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Twice on Sunday the Steelers' sideline seemed eerily devoid of football players. In what turned out to be an awkward day for the team in Chicago, punctuated by a stunning sequence of events in overtime, Pittsburgh just could never get going much on either side of the ball.

Most likely, the time they spent trying to decide how to respond to the bizarre and offensive ranting of Donald Trump, leading to several strange scenes before kickoff, had little to do with their off-kilter outing against the Bears. Maybe it had nothing to do it with it all.

But from the moment coach Mike Tomlin stood on the sidelines surrounded only by his coordinators during "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- with the players in the locker room -- while left tackle and former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva crept out of the tunnel and nearly on to the grass in what amounted to his own solitary acknowledgment of the national anthem this was bound to be a day the Steelers wouldn't easily forget.

Things got weird just before halftime as well, as the sputtering Steelers were sent off to the locker room while officials reviewed a crazy sequence when the Bears nearly scored on a blocked punt only to have the ball stripped just ahead of the goal line and then batted through the back of the end zone.

By the time it was ruled that the ball should be spotted on the half-yard line for an untimed play, most of the Steelers were still strapping on helmets and running back on to the field, with only receiver Darius Heyward-Bey on the field as a lone "defender." The Steelers defense got aligned in time, barely, and they were bailed out by a false start that resulted in a field goal and a 17-7 lead for the Bears.

It's fair to say the Steelers seemed distracted and out of sorts all day.

It was hard not to wonder if the Steelers managed to overthink this one. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (who has yet to muster 270 passing yards in a game this season despite his preponderance of weapons) shrugged off that notion after the game, saying he didn't think the time spent deciding to stay in the locker room was a distraction from pressing football matters. Tomlin said he gave the league a heads-up about the Steelers' plan for the anthem, but was never given assurances they wouldn't be sanctioned (they won't be fined, I'm told, nor will the Seahawks or any other team that skipped the sidelines during the anthem).

But they never looked entirely into this game either, whether it was muffed punts or failing to turn gift turnovers into touchdowns or managing to establish any sort of groove on either side of the ball. Defensively, the loss of T.J. Watt and Stephon Tuitt clearly hurt, but for much of the game Pittsburgh was overrun at the line of scrimmage. They looked, too often, like a team that had its mind elsewhere.

The offense has been far too tepid. Expected to be one of the most explosive units in the NFL, they continue to slumber for long spells of each game. They struggle to move the chains consistently, settling for the odd big play here or there, but continuity is an issue. They have scored two offensive touchdowns in each of their three games -- with only one rushing TD all season -- and Le'Veon Bell remains a nonfactor (61 yards on Sunday, and only 180 yards on 52 carries -- 3.5 per attempt -- this season) against a Bears defense that seemed suspect.

And on the other side of the ball, the Bears rumbled for 220 yards on the ground against the Steelers. Jordan Howard amassed 138 yards on 23 carries despite being in and out of the game due to injury, and rookie Tarik Cohen ran for 78 yards on only 12 attempts. Cohen appeared to end the game in overtime on a long touchdown scamper, only for a controversial replay decision to intervene.

The Steelers seemed dumbfounded and disoriented by it all, and shortly after they lined back up, Howard did end the game with a 19-yard scoring run. It left them with much to sort through on a flight back home, from their pregame sideline stance to their premature halftime exodus to the very last play of the game.

Siemian does a 180, tanks Broncos in loss

I picked the Broncos to win the AFC West, primarily because of their defense and home-field advantage, but I admit I was among those intrigued by Trevor Siemian's play through two weeks as well. I was about to buy into the recent hype as well and, yeah, that was really impressive against the Cowboys in Week 2.

But lest we forget, this is a week-to-week league. And Sunday, on the road, Siemian was not good. Game management has to be his forte, but in what was a close outing through the third quarter, he made two critical errors the likes of which just can't happen. He isn't physically gifted enough to throw the ball through people, and when his fundamentals suffer and he tries to do too much, bad things happen.

On second-and-25 and under some duress, with Denver trailing 20-16 and about five minutes left in the third quarter, Siemian heaved an up-for-grabs pass into the middle of the field, resulting in an easy interception that could have been avoided. And with the game at 23-16, and Denver driving to the Buffalo 24 in the fourth quarter, Siemian again contorted his body, throwing against the grain, in a wobbly effort to get the ball out of bounds that was an even easier pick to essentially close the game out.

