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PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers were supposed to have one of the higher-powered offenses in the NFL this season. But through three games they have one of the worst. They can't run the ball, and they couldn't pass it either in Chicago on Sunday, when they fell to the Bears, 23-17, in overtime.
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The Steelers have to get their offense fixed because their defense isn't good enough to carry the offense.
That much was proven true against the Bears, who gashed the Steelers for 220 yards on the ground and won despite throwing for only 101 yards.
Le'Veon Bell, the highest-paid running back in the league, has yet to rush for 100 yards in a game this season. The Bears held him to 61 yards on 15 carries.
But perhaps the biggest issue facing the Steelers is the play of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who could manage only 235 passing yards and one touchdown against the Bears.
"I think I was off today," Roethlisberger said after the game. "For whatever reason, I did not make all the throws I normally would and make the plays I normally should, and that is why I think we lost the game."
The Steelers' offensive woes were disguised the first two weeks of the season because they won. But they had to hang on in Week 1 to beat the Browns, 21-18, and they had to kick four field goals and rely on their defense to beat the Vikings, 26-9, in Week 2.
Through three games, Roethlisberger is completing 62.7 percent of his passes for 247 yards per game. If this continues it would be Roethlisberger's lowest completion percentage since 2010 and his lowest yards-per-game average since 2008.
Coincidentally, those were the last two times the Steelers made the Super Bowl. But that's of no consolation to this Steelers team. Those 2008 and 2010 teams had great defenses to fall back on. This team needs Roethlisberger to be much better than he has been.
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Steelers players decided Monday they will be on the field for the national anthem in future games, but they don't yet know how they'll represent themselves during the anthem.
After a hastily called team meeting late Saturday, the Steelers decided they would not go onto the field during the national anthem Sunday afternoon in Chicago. Team captains Ben Roethlisberger and Cam Heyward said Monday afternoon they regretted that decision.
"We've had a team meeting and discussed what we want to do," Roethlisberger said. "Moving forward, we will be on the field. What we do when we're out there will be determined. Luckily, it's not the night before a game where we have to make a decision. I know I want to be on the field. Cam wants to be on the field and the guys in that locker room want to be on the field. We plan to be on the field this week in Baltimore."
The captains also expressed regret for the way Alejandro Villanueva is being portrayed after images of him standing alone, away from teammates, landed on front pages of newspapers and websites across the country.
A picture of Villanueva, a former Army Ranger who served three tours in Afghanistan, standing by himself with his right hand over his heart on the field while his teammates stood in the tunnel became one of the most poignant images from Sunday.
Villanueva apologized for his role in the events that took place Sunday. He was getting pressure from veterans via text messages that he had to stand for the anthem. He went to Roethlisberger and Heyward and asked if they could find some middle ground.
They agreed and planned to stand by Villanueva in a show of support, but those plans were ruined when some Bears personnel blocked their path in the tunnel just before the anthem started.
"This plan sort of morphed to accommodate this tough moral dilemma I had on my hands," Villanueva said Monday afternoon at the team's training facility. "I stopped as soon as I saw the flag. That, to me, was enough. When I turned around to signal everyone else that's when they were unable to exit. The decision was, do you walk out of the national anthem and join your teammates? I knew that would look bad. Or as a team, do you start moving halfway through the national anthem? What we can get out of this is that we butchered our plan to have a response."
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The Steelers have had trouble defending the outside zone run in recent years, and the Bears proved they still have issues with it. Running back Jordan Howard rushed for 138 yards and Tarik Cohen added 78 yards on the ground. Both backs had success cutting back and finding holes in the Steelers' defense.
"It was the stretch and it was the cutback," defensive end Cam Heyward said. "It's about filling gaps. Whether it was me or other people, sometimes we just didn't make the tackle. To be a good defense, you got to make those tackles, especially in overtime."
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Tight end Vance McDonald was involved in one of the craziest plays in the NFL in recent years. The Bears blocked a Steelers' field-goal attempt and Marcus Cooper scooped up the ball and had clear sailing to the end zone for a touchdown that would have given the Bears a 21-7 lead at halftime.
But instead of crossing the goal line, Cooper slowed down to celebrate. McDonald stripped Cooper from behind. Steelers punter Jordan Berry, who was holding on the snap, knocked the ball out of the end zone, which gave the Bears an untimed down and an opportunity to kick a field goal to make it 17-7 at halftime.
"As a wing, you never want to hear the double thud," McDonald said. "I knew pressure was coming from the other side. My job is to stop the bleeding if something really bad happens. That's kind of what I was thinking."
McDonald was as surprised as anyone that Cooper slowed up before crossing the goal line.
"I didn't know what Coop was thinking," McDonald said. "I played with Coop out in San Francisco. He's going to be looking at that one over again and wishing he had that one back for sure."
NOTES: OL Ramon Foster left the Bears game with a thumb injury and did not return. ... S Sean Davis left the Bears game with an ankle injury and did not return.
REPORT CARD VS. BEARS
--PASSING OFFENSE: D - Ben Roethlisberger threw for just 235 yards. Antonio Brown caught 10 passes for 110 yards, but no other receiver had more than two catches. The Steelers were expected to have one of the most dynamic offenses in the NFL because of all the weapons surrounding Brown, but Martavis Bryant continues to struggle and slot receiver Eli Rogers did not have a catch against the Bears.
--RUSHING OFFENSE: F - Le'Veon Bell ran for just 61 yards and the Steelers totaled 70 on the ground. Bell has not reached 100 yards in the first three games. For a team that ran so well at the end of last season the decline in production is mystifying. It doesn't help matters that offensive coordinator Todd Haley doesn't seem all that interested in establishing the run early in games. Maybe if he did that the running game would get more traction.
--PASS DEFENSE: C - Bears quarterback Mike Glennon threw for just 101 yards and did not complete a pass to a receiver until the second half, but the Steelers dropped an interception in the fourth quarter that could have given them a chance to win the game in regulation. When you're having trouble stopping the run and the offense is having a bad day someone in the secondary has to make a big play.
--RUSH DEFENSE: F - The Steelers got gashed for 220 yards on the ground. The Steelers were easily blocked, out of their gaps and when they did have chances to stop Jordan Howard they missed tackles. Howard finished with 138 yards rushing and scored the winning touchdown. That type of rushing performance is almost unthinkable because Bears quarterback Mike Glennon posed almost no threat to the defense.
--SPECIAL TEAMS: F - Eli Rogers fumbled a punt return early in the first quarter that led to the Bears' first touchdown. A blocked field goal near the end of the second quarter led to three more points for the Bears. Giving 10 points away on the road is not a recipe for success. Special teams coach Danny Smith has been under fire for years in Pittsburgh because his units are mostly inadequate, and Sunday's performance in Chicago is yet another that will give fans reason to complain.
--COACHING: F - The Steelers have a habit of playing down to the competition, and head coach Mike Tomlin hasn't been able to find a solution. Chicago became the latest bad team to beat the Steelers. In 2014, the Steelers lost at home to a 2-14 Tampa Bay team. In 2012, they lost to a 4-12 Oakland team. It happens year after year, and Tomlin's inability to get his players to focus against inferior competition is an issue that's not going away.
