touchdown — was undeniably cool.
- Caleb Williams’ velocity on throws was a challenge for the Steeler defense on Sunday. Pittsburgh had players in zones, but Williams could just rocket the ball past them before they could react. I wouldn’t be surprised if those RPMs affected Kyle Dugger’s dropped interception, as well.
- Not that it was ever electric to begin with, but the Steeler passing game really fell apart in the second half. I’d be curious to see how much D.K. Metcalf’s injury affected things. He’s the team’s best receiver by a wide margin, and anything that hampers his availability is a big blow for the offense.
- I know Darnell Washington is a fantastic run blocker, but he hasn’t made the switch to offensive line yet. I don’t get the team leaving him one-on-one with Montez Sweat so much on Sunday.
- Nick Herbig is a lot stouter against the run than a lot of people give him credit for.
- One positive of having Mason Rudolph was the ability to run a normal quarterback sneak without any Connor Heyward gadgetry. He had two rushing first downs against Chicago.
- The Jalen Ramsey hit on Caleb Williams right before he went out of bounds really shouldn’t be controversial. We’ve seen defenders get hung out to dry by quarterbacks faking going out of bounds before continuing forward countless times — if they’re in-bounds, you have to hit them.
- Kicker Cairo Santos was a real weapon for Chicago with his knuckleball-style kickoffs. I’m surprised more teams aren’t trying to implement that strategy.
- The wrinkle in the Steeler run game with Spencer Anderson motioning in and lead blocking in the A-gap was a nice addition to the offense.
- I’d put most of the Steelers’ coverage issues on scheme more than individual players on first watch. A lot has rightfully been made about the league’s most expensive defense giving up another 30-plus point game, but I’d argue coordinator Teryl Austin’s direction has been the bigger problem.
- Maybe it was because he was so recently in concussion protocol, but it was interesting to see Mike Tomlin essentially bench cornerback Darius Slay in favor of James Pierre on Sunday. The former only entered the game after Joey Porter Jr.’s injury. It’s good to see Pierre get more reps after clearly playing his way into a bigger role earlier this season.
- It can almost go without saying at this point, but NFL referees continue to be brutally inconsistent with their calls. There were some head-scratchers for both sides on Sunday.
The Steelers’ next opponent won’t be any easier. Pittsburgh takes on the Bills at 4:25 p.m. EST at home on Nov. 30.
What are your takeaways from Steelers vs. Bears? Agree/disagree with the ones above? Join the Behind the Steel Curtain community and let us know in the comments!
