Tim Benz: The 'Seven Deadly Sins' that cost the Steelers their 2020 season

Without a doubt, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2020 collapse was sinful. But were they guilty of any of the actual Seven Deadly Sins?

Hmmm. Now that I’m looking at this list, I may be more guilty of those sins than those on the team itself.

• Envy: I’m envious of teams that can hit the deep ball with more consistency.

• Lust: I lust for a decent run game.

• Wrath: The four-letter words that came out of my mouth when Maurkice Pouncey snapped that ball over Ben Roethlisberger’s head Sunday night probably qualify.

• Gluttony/Drunkenness: I needed a beer (or six) to self-medicate after that playoff loss to the Browns.

• Sloth: I’m feeling really lethargic about getting excited for next year.

• Pride: Nope. Got nothing here. Absolutely nothing to be proud of in 2020 given how this season ended. The 1-5 freefall erased any pride associated with the 11-0 start. In a way, the hot start makes the last six weeks feel worse.

But that’s just me sinning from a fan’s perspective. Here’s a list of the Seven Deadly Sins the Steelers organization committed that turned a potential trip to football heaven into a death spiral toward gridiron hell.

1. Another late-season collapse: I mean, how much tryptophan is in the turkey at the Steelers team meal for Thanksgiving? That stuff is just supposed to make you feel drowsy for a few hours, not make you sleepwalk for six weeks.

The Steelers lost 4 of 6 at the end of the season to tumble their way out of a playoff spot in 2018. They lost their last three games in 2019. They went 1-5 down the stretch this season.

“The overall trajectory of our group was not trending in the right direction over the second half of the season,” coach Mike Tomlin said Wednesday.

Yeah. That’s a nice way to put it. I’ll be harsher.

The Steelers’ late-season choke jobs have become an annual disease. And there ain’t a vaccine rollout big enough to cure that virus.

2. Couldn’t fix the passing game: The short passing game was the Steelers’ bread and butter for the first 10 weeks. But it started to wobble against Baltimore in the “Covid Bowl” victory after the Thanksgiving delay.

From there, other opposing defenses figured out what to do to stop it.

Treat the Steelers offense as if the short passing game is their run game. Challenge everything up close and underneath. Dare them to beat you deep.

The Steelers were either unwilling to — or incapable of — going up top against Washington, Buffalo and Cincinnati. And in the first half against Indianapolis, too.

For the last six quarters of the regular season (four with Mason Rudolph as the quarterback), the Steelers seemed to get the deep and intermediate passing games working. But it didn’t matter come playoff time. Because the team was such a train wreck so early in that game, Cleveland was sagging back and essentially started playing a prevent defense in the second quarter. So the Browns were more than willing to give up the underneath stuff.

Blame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, deposed offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, pass “catchers” infected with drops and an offensive line that couldn’t be trusted to block for much longer than two seconds at a time.

Not to mention the complete absence of a run game to provide balance.

I don’t care who you blame the most. There are no wrong answers. That’s the biggest problem.

3. Complete absence of a run game: Yeah. Speaking of that…

Let’s do the universal blame game here, too. The line and tight ends are at fault for rarely creating holes. The backs are at fault for rarely hitting them when they existed. The quarterback is at fault for wanting to throw almost … every … single … down.

And the coaching staff is at fault for letting the run game wither and die with no willingness to resuscitate it. That’s why they finished last in the NFL at 84.4 rush yards per contest.

“When you are dead last in anything, it is all the above,” Tomlin said Wednesday. “We better assess it as such. We will not accept our current position in that area. We cannot. We have to attack that. And we will.”

Well, they better attack by air or by sea. Because Lord knows they can’t do anything on the ground.

4. Defensive drop-off: During the 11-game win streak, the Steelers defense yielded just 17 points per game. Over the last six contests, that number jumped to 28.6.

Granted, offensive inefficiency led directly to a lot of those points. Injuries and covid-19 absences pinched the likes of Bud Dupree, Devin Bush, Robert Spillane, Joe Haden and Steven Nelson. That didn’t help.

But teams averaged 125 yards rushing over the last seven contests against coordinator Keith Butler’s troops. And in the team’s losses, its splash-play abilities largely vanished.

No sacks or turnovers forced against the Browns in the playoff game. Just one sack and no turnovers in that stunning loss to Cincinnati. No turnovers against the Browns in Week 17. Just one sack in Buffalo. No turnovers forced against Washington.

If they aren’t sacking the quarterback or taking the ball away, Butler’s defense can be exploited.

5. Offensive line shuffle: The Steelers did too much shifting of the offensive line to start the year and not enough late.

They should’ve started Stefen Wisniewski at left guard after signing him in the offseason. That didn’t happen. Instead, Matt Feiler moved there from right tackle. He regressed. Then got injured as well. And Wisniewski was cut.

Zach Banner blew out his knee in Week 1 at right tackle. And Chuks Okorafor was entrenched in his place.

They should’ve left Feiler alone at right tackle. And if Wisniewski did get hurt anyway at left guard, they should’ve inserted rookie Kevin Dotson because he may have been their best interior lineman throughout the minimal snaps that he had.

They had the chance to do that again late in the season when Feiler came back from injured reserve, but they didn’t. None of the linemen was particularly good. But the coaches did a lousy job of putting them in positions to succeed.

Perhaps that’s part of the reason Shaun Sarrett was bounced as offensive line coach.

6. Loss of focus: When you are just as focused on pregame logo dances and post-loss TikTok videos as you are on the game, it’s no wonder this team couldn’t get back on the rails.

I’ll say it again. I don’t know if it’s fair to blame Tomlin for all the extraneous garbage that always seems to follow the Steelers. But I do think it’s fair to say he stinks at keeping it to a minimum.

7. Stubbornness: When the run game was a nonfactor and the Steelers were winning, Tomlin made it sound like it wasn’t a problem and that the media were just carping about it.

When their rotational system along the defensive front got exposed against Dallas, Buffalo and Cincinnati with T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward on the sidelines at key moments, they stayed married to it.

Their personnel choices along the offensive line were poor, and they never did anything about it.

When everyone figured out their short passing attack, they plowed forward with it anyway.

It’s one thing to be wrong. It’s quite another to insist you’re right even when six games of evidence to the contrary heading into the playoffs suggests otherwise.

Those are the sins that cost the Steelers the 2020 season. I could tell you that I think they could repent during the offseason and be back in the good graces of the AFC playoffs in 2021.

But I’d be lying. And I’m overdue for confession as it is.

Jeff Erickson of RotoWire joins me for our weekly fantasy sports podcast.

Conventional fantasy football is done. But playoff leagues are a blast and so is daily fantasy play come playoff time. We talk about those strategies, plenty of baseball free agency and the start of hockey and basketball.