Steelers' Minkah Fitzpatrick Expresses Frustration With Lack Of Offensive Production

The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been horrendously inconsistent through 13 weeks of the 2023 season. After firing Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada following the embarrassing Week 11 loss to the Cleveland Browns, everyone expected things to improve, and they seemed to briefly. The Steelers beat the Cincinnati Bengals during their Week 12 game without Canada and fans were ecstatic that the offense, while not perfect, was headed in the right direction. Then, the Steelers played the Arizona Cardinals at home, and lost 24-10.  

Now it is not just fans and the media that are disgusted; players are voicing their aggravation as they are confounded by the loss, including Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. The game against the Cardinals had all the markings of a trap game. The Steelers were supposedly on the rise, trying to secure a Wild Card spot in the playoffs, while Arizona, at 2-10 was playing for pride. Maybe the Steelers didn't take them seriously enough, but from the start, the offense was unable to seal the deal in the red zone. 

Even the Steelers star-studded defense wasn't up even able to save the offense from themselves. On top of the numerous technical errors (looking at you and your low snaps Mason Cole), there were nine penalties. This included one on rookie Joey Porter Jr. in the red zone that set up former Steelers' running back James Conner's one-yard dive into the end zone.  

Now, the Steelers are busy trying to put this game behind them so they can move on to their upcoming Thursday night game against the 2-10 New England Patriots. While speaking to the media today, ESPN's Brooke Pryor asked Fitzpatrick if the loss to the Cardinals was a wake-up call considering they are heading into a game that looks like it could be yet another trap game. Pryor asked if they underestimated the Cardinals and thier players.

"We gotta go into games like these and realize we have to play our best ball. I don't understand games like this. We should be winning by a lot of points, playing great defense, and when we don't play our best ball, that's not the case... They are an NFL team too, they get paid too, so they are gonna take advantage of us not playing our best ball. Thursday we gotta go out there and focus on us playing our best ball, not worry about who we are playing, what their record is, who they got at quarterback, xyz, we need to focus on us and play our best ball," lamented a clearly disappointed Fitzpatrick.

The Steelers just shot themselves in the foot over and over again. While it wasn't great before, it seemed to get much worse after they went for it on fourth-and-one and not picking it up when they could have kicked a field goal. Always accurate kicker Chris Boswell missed a kick that he has made a million times. Miles Killebrew, the veteran special teams captain had three penalties, including running into the kicker. 

At another point, they had 12 men on the field after they had called a timeout and had multiple illegal formation penalties. Apparently, the football gods weren't happy with the game play and kept trying to give Pittsburgh lightning delays to get their act together, but they couldn't. They fell to 7-5 on the season.

The Steelers Week 13 Game Went From Bad To Worse

While it was awful to lose the way Pittsburgh did, with players choosing the worst possible time to make terrible choices, it got even worse as the injuries kept piling up. Fitzpatrick broke his left hand during the game. He had his hand put in a cast during halftime and came back out to finish the game. He managed to get five tackles, four of them alone, after the injury. 

Quarterback Kenny Pickett aggravated an already-nagging ankle injury right before the half. He went into the locker room ahead of halftime and returned to the sideline in a boot. Pickett underwent surgery on Monday so the ankle will be able to heal faster. While Head Coach Mike Tomlin did not give a specific timeline for his return, he did say he won't play Week 14 and that backup quarterback Mitch Trubisky will start against the Patriots. In another scary moment, edge rusher T.J. Watt got hogtied by Paris Johnson Jr. and twisted his ankle. Fortunately, he appears to be okay. 

The Steelers seem to have a knack for bouncing back from bad losses with wins, and fans need to hope the Patriots game is no exception. The offensive line needs to figure out how to get their act together on a short week and Trubisky and the coordinators need to find a game plan that capitalizes upon his skillset. 

What do you think about Fitzpatrick's comments? Why do you think the offense doesn't seem to be able to score? How do you think the Steelers will fare against the Patriots? How about Trubisky, how do you think he will play? Click to comment below. 

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