The Pittsburgh Steelers fell, 28-21, to the New England Patriots in Thursday night’s NFL season opener. But yet, no one wants to talk about the game actually played. No, fresh off an offseason in which all who dare check in on the NFL were inundated with new allegations of the Patriots being cheating cheaters who cheat, the Steelers dealt with a common problem at the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium—headset malfunctions.
The why and the how of this problem has yet to be solved. The NFL itself offered its own explanation, through spokesman Michael Signora: “In the first quarter of tonight’s game, the Pittsburgh coaches experienced interference in their headsets caused by a stadium power infrastructure issue, which was exacerbated by the inclement weather. The coaches’ communications equipment, including the headsets, is provided by the NFL for both clubs use on game day. Once the power issue was addressed, the equipment functioned properly with no additional issues.”
Meanwhile, Bob Labriola of the Steelers’ official website, waved the conspiracy flag in his post-game wrap-up, writing, “From the start of the game through the opening 14 minutes of the first quarter, the Steelers’ coaches’ headsets were receiving the Patriots Radio Network broadcast of the game…Strangely enough, whenever an NFL representative proceeded to the New England sideline to shut down their headsets, the Steelers headsets cleared. Then as the representative walked away from the New England sideline, the Steelers’ headsets again started to receive the Patriots game broadcast.” Unsurprisingly, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was also displeased, but as he noted, headset issues are “always the case” when in Foxboro.
But because of the tone that Tomlin and Labriola, a Steelers’ sanctioned mouthpiece, took about what happened with the headsets, it’s as though communication problems are being used as a scapegoat for Pittsburgh’s loss. The truth though, is that the Steelers were outplayed and outcoached and employed a defensive scheme that was in no way suited to stop the Patriots’ offense—or any for that matter. Who, after all, decides it’s a smart idea in 2015 to suddenly employ an outdated Cover-2 scheme? And headsets working properly or not, leaving Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski uncovered—or, as also happened, covered by a third-string safety or fourth-string linebacker—is 100 percent guaranteed to end in disaster.
The Steelers can and should only blame themselves for this loss. They have up 361 yards of offense to New England, 281 of those in the passing game. A promising opening drive was ruined because offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s hubris allowing him to call a trick play—receiver Antonio Brown attempting to throw a pass—that ended in Brown being sacked. Twice did the Steelers seem poised to score touchdowns but instead had to settle in Josh Scobee field goal attempts—attempts that he missed. And it wasn’t just Gronkowski and his three touchdowns on five catches that terrorized the Steelers’ outmatched defense—receiver Danny Amendola had 11 catches on 12 targets for 97 yards and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had 19 straight completed passes, a franchise record.
There is no doubt that if the Steelers had emerged victorious on Thursday night that Tomlin’s postgame reaction to questions about headset functionality would have been markedly different. It certainly wouldn’t be as big as issue as it is now among Steelers’ circles. Instead, it could have been a one-off coincidence happening at the best-worst time considering the recent Patriots’ news cycle, fodder to fill time before a full slate of Week 1 games kicks off on Sunday. But now, an irate Tomlin, a conspiratorial Labriola and the Patriots’ recent history have all combined to create a monster mountain out of a well-known molehill, even though the Steelers aren’t going to file a formal complaint with the league about the malfunctioning headsets.
This nonsense, though, takes away from the real bottom line of Thursday night’s results: The Steelers have problems. They continued to struggle to finish offensive drives, despite an offseason focus on improving their red-zone performance. The defense cannot run its new system with the players it has, particularly in the secondary. This is a team rebuilding on one side of the ball and not yet achieving what they have set out to do. There may be communication problems, but what happened on the sidelines in Foxboro on Thursday aren’t them.