The Pittsburgh Steelers ran into one of, if not the best, teams in football in Week One, losing 30-7 to the San Francisco 49ers. Normally, losing to a really good team wouldn’t sting, but the manner in which the Steelers got thoroughly dominated — and the fact that they’re supposed to be good enough to at least hang with the best — has a lot of fans questioning just how good this Steelers team really is. Dan Pompei of The Athletic said the Steelers would be “foolish” if they don’t think they have a lot of issues to improve upon after their Week One beatdown.
“The Steelers would be foolish — and Tomlin is not foolish — to think they don’t have numerous issues to improve on after that performance,” Pompei wrote. “If they want to be able to beat the Bengals, Browns and Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North, and the rest of their conference’s best teams, they need to perform significantly better in a number of areas — especially in run defense.”
The run defense was bad across the board, with poor run fits and poor tackling. It was reminiscent of watching the 2021 Steelers run defense, which ended the season as one of the worst units in the NFL. The run defense being as poor as it was surprised me, especially with what seemed to be an improved inside linebacker corps with Cole Holcomb, Kwon Alexander and Elandon Roberts. Out of that group, Holcomb really struggled, and losing Cameron Heyward early to a groin injury was a significant letdown that also hampered the run defense.
But there are a lot more issues than just run defense. The offensive line allowed five sacks against the vaunted 49ers front, and the Steelers’ run game was virtually non-existent, save for a 24-yard run by Najee Harris late in the first half. Most concerning was the play of QB Kenny Pickett, who played one of the worst games of his young career.
He struggled with accuracy and made the wrong read on more than one occasion, throwing two interceptions. Pickett’s still young, but he had all offseason to prepare, and he had shown noticeable improvement in the preseason. That improvement went out the window in Week One, and Pickett has to show more in Week Two.
The good news is that it was only Week One. Pittsburgh can identify and rectify its issues early and get the season back on track. The injury component coming out of Week One, with Heyward and WR Diontae Johnson due to miss time, might be the most concerning issue for the Steelers. But they have to focus on who will be available and make sure they play a heck of a lot better against the Cleveland Browns on Monday night than they did against the 49ers last Sunday.
