MINNEAPOLIS – Sitting on the podium after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ emotional one-point win over the Baltimore Ravens, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger considered a question.

Could a win like this be the stepping stone the Steelers needed to give momentum to attack and defense in the last five games of the season?

“We’ll see,” he said Sunday. “I’d like to think it would help me to say, ‘OK, look, this is what we can do, this is what we need to do,’ but you never really know until you start.”

Thursday night, the Steelers didn’t go until late in the third quarter. By that time it was too late.

The team that beat the division leader came out flat and couldn’t finish digging themselves out of a 29-point hole, losing 36-28 to the Minnesota Vikings.

“We’re getting lost in the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” said coach Mike Tomlin. “I won’t make it any more complicated than it is now. Football is a complex but simple game. You have to hit the blocks, you have to make interventions, you have to keep the blocks. You have to make sure that your pile falls in the right direction. We don’t do these stuff. We don’t do these things consistently nearly enough to hang up our hat, and find the foot type to be consistent in performance.”

Momentum from their previous win on Karma waned and the team’s chances in the playoffs, already dependent on life support equipment, dipped away. With the loss, the Steelers’ odds of making the playoffs dropped to 10% from 19%, according to ESPN’s FPI.

Late 23-0 at the end of the first half, Tomlin rated his team’s performance as a rookie. The Steelers trailed by 29 in the third quarter before trimming the lead to nine, only to give up a quick three-play drive capped by a 62-yard drop from Kirk Cousins ​​to KJ Osborn.

The Steelers scored again after Ahkello Witherspoon’s second interception to cut the lead to eight, but they were unable to finish the winning campaign. After a rally 84 yards down the field, a potential touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Pat Freiermuth was taken out of his hands as time ran out, thwarting hopes of a Steelers comeback.

“Stop making points. I don’t know,” Cam Heyward said. “We just, the first half was awful. The men were not full. We weren’t getting out of the blocks, we weren’t dealing with it. You name it, we did it wrong.

“Look at the score, it’s 36-28. Our risk is to put in enough points, and we don’t get the job done.”

The Steelers scored 28 points in the second half and tied for second under Roethlisberger, but no team in NFL history has won a regular season game after trailing by more than 28 points, according to ESPN statistics and information.

Dan Moore Jr. said, “In a sense, he’s frustrated, but that too, I wouldn’t say cheerful, but if we go out and start like we did, there’s no reason why we should continue on the other side at the end of the game.”

Good chase, bad chase: Receiver Chase Claypool is the physical incarnation of the 2021 Steelers season. With 2:05 to go, Claypool fell with a massive 38-yard catch to keep hopes of a Steelers return alive. Claypool then had a big catch in fourth place during the final round to win the match. Rather than rushing to return the ball to the referee to put it in position, Claypool first signaled the drop as he executed over 10 seconds on the clock.

“It definitely should be better,” Claypool said, explaining the celebration and delaying football abandonment. I was dealt close to a hash. I took my first little point. I went to hand the ball to the referee. He just arrived. So, even if I got up and looked for him, he wasn’t there. Time. But I definitely have to be better. I knew the situation, I know I’m near the hash. I know the ball is on the hash. I should be better. The ball shouldn’t be taken out of my hand.”

The first trimester of the sophomore recipient was approx. Called for an unsportsmanlike penalty after retaliating against Bushud Breeland, he put his finger in the cornerback’s helmet after he was pushed at the end of a play. Then, he nearly flopped in the stretch for extra yards in second, only saved because on review he was judged to be a touchdown before the ball went out. Next, he mistook a block which led to Nagy Harris interfering on the field for a short and third place finish. Tomlin said he put Claypool off the bench, and played frugally in the third quarter. He came back late and grabbed the decisive 14 yards for third and ninth to put the Steelers in the red. After a few plays, Harris found the end zone.

Did Claypool receive the message from his seat?

“We’ll see,” Tomlin said.

Cook Run Mess: The steel curtain looked more like a cheese cloth. The combination, which lost TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith during the match with a thigh injury and a knee injury, respectively, allowed Dalvin Cook to set a reference night on his comeback from injury.

“Dalvin did what he definitely did today, you have to respect him,” Witherspoon said. “We have to be better at running, no matter who’s running behind.”

Cook finished with two touchdowns and 205 fast yards, and in the last 25 seasons, the only team to have rushed 250-plus yards over the Steelers has been the 2020 Ravens (265), according to Next Gen stats, but the Vikings have come close. 242.

“We have to be better than we were,” Tomlin said of his game streak. “We will turn every stone to do this. … We will evaluate what we do and with whom we do it.”

QB breakdown: Roethlisberger was fired five times Thursday night, including four times in the first half – the most in the first half since he was brought down five times by the Buccaneers in Week 4 of 2014. Roethlisberger finished 28 of 40 for 308 yards, three touchdowns And one objection.

For the second week in a row, Rothlisberger’s second half was better than the first. The offensive line had better protection per second, allowing him to complete 4 of 5 attempts at least 15 yards down for 134 yards and a touchdown, according to ESPN stats and information. In the first inning, he had at least once completed 15 yards. Roethlisberger also completed six passes in a narrow window, according to NFL Next Gen Stats — his most in a game over the past three seasons. Five of those completions came in the second half.