- The Pittsburgh Steelers defense has allowed 68 points and over 700 passing yards in its last two losses.
- Despite significant financial investment, the Steelers defense ranks last in the NFL against the pass.
- Coach Mike Tomlin acknowledged the team’s defensive problems are repetitive and not improving quickly enough.
- Veteran defensive tackle Cam Heyward expressed frustration, stating the team lacks fight and doesn’t handle adversity well.
PITTSBURGH – It wasn’t difficult to sense the level of frustration coming from Cam Heyward in a near-empty Pittsburgh Steelers locker room late Sunday night.
Another week, another embarrassing letdown from a once-proud defense.
“There’s a lot of ball and not enough fight on our side,” Heyward, the veteran defensive tackle and elder statesman, said after the 35-25 loss against the Green Bay Packers included Jordan Love as the latest quarterback to torch the Steelers. “I don’t think we handle adversity.”
Well, adversity has not only arrived. It has blasted through the front door.
Ten days after Joe Flacco passed for 342 yards and three touchdowns to lift the Cincinnati Bengals past Pittsburgh, Love threw for 360 yards – and at one point completed a franchise-record-tying 20 consecutive passes – and three touchdowns to steal the stage from Aaron Rodgers in the primetime showcase game.
Particularly disturbing for Heyward & Co. was the onslaught after halftime, when the Packers flipped a game by scoring on their first five possessions of the second half.
“That second half kind of split open,” Heyward said. “If you’re hit hard enough, you’ve got to have answers for it. Part of being a professional is fixing your mistakes fast. And then answering those problems. This is a lesson we can all learn from.”
Or else.
The past two games, as Pittsburgh (4-3) fumbled away a seemingly firm grip on the AFC North lead, the Steelers have allowed 68 points in the back-to-back defeats. The pass defense now ranks dead-last in the NFL – worse than the Dallas Cowboys and Bengals defenses in that category – as Flacco and Love combined to throw for 702 yards and six touchdowns.
And look who’s coming next: The red-hot Indianapolis Colts, with an offense powered by NFL rushing leader Jonathan Taylor and revitalized quarterback Daniel Jones.
Did somebody mention fixing something fast?
Steelers’ defensive spending yielding minimal returns
Hey, it’s officially a crisis now – which is where coach Mike Tomlin and the Steelers brain trust hardly expected it would be at this point in the season after investing so much energy and resources into boosting the fortunes of the unit.
On Sunday night, the effort was wrapped in missed tackles, blown assignments, misplayed pop-up passes, chunk plays and very little heat on the quarterback. The unit had zero sacks and zero turnovers. And ultimately zero chance to regain the momentum.
When someone asked Tomlin if the defensive issues are more rooted in the schemes or in the execution, there was no room to backpedal.
“You know, we all have to own it,” Tomlin said. “Certainly, you start with the schematics because that’s the leadership components of it, and certainly we’ll be looking at everything that we’re doing, man, because some of these problems are somewhat repetitive. We’re not getting better fast enough.”
The Steelers came into the season thinking that they could complement Rodgers with a stiff defense that would relieve pressure on the crafty quarterback. It seemed like a decent plan and with the addition of versatile cornerback Jalen Ramsey and veteran cornerback Darius Slay. The revamped secondary was pegged to provide consistent man-to-man coverage on the back end, which would allow defensive coordinator Teryl Austin more flexibility in using creative blitzes.
Yet that answer has backfired to this point. There’s no way the Steelers, who haven’t won a playoff game since the 2016 season, can win big with this dysfunctional defense.
And while the revamped secondary has floundered, it’s clearly a collective challenge. The investments up front – including linebacker T.J. Watt, signed to an extension worth $41 million per year, and last year’s free agent addition, linebacker Patrick Queen – haven’t paid off, either.
The numbers underscore this. According to Spotrac.com, no team in the NFL has invested as much of its salary cap this season on its defense than the Steelers, with a $120.283 million allocation. For cash expenditures, it’s the second-most expensive defense in the league with a tab of $151.4 million.
Yet those other numbers – 30th in yards allowed (386 per game), 32nd against the pass (273.3) – illustrate how little bang they are getting for the buck.
Once upon a time, tough, physical, championship-level defense was the Steelers calling card. It matched the reputation of a city known for blue-collar grit. What happened to that tradition? It’s a fairy tale now, considering the current edition of the Pittsburgh D.
Heyward said, “If you can own your mistakes and make them disappear, it goes a long way.’
If only that can really happen – like fast.
Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@usatoday.com or follow on X: @JarrettBell