As we said in our “Airing of Grievances” post Sunday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Green Bay Packers had everything that Steelers fans love to gripe about.
Bad calls by the officials, namely nullifying Minkah Fitzpatrick’s field goal block, scoop and score that didn’t count. Poor play by the quarterback. Mystifying play selection from the offensive coordinator.
But in this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, 105.9 The X radio host and TribLIVE columnist Mark Madden didn’t want to get too bent out of shape about the play calling.
Even though the Steelers did replicate their “we ran out of bullets” swing pass to Najee Harris from the loss to the Cincinnati Bengals a week ago.
“I hate to cite too much of the play calling and on surrendering on fourth down,” Madden said. “Those things are worthy of criticism. But the offensive line stinks. The quarterback stinks. And the defense ain’t that good. Everything after that is just kind of nitpicking.”
Instead, Madden thinks that the better point to focus on is the lack of football intellect displayed by the Steelers Sunday evening.
“How about when Diontae Johnson had that first down and then ran backwards to get more yards and didn’t make the first down? That’s what’s really discouraging about the Steelers. And it is reflected directly on the coaching. They flunk football 101 time and time again. They fail at the basics time and time again,” Madden said.
Madden also blasted wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster for grousing on the sideline. To the point that some are hypothesizing that he was grumbling about some of Ben Roethlisberger’s struggles.
Juju: “It’s a Ben Problem”
This team is in serious trouble. pic.twitter.com/Wzbt139aDD
— Barstool Yinzers (@BarstoolBurgh) October 3, 2021
When you realize you’re gonna have to fight a Paul brother to stay relevant. pic.twitter.com/m04urmZVoy
— Randy Slack (@rslack37) October 3, 2021
“Nobody is saying Ben is playing good (football),” Madden said. “I have not once this season defended Ben. He is playing awful. But who is JuJu Smith-Schuster to criticize a two-time Super Bowl winning champion? I can’t wait to see the meager payday that bum gets in free agency.”
Other Steelers topics addressed include a conversation about what it would take for Roethlisberger to eventually get benched, if the team can even manage to beat the Denver Broncos next week and how Harris’ effort in his rookie year may be going to waste.
We also get into a conversation about the Penguins’ choppy training camp, the Pirates concluding a 101-loss season and hype surrounding Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett and the Heisman Trophy.
Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss the Steelers’ loss to Packers and issues facing the team
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.