Just about any time you lose a game by 24 points, you can reasonably deduce that more than one thing went wrong. Barring a bunch of defensive touchdowns, there was probably a collaborative effort of incompetence between both the offense and the defense.
And for the second time in just four games, the defense gave up 30 points to an opponent in a game in which the offense put up single digits. Needless to say, that doesn’t meet the standard. But the Steelers followed up the first blowout loss with a great defensive performance. Now they have to do it again, this time against the 3-1 Baltimore Ravens.
“That is the good thing about the NFL, you get to come back the next week and prove yourself. That is the mindset we are going to have”, OLB Markus Golden said this week, via Teresa Varley for the team’s website. “It’s still early in the season. It’s 2-2. You’ve got to be a man about it, look at the film, watch it and know what you did wrong, get up, fix the mistakes, don’t complain, and don’t feel sorry for yourself”.
Even as a rotational edge defender, Golden has been one of the brighter spots on the defense this season. He has two sacks already and six total defensive stops. He has not missed a tackle yet this season. But many others have, and that needs to be cleaned up, as he knows.
“When you have a bad day against the run, you have to tackle better. Tackle better, do your assignment better. We have a chance to fix that”, he said. “Wrapping up, put your body on a man, getting a man down basically, whatever you gotta do to get him down within the rules. That is what it’s about. There’s always ways to fix it”.
Still, it’s nothing short of aggravating for the Steelers to run into these sorts of issues to this extent. They are known for having the most physical training camp and the league, but if it doesn’t translate to cleaner play on defense, I’m really not sure what the point is. The sparring isn’t appropriately preparing them for the real thing, it seems.
Let’s just say that this defense has a lot to prove, not just to themselves, but to everybody else. To the fan base. To the NFL at large. To Taylor Swift these days, I guess. I don’t know. All I know is that positive change must come swiftly for this unit, because Baltimore isn’t going to lie down.
The Ravens are averaging nearly 25 points per game this season, even if only four have come from touchdown passes off of QB Lamar Jackson’s arm. Three of them have gone to TE Mark Andrews. Jackson has also rushed for four scores already, with four more Ravens rushing scores, including two by Justice Hill.
