Ugly as losses in Pittsburgh have gotten, and they’ve become increasingly frequent, rarely will I ever question the team’s effort. Whether it’s a player or unit, making any assertion over a lack of hustle and heart is dangerous to do. Personally, it’s among the most weighty and scathing charges you can make at someone. It’s personal, it goes beyond the X’s and O’s and there’s so many factors that can throw you off base. I almost never do it.
I’m not going to say the Steelers had poor effort throughout the entirety of Sunday’s 30-6 loss to the Houston Texans – I know others will – but there were two plays at the end of the first half that were clear signs of a team just not giving all it had.
It came as the Texans were driving to put additional points on the board. On back-to-back plays, WR Nico Collins freely moved through the Steelers’ secondary, facing little resistance along the way. As always, let’s go to the tape.
The first example came on first and 10 with 41 seconds to play in the half, Houston up 13-0. The Steelers are in zone and Collins sits down between the coverage as QB C.J. Stroud goes through his reads and hits him at the Texans’ 35.
Minkah Fitzpatrick takes a poor-ish angle and misses the tackle. CB Joey Porter Jr. tries to chop low but woefully whiffs, Collins never even having to break stride. And Keanu Neal? I don’t know what he’s doing. He’s barely even running. Never even gets a hand on Collins. This is a big and physical player more than capable of hitting and tackling. And he just doesn’t do anything.
It isn’t until S Damontae Kazee wrestles Collins down at the Steelers’ 36 that the play finally ends. It’s a 42-yard gain, 29 of those yards coming after the catch. A Steelers defense hardly getting in the way of Collins’ big play.
The following play is slightly less egregious but still bad. After Stroud spiked the ball to stop the clock, giving Pittsburgh’s defense a breather, he throws a bubble screen to Collins to the top of the screen. Making the catch at the 40, Neal tries to tackle this time but misses.
Collins breaks into open grass and looks poised to score, CB Levi Wallace and Kazee not getting off their blocks, until Fitzpatrick dives and trips Collins up to save a sure-fire touchdown. It forces the Texans to settle for a field goal but it’s two plays that shouldn’t have resulted in this kind of yardage.
It’s hard to explain what the Steelers were doing here. They were on the field a ton in the first half but there was a solid break between this drive and the Texans’ previous possession thanks to two timeouts, a penalty/ref discussion, and commercial break on the Steelers drive before this. This defense was not gassed. And these completions were the only two non-spike plays of the Texans’ drive.
There’s no excuse for this type of tape. Being bad is one thing. It’s not acceptable but at least it’s valid. This? It’s just poor effort. It’s not going all out. And it let the Texans increase their lead on the way to a blowout win.
