I’ve lived through some tough losses in my years as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Sunday’s 26-23 overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens will rank up there as one of the more gut-wrenching losses in recent memory. The loss drops the Steelers to 1-4 and with the injury to Mason Rudolph essentially ended the Steelers season three weeks before Halloween.
Here are our big takeaways.
Devlin Hodges should be proud
Despite being an undrafted rookie, Hodges came in and didn’t look like the game was too big for him. After Rudolph was lost with a concussion, Hodges came in with the team trailing and played well. Hodges completed seven of nice attempts for 68 passing yards and didn’t turn the football over. It’s unclear how long Rudolph will be out but Hodges looks capable of running this offense.
This season is done
At 1-4 and a third-string quarterback under center, it is time for Pittsburgh to write this season off and think about the future of this team. The schedule gets no easier for the Steelers and with Baltimore sitting at 3-2, the AFC North is out of reach.
Officiating was a problem
This isn’t a rant about one-sided officiating because that wasn’t the case on Sunday. This is more about grossly inconsistent officiating and potentially harmful calls by officials at key junctures of games. If the roughing the passer flag isn’t thrown against Ola Adeniyi there’s a real chance the fumble by JuJu Smith-Schuster never happens.
