Steelers' Deep Problems, Playoff Concerns Resurface in Ugly Loss to Ravens

The stars were aligning for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Heading into Sunday's road game against an injury-ravaged Baltimore Ravens team playing out the string, the Steelers had won five of six games. They had defeated the Cincinnati Bengals and Denver Broncos in successive weeks.

Win their last two games against the bottom-feeders of the AFC North, and the Steelers would enter the postseason the hottest team in the AFC this side of Kansas City. The wild-card team no one wants to face in the first round. A team that has already shown the ability to ride a wild-card spot all the way to a Super Bowl win.

Instead, after falling in shocking fashion to the Ravens, 20-17, the Steelers may not make the playoffs at all, while their now-reeling fanbase tries to figure out what went wrong:

Some will just chalk this loss up to it being a division game. A contest played by the bitterest of rivals. Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith made it clear to Aditi Kinkhabwala of NFL.com that to the Ravens, this Week 16 clash was much more than just a formality:

This team may have worn black and purple and played in Baltimore, but these were the Ravens in name only.

Quarterback Joe Flacco? Try Ryan Mallett.

Running back Justin Forsett? Nope. Rookie Buck Allen.

Wide receiver Steve Smith Sr.? Gone since suffering a torn Achilles tendon against the San Diego Chargers on Nov. 1. Instead, Kamar Aiken and his band of "who?" served as Mallett's top pass-catchers.

Outside linebacker Terrell Suggs? Lost back in September.

There's a reason this Ravens team entered Sunday 4-10.

This was a game the supposedly surging Steelers should have won with relative ease. Instead, they fell behind 13-3 in the first half, didn't find the end zone until the third quarter and now find themselves in a world of trouble.

The Steelers have no one to blame but themselves. Against the NFL's 14th-ranked defense, the Steelers offense was out of sync most of the afternoon. Running back DeAngelo Williams had a fine game, rushing for 100 yards and scoring twice.

But Williams didn't have much help. Ben Roethlisberger had one of his poorer showings of the season, managing only 215 passing yards and a pair of picks. Making matters worse, Mallett outplayed him, as Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette alluded to:

That's right. Ryan "Got cut by the Houston Texans for missing the team flight" Mallett outplayed Big Ben.

Wide receiver Antonio Brown was held in check, catching seven passes for 61 yards. The last time Brown had numbers that paltry? Week 12 at Seattle.

The Steelers' last loss.

Pittsburgh's second-leading receiver was Williams with 53 yards. No other Steelers player managed even 50.

Before the game, defensive end Cameron Heyward told the Associated Press (via the Ocean Times Herald) that he and his comrades have marveled at the brutal efficiency of their offensive mates of late:

"

Our offense is unstoppable. To have an offense that can go up and down with anybody, it doesn't matter who's out there. It's pretty special. You really don't see themselves rest on their laurels or patting themselves on the back. They're trying to continue to score. You appreciate that as a defense because they give some leeway at times.

"

On a day when the offense was all kinds of stoppable, the Steelers badly needed the defense to hold the fort and make a big play. Instead, they got the opposite.

Pittsburgh's only sack of the day came courtesy of cornerback Brandon Boykin. The team managed precisely zero takeaways, a stat that Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pointed out doesn't bode well for the Steelers in 2015:

This was against a Ravens team that entered the day minus-15 in turnover differential.

Minus-15!

With Ryan Mallett, a rookie running back and a gaggle of scrubs at receiver!

This looked nothing like the Pittsburgh Steelers who had been rolling of late—the team that gave the Seattle Seahawks all they could handle, thumped the Bengals and came roaring back against Denver.

No, this looked more like the disjointed Steelers team that barely outlasted the St. Louis Rams in Week 3 after Roethlisberger got hurt. The team that pitched and lurched its way to an overtime loss the following week—to these same Ravens.

Now, teams in the AFC aren't so worried about that supposedly surging Pittsburgh team.

If the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets win in Week 17, it won't matter what the Steelers do.

They won't make the playoffs at all.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and the Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter @IDPSharks.