A little better ball control, and managing to kick another field goal or two and stay within a score, and Denver might be unbeaten. With Denver holding Melvin Gordon (18 runs for 54 yards), Zeke Elliott (9 runs for 8 yards) and Shady McCoy (14 runs for 21 yards) to a total of 83 yards on 41 carries, for a minuscule 2.02 average, they just need to the QB to help them win the turnover battle.

Three questionable decisions from coaches

The Eagles got a huge win, thanks in no small part to Carson Wentz doing his thing again and a crazy, 61-yard kick at the end of regulation. But this game didn't have to be so close.

Philadelphia dominated the first half, holding the ball for nearly three quarters of the game overall, and they dominated the Giants defense on the ground. So with a 7-0 lead and fourth-and-8 around midfield, and the Giants offense still sputtering, why did they go for it? Why not just give the Giants another long field with a punt?

To that end, another younger coach, Ben McAdoo, in that very same game opted not to take points on the road in a fourth-down situation in the drive after the Eagles turned it over on downs. And Broncos rookie coach Vance Joseph topped them all by calling for a fake punt on the road in a close game deep in his own territory that was easily snuffed out by the Bills and created an unnecessary momentum shift. Don't overthink it, guys.

Eagles' run game comes to life

Fans and the media were trying to run LeGarrette Blount out of town since midway through camp it seemed, but he was a demon Sunday. He keyed a stunning 19-play, 90 yard drive, that took 9:34 off the clock on a 90-degree day and capped it with five carries for 32 yards and a TD.

On the day the Giants had no answer for him or Wendell Smallwood, who churned out 138 rushing yards on 24 combined carries. In the effort, they might have just crushed the Giants' season before the calendar turned to October.

Reason No. 91,637 why Browns fans deserve our sympathy

Watch Wentz. Watch Deshaun Watson go out and match Tom Brady throw for throw and nearly pull off a historic comeback at Foxboro. And then watch DeShone Kizer. One of these things is not like the other.

It's very early in their careers, and the cast in Cleveland is surely suspect, but passing on so many quarterbacks -- I won't mention how many times they passed on Dak Prescott -- to take inferior ones (Cody Kessler, a third-round pick in 2016, was inactive again) has a way of haunting you for a long time. They didn't want to draft Wentz in the first round and claimed he wasn't a top-20 QB, which will only look more crazy with each week Wentz dazzles.

And they traded with Houston this year so the Texans could take Watson, and then Cleveland took Kizer in the second round. Watson's decision-making, athleticism and presence are far beyond the other 2017 rookie quarterbacks at this point. He was a consistent play maker on Sunday, in only his second NFL start, and he's doing it on a team with Super Bowl aspirations.

Kizer had a humbling time against a weak Colts defense. He has reached 50 percent passing in only one of his three starts and he has three TDs, seven INTs and a 53.2 rating. It's going to be bumpy, and this is hardly all on the young passer, but turnovers and decision-making were big issues at Notre Dame as well. It doesn't just go away.

Lions can't win for losing

The Lions are for real. And they got screwed by a 10-second run-off on the last play of the game.

If that touchdown is called correctly as down before the goal line, then they end up getting one more crack at the winning score from the 1. But since it was ruled a touchdown and then overturned, with eight seconds left, the run-off ends the game. Seems to me like a loophole that should be closed.

More Sunday notes

  • There is no coach more engaged and fired up on the sidelines than Buffalo's Sean McDermott. He is into it, and his players are feeding off it. He looks like he could play middle linebacker if he had to.
  • Jacoby Brissett can play a little. He made some spin moves that looked like vintage Mike Vick, and he commanded the Colts offense, going 9 of 12 for 206 yards with one passing TD and two rushing TDs to open up a big lead Indy wouldn't give up. He is a more than capable backup whenever Andrew Luck returns.
  • So where will all the "Jay Cutler is a golden god" guys go this week? Pete Prisco, that means you. So he isn't going to take the league by storm? He and the Dolphins were nearly shut out by a Jets team some had pegged for 0-16. It was not a pretty showing, and even with Miami trailing by multiple scores much of the day, they couldn't put up yards or points against some prevent-type looks.
  • The Ravens might be the most compromised offense in the NFL. What they did in London was atrocious, and the loss of Marshal Yanda on an already injury-plagued offensive line could cripple them all season. The first two weeks they benefited from 10 turnovers from opposing QBs -- and still could barely score. On Sunday, when a gassed defense couldn't even make Blake Bortles flinch, and the offensive line, sans Yanda, started turning it over ... well, it snowballed quickly. This group is limited to say the least.
  • Cam Newton does not look right to me. That's one to watch closely the next few weeks.