In their 19-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers demonstrated for the fourth consecutive game why they most certainly will not be going anywhere in the upcoming, NFL playoffs. Despite ample opportunities to take advantage of key Cincinnati errors — and also despite a courageous defense that pulled itself together as the game progressed and frustrated Joe Burrow’s offense at key moments — the Steelers offense was largely feckless throughout the game prior to attempting a last-ditch rally in the final quarter.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of this game was that the offense appeared totally unprepared and out-of-sync in its final regular season game. George Pickens dropped the passes he normally catches — notching only one reception for no gain in the entire game. Russell Wilson continued to show various reasons why he can’t possibly be viewed as the solution to what now appears to be a perennial quarterback conundrum in the Steel City.

Going into the final quarter, the Steelers had compiled less than 100 yards of total offense, and Wilson finished the game with only 148 yards passing and a single TD pass to a wide-open Pat Freiermuth with 8:07 remaining in the game. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren combined for a measly 57 yards on the ground. Gaining 85 yards on eight catches, Freiermuth was the lone Steelers receiver with more than 25 yards for the game. The Steelers offense was only 4-12 on third-down conversions and 0-2 on fourth-down conversion attempts. Largely because the offense failed to move the ball consistently throughout the game, the Bengals nearly doubled the Steelers in time of possession (38:00 to 22:00).

The Steelers defense surrendered an early TD drive which appeared far too easy for the Bengals. Ultimately, though, they played well enough to win — had their offense provided reasonable support. Cory Trice Jr., who was pressed into action due to Donte Jackson’s injury, got off to a rough start when Burrow victimized him during the Bengals’ initial TD drive. But it seems premature to write off the youngster so soon because he finished the game as the Steelers’ leading tackler with 11 total and 7 solo stops which included a key tackle-for-loss when he shot the gap on a running play.

The defense kept Burrow largely bottled up throughout the game, sacked him four times and and didn’t allow him to hurt them using his legs. Cameron Heyward played at an All-Pro level, collapsing the center of Cincy’s OL and batting away three Burrow passes. Keeanu Benton had an impressive sack on Burrow which forced the Bengals to punt with 2:19 remaining in the game — briefly raising hopes of a comeback.

But as a whole, this game was poorly played by both teams, neither of which has shown that it truly belongs in the playoffs. In the wake of another dismal performance by the Steelers offense, it’s reasonable to conclude that the team’s bold, offseason experiment at the QB position has largely come to naught. At this point, for the Steelers to re-sign Wilson and give him a multi-year contract would be to commit precisely the same blunder which Mike Tomlin cited recently — by continuing to do the same thing while expecting a different result.

Considering the remote possibility that this edition of the Black-and-gold will manage to win a single playoff game, there’s nothing to be lost now by naming Justin Fields as the starter for the Wild Card game. Based on what we’ve witnessed in the losses to Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas City and Cincinnati, it seems unlikely that Fields possibly could perform any worse than Wilson. While making a change at QB prior to Saturday’s game would have given Fields a full game under his belt before the Wild Card matchup, that’s academic now. The best chance now for the Steelers to break their winless playoff streak is to hand the reins over to No. 2 and give him the opportunity to stake his claim as the front-runner for next season.

Wilson has been given ample opportunities to show he’s capable of leading the team successfully against high-level competition, but his record during the stretch-run is 0-4. If Coach Tomlin and Steelers Nation are expecting a different result, then it’s obvious now that changes must be made.