PITTSBURGH — Excuse or explanation?
Which is it?
We all wondered back in Week 4 what might happen to the Steelers down the road. Their game against Tennessee had just been postponed on account of the Titans' COVID-19 outbreak. They were now going to be forced to navigate an entire season without a true bye week, the kind where players can relax, mentally and physically, and coaches can do some self-analyzing and scheme-altering.
They were about to play 13 games in a row.
We didn't know at the time they would also be forced to play three games in 12 days in December, including one that would be postponed three times and another that would pit them on four days' rest against a team with 10.
The NFL wasn't out to get the Steelers. That's ludicrous. But this, clearly, was going to be a steep climb. It seemed obvious there would be some ramifications, some deterioration, late in the season.
And yet, now that all of this has happened and the Steelers have looked worn out of late, it feels taboo to even mention their ridiculous schedule. It feels impossible to talk about it without sounding like an excuse-maker.
So I'll let former Steelers nose tackle Chris Hoke talk about it.
Hoke, you should know, isn't into excuses. He's also not afraid to speak the truth, even when it doesn't serve his former team. Earlier this season, for example, he felt the referees robbed the Dallas Cowboys of a victory over the Steelers, and he said so on live television.
This is what he said Thursday, appearing on 93.7 The Fan ("Cook & Joe") just after he combed through tape of the loss in Buffalo: "I think this is a tired team."
Hoke elaborated by citing the schedule irregularities and adding, "You watch the tape — everybody seemed to me like they were a step behind. Not as explosive off the ball. The effort wasn't there."
He mentioned how the moving goal post that was the Ravens game might have messed with the players' internal clocks, and how playing Washington after that, on four days' rest, bled into a short-week game against Buffalo.
"That Ravens game, it spiraled out of control," Hoke said. "You're thinking you're done Thursday and then off. Your routine is off. ... This has hurt the Steelers the last three weeks, I believe. T.J. Watt on Sunday looked a guy who's tired. He just didn't have that extra gear. I think they're gassed. You're seeing guys not finishing blocks and finishing plays. You see guys gassed out there, guys who normally are flying to the ball."
I told Hoke a lot of people would hear that and call it an excuse. What would he tell them?
"I'd tell them, 'Have you played football before?'" he said. "I played football for a lot of years, watched football for a lot of years, and watching this team closely on film, that's the reality. I'm not saying it to make it up. I just got done watching the Bills game for the third time. It's just the reality. If somebody wants to challenge me, I'd challenge them to watch the film with me.
"I've done it. I lived it. So I know."
Let's review: Hoke says the compressed and volatile schedule has worn on the Steelers, mentally and physically. Does that not make basic sense? It doesn't mean Bud Dupree's injury isn't a bigger factor in recent games. It doesn't mean they should be free of criticism on a variety of issues. It doesn't mean the whole subject is moot if Ben Roethlisberger is done (and I don't think he is).
It simply means that fatigue and radically reduced practice time, both the result of an unprecedented schedule, could partially explain the Steelers' lackluster play of late. It might also mean, as Hoke suggested, that we'll see this team rebound on a normal schedule, especially after they rest up for the playoffs (which you'd think they would in the season finale in Cleveland).
I realize other years have seen the Steelers play three games in 12 or 13 days. Did they have other years where they did both and had no bye week, on top of a Ravens-like schedule debacle, on top of playing a well-rested team on four days' break?
You'd have to find me that year.
It's funny. When a hockey team comes off a compressed schedule, maybe three games in four nights on the road, we tend to write off the last one if they play poorly. We lean toward reality in that instance.
Why not this one?
