Steelers Have Much Bigger Issues Than Mike Vick's Erratic Play

Beating the hated Baltimore Ravens without Ben Roethlisberger was going to be a tough task for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Unfortunately, the 23-20 loss had little to do with quarterback play.

Michael Vick started in place for the injured Roethlisberger and ended the night with mixed results. While he avoided turnovers and managed a 95.7 quarterback rating, this is a bit misleading, as it mostly featured checkdowns and short-yardage passes. He missed a number of easy throws in important spots and failed to make anything happen down the field (longest pass play was 18 yards).

Despite the struggles, there are bigger concerns for Pittsburgh that helped contribute to the loss.

The man who will get a lot of blame for his performance Thursday is kicker Josh Scobee, who missed two late field goals that would have extended the lead. One make would have forced the Ravens to score a touchdown instead of a field goal on the final drive, while a perfect day would have virtually clinched a win with a nine-point lead in the closing minutes.

Scobee certainly wasn't pleased with himself after the game, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

The 33-year-old veteran made two field goals in the first half, but he has now missed four of his 10 attempts on the season, as well as one extra point. Considering the team didn't trust him to try a potential game-winning field goal in overtime from the 33-yard-line, it's hard to imagine too much faith in him going forward.

However, the Steelers could have survived these misses if not for the poor play-calling by the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley had engineered a top-five offense in the NFL in yardage coming into the game, but he really dropped the ball when it came to play-calling in this one.

The most noteworthy moments came on the two fourth-down attempts in overtime. On 4th-and-2, Vick ran a designed sweep to the left and was swallowed up by the defense for no gain. A few minutes later, the 4th-and-1 call was a quick out pass to Antonio Brown that was nowhere close to the target.

Unsurprisingly, those watching along didn't agree with the decisions:

Former quarterback Shaun King might have been the nicest person in questioning the direction of the play, although this is almost more inexcusable for Haley:

Of course, the obvious play was to hand the ball to one of the top running backs in the NFL, Le'Veon Bell. He averaged 5.9 yards per carry in the game, and at times, it seemed like the only one who could stop him was his own coordinator.

Not giving Bell the ball was a problem throughout the game, not just a couple of plays in overtime. Despite having a lead for much of the night and being up as much as 20-7 in the second half, the running back was limited to just 18 carries in regulation.

While he remained a big part of the passing game, a general rule is you should continue to pound the ball on the ground with a lead, especially with a player who is averaging more than five yards per carry at the time. Even spelling him for DeAngelo Williams would have been advisable after his success this season.

The Steelers couldn't do this and in turn stalled offensively, allowing the Ravens back into the game.

One would think if Bell wasn't getting the ball enough, at least Brown would get touches, but that wasn't the case, either. Despite being targeted nine times, the All-Pro receiver finished with his worst game in over two years:

Even with Vick under center, the coaching staff should have forced the ball into Brown's hands and allowed him to make plays. Instead, the veteran quarterback had too much control over the game and couldn't secure the victory. This puts more of the blame on the coach who created the situation than the player who failed in it.

"We lost, so I'm not going to try and justify anything that we did," head coach Mike Tomlin said, via Will Graves of the Associated Press. "Anything we did, I take responsibility for."

Accountability is a good thing at this point, but it's clear changes need to be made.

The issues weren't only limited to the offense and special teams, either. While the defense did a good job of creating a pass rush against Joe Flacco, Justin Forsett was allowed to run wild, finishing with 150 rushing yards at 5.6 per carry. Considering this was more than the running back had in the three previous games combined, it is not encouraging.

Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Although the defense held Todd Gurley and Tre Mason in check in Week 3 as well as Carlos Hyde in Week 2, New England Patriots running back Dion Lewis had a lot of open holes in the league's opening night. It remains to be seen whether this will be a lasting problem or just a couple of bad performances.

What will remain a problem is the coaching staff if it fails to get the ball to its best players in Bell and Brown. Poor quarterback play can be overlooked when you have two of the top playmakers in the NFL. What you can't do is rely on Vick to do it all after not being that type of player for five years.

Meanwhile, the kicking game doesn't have any easy solutions on the horizon.

Pittsburgh still has one of the most talented rosters in the league and could very well be a playoff contender. With or without a healthy Roethlisberger, however, there are a lot of flaws that need fixing after an embarrassing Thursday night loss to the Ravens.

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