{"id":863383,"date":"2026-04-10T19:54:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:54:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/863383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:54:38","slug":"we-fumbled-the-bag-joe-haden-blames-steelers-defense-for-overlooking-jaguars-in-2017-playoff-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/863383\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We Fumbled The Bag’: Joe Haden Blames Steelers’ Defense For ‘Overlooking’ Jaguars In 2017 Playoff Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers haven\u2019t been to a Super Bowl since the 2010 season and only gotten close one other time since then. The 2017 season might\u2019ve been their best shot in the last 10 years. The Steelers were one of the best teams in the league that year, going 13-3 and winning the AFC North. However, they didn\u2019t even win a single playoff game, losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in their first matchup. Speaking to former Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette, Joe Haden blamed the defense for that loss, admitting Pittsburgh underestimated Jacksonville.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed no reason to do that,\u201d Haden said Friday on the 4th and South podcast.<\/a> \u201cWe lost [Ryan] Shazier, we didn\u2019t a linebacker in there, lost a leader. That was the best team I ever played on, 2017, skill wise. AB [Antonio Brown], Le\u2019Veon [Bell], [Martavis] Bryant. Our offense was unbelievable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offense was crazy. And the defense, we fumbled the bag\u2026 I feel like we should\u2019ve not been overlooking y\u2019all. We really was like, \u2018Jacksonville, Blake Bortles, we\u2019re gonna go out there and stop them, go out there and score some [touchdowns]. We\u2019ve got AB.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The Steelers lost 45-42, but that doesn\u2019t tell the full story of the game. They got off to an awful start, being down 21-0 near the start of the second quarter. That includes the Jaguars marching right down the field and scoring a touchdown on their first drive.<\/p>\n

Bortles didn\u2019t have a great NFL career, but the Steelers\u2019 defense made him look like a quality<\/a> starter. He completed 14 of his 26 pass attempts for 214 yards and one touchdown. Meanwhile, Fournette gashed the Steelers on the ground, running for 109 yards and three touchdowns.<\/p>\n

It was embarrassing, especially because it wasn\u2019t the first time that the Steelers played the Jags that season. The two teams previously faced off in the regular season, and Jacksonville crushed Pittsburgh, 30-9. Like Haden said, there was no reason for the Steelers to not take their rematch in the playoffs seriously.<\/p>\n

The Steelers were too busy worrying about the New England Patriots, and that cost them. That was arguably their last year as a real Super Bowl contender with Ben Roethlisberger under center.<\/p>\n

That Jaguars team shouldn\u2019t have been able to beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the playoffs like that. Unfortunately, that kind of postseason pain has been all too common for the Steelers over the last decade. That game was only the beginning of their playoff woes.<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers haven\u2019t been to a Super Bowl since the 2010 season and only gotten close one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[117381,7,125,30098,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-863383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-4th-and-south","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","11":"tag-joe-haden","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116382171637993534","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}