The Steelers started the 2020 regular season with 11 straight wins, but that felt like a distant memory by the time the first quarter of Sunday night’s game was over.
Center Maurkice Pouncey’s first snap went over quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s head and the Browns recovered for a touchdown. They’d go on to score 28 points in the first quarter of a 48-37 win that assured the Steelers season would end with five losses in their final six games.
After the loss, head coach Mike Tomlin said the team wasn’t good enough in any area on Sunday night and referenced the overall slump down the stretch by comparing the team to fruit that went bad before being picked.
“We didn’t do enough,” Tomlin said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “We didn’t position them in enough good circumstances. We didn’t make enough plays, particularly in the critical moments. We were a group that died on the vine.”
It’s the third straight playoff loss for the Steelers and it is one that will lead to questions about the makeup of a team that went so stale so quickly.