Oct 16, 2016 5 min read

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The standard can only be the standard for so long before the injuries start to affect things dramatically. There is a tipping point to everthing, after all.

We might have seen it for the Steelers, are 0-1 without Cam Heyward in the lineup after their 30-15 beating Sunday in Miami.

Pittsburgh also was 0-2 last season when Stephon Tuitt did not play, meaning they are 0-3 without their two starting defensive ends.

With Miami running for 222 yards and Pittsburgh getting no pressure on oft-sacked QB Ryan Tannehill, you have to believe having Heyward on the field would have helped.

At the very least, he might have lit into his teammates and gotten a more out of them.

The 200-yard rushing game by Jay Ajayi was the first against the Steelers since Fred Taylor of Jacksonville back in 2000. That’s a long time.

But the Steelers are going to give up another one at some point this season if they don’t tackle better.

Ajayi, who had 117 yards this season coming into this game, consistently fell forward against this defense. He’s a 229-pound running back, so he’s no small guy, but that shouldn’t happen.

It got so bad that linebacker Lawrence Timmons puked right before halftime after the Steelers allowed Damien Williams to score.

OK, that wasn’t why he puked, but that’s certainly what anyone watching wanted to do.

@ The Dolphins employed some of the Wide-9 techniques with their defensive ends that Phildelphia had success with in Week 3.

It gives the defensive ends a running start and both Alejandro Villanueva and Chris Hubbard struggled with it.

Hubbard having issues is understandable. He’s subbing for injured Marcus Gilbert. But Villanueva doing so is a trend the Steelers can’t have continue. He’s their starter at left tackle no matter what.

He has to get out and into the ends before they get up to speed and shove him back into the quarterback. Or, the Steelers need to start gashing those ends getting up the field so quickly with their running game.

@ Antonio Brown didn’t sound happy after this one. He felt largely ignored in the offense. And he was right.

He got two touches – on back-to-back plays – in the first half on an end-around and one catch.

He finished with four catches for 39 yards.

“I just couldn’t make much of a difference today,” Brown said. “We didn’t get it in my hands a lot and we’ve got to find a way to win games, especially games we should win.

“I don’t call the plays. I just run the plays. We didn’t get it done. No excuses.”

That’s as much a shot at quarterback Ben Roethlisberger as it is at offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

Brown always believes he’s open and sometimes, even when he’s covered, he’s really not. But Roethlisberger just wasn’t on from the start in this game.

@ Roethlisberger’s totals on the road have him at 18 touchdown passes and 18 interceptions since the start of the 2014 season. At home it’s 51-13. Not that we’re counting.

Mike Tomlin takes a lot of heat for his team’s record against “bad” teams on the road – it’s not 5-11 vs. sub.-500 teams in the past 16 games – but it’s as much Roethlisberger not playing well on the road as anything.

@ It might have seemed the Dolphins were targeting the right side of the Pittsburgh defense with their run game. But that was more to run behind left guard Laremy Tunsil and left tackle Branden Albert, who are much better than the guys on the right side of their line.

Then again, they did keep running past Artie Burns on that corner, so maybe there was something there.

Burns needs to be more physical as a tackler. Actually, more physical would imply that he’s had some physicality in his tackling. He seems more content to push guys out of bounds.

@ The next time Ed Hochuli and his crew are doing a game I’m attending, I might call in sick. He makes games unwatchable.

There were 14 assessed penalties, but there were 18 called – four were declined – and another where a flag was picked up.

Of those penalties, 14 were called in the first half. That’s right, 14 in one half.

So, essentially, according of Hochuli’s crew, the two teams played a pretty clean second half.

But after every play in the first half, I immediately looked for a flag. That’s not entertaining at all.

@ The Steelers could get Ladarius Green back this week. He was running before the game and doing more than he had done at any time. He’s eligible to be activated. That will help.

Ryan Shazier also will be back next week and Marcus Gilbert could return at right tackle.

But it’s doubtful Heyward plays until after the bye week.

@ This game was so bad that even punter Jordan Berry was affected. Berry had been pretty good in every game but not so much in this one. He netted 30.8 yards per punt.

@ At least Cobi Hamilton made his first career catch and first career TD catch in this one. See, it wasn’t all bad.