One area in which the Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled this season has been in defending opposing wide receivers. Through the first six weeks of the season, they have allowed the second-most yards per game to wide receivers in the NFL, tied exactly with the Seattle Seahawks. Only the Los Angeