Sunday night told a story football fans have seen quite a few times before.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were presented the opportunity to make a statement from the get-go in the 2019 NFL season. In their first campaign since 2010 without either Antonio Brown or Le’Veon Bell, the Steelers could have sent a message to the rest of the league by taking down the reigning Super Bowl champions in enemy territory. Instead, Pittsburgh fell flat on its face and watched the New England Patriots coast to a 30-point victory.
With the Week 1 loss, Ben Roethlisberger now owns a 1-5 lifetime record at Gillette Stadium. The lone victory came back in the 2008 season, which Tom Brady missed all but minutes of due to a torn ACL. So as Roethlisberger’s Steelers once again were taken to the woodshed by the Patriots, Stephen A. Smith couldn’t help but bluntly — and emphatically — pose a question to Pittsburgh’s quarterback.
Sunday’s loss, obviously, shouldn’t be seen as a backbreaker for the Steelers, as there’s still a whole lot of football left to be played and Pittsburgh still should be viewed as one of the AFC’s better teams. But for the sake of their Super Bowl LIV hopes, Roethlisberger and Co. better hope they don’t have to make a trip to Foxboro in January.
