The Steelers lost to the Browns, 13-10, at FirstEnergy Stadium on Sunday afternoon. The loss dropped Pittsburgh to 6-4 on the season and into third place in the AFC North, 2.5 games behind the Ravens.

Anyway, judging by the temperament of the fan base, recently, I should probably stop right there after giving you the facts of Sunday’s contest. After all, the Steelers still have a more than realistic chance of making the playoffs.

Those are more facts, so I guess I’m still cool with what I’ve typed in this article thus far.

OK, here’s an opinion: Who cares if these Steelers make the postseason? That’s a question, so let me change it up a bit: I don’t care if these Steelers make the postseason. You might, but I would only respect that if you were under the age of 10 and didn’t know what bad football was when you watched it.

The Steelers have been playing bad football all season, especially on offense, and nothing changed at all on Sunday against Cleveland’s vaunted defense. I suppose we could use that as an excuse for the 10 points Pittsburgh scored, but who are we kidding? Vaunted or not, this offense doesn’t look the part against any defense. It couldn’t pass its way out of a paper bag. It might be able to run its way out of one if Jaylen Warren was the starting running back, but even if he was, the team would still try to pass it too gosh darn much. The Steelers should just scrap all of the passes in their system; that is quite the thing to say about a team that just spent a first-round pick on its current quarterback 18 months ago. I’m talking about Kenny Pickett, the second-year passer who has six touchdowns in 10 games. Pickett hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass since he connected with receiver Diontae Johnson for the game-winner late in the fourth quarter vs. the Titans on November 2. Johnson only has one touchdown since Pickett was drafted by the Steelers in 2022.

Pickett has thrown just 13 touchdown passes in 23 games so far in his troubled career.

No matter how you slice it, touchdown passes and catches are in short supply in Pittsburgh’s offense since Pickett became the quarterback.

Warren gets my game ball after Sunday’s loss–for what that’s worth. Warren gained 129 yards on just nine carries and scored the Steelers’ lone touchdown when he galloped 74 yards to open the second half. It was a thing of beauty.

The rest of the game was as ugly as it’s been all year for the Steelers’ offense; that is a hell of a statement for me to make, considering it was the fourth time Matt Canada’s unit has scored 10 points or less so far in 2023.

Yes, Canada is bad as an offensive coordinator, or so we’d like to think, but it’s so hard to tell with Pickett playing like Mark Malone throwing with Kent Graham’s left arm.

I feel like I’m ranting at this point and not giving a thoughtful analysis of Sunday’s game, but it unfolded just as I thought it would. The Browns, with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback, played it about as safe as possible. There was one turnover by Cleveland, but since it didn’t get returned for a touchdown or set the offense up with prime real estate, it just didn’t matter.

Pickett threw for just 106 yards and averaged 3.8 yards per pass attempt.

That’s backup quarterback material, bruh.

The game was so boring in the first half–the offense produced just 64 yards–that I went to get my oil changed at halftime. If I owned a house, I may have just grabbed a ladder and cleaned out my gutter once I got home.

You know it’s bad when you’d rather get your oil changed and/or clean out your mythical gutter than watch a Steelers game.

Some might say Sunday’s game was of the trap variety, but the Steelers were still underdogs despite the absence of Deshaun Watson, who may or may have been lost for the season due to karma issues.

Others are going to call the loss to the Browns a Tomlin game, but this team isn’t good enough to have a Tomlin game. The Steelers are who they appear to be, and that’s a bad team with a winning record. Pittsburgh might make the postseason, but it may also lose to the Cardinals, Patriots and Colts.

The Steelers may also lose to Jake Browning and the Bengals next Sunday at Paycor Stadium.

There are no gimmes for these Steelers. They can go up against all the backup quarterbacks in the world, but they’re playing like a team that also has a backup at quarterback.

Again, I’m aware that I’m ranting.

Sorry, but I can’t help it.

My car is apparently leaking oil–at least that’s what the guy at Jiffy Lube told me on Sunday. Should I trust a Jiffy Lube technician? I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t trust these 2023 Steelers as far as I can throw them.

Admittedly, it wouldn’t be as far as your typical Pickett pass completion, but it would be close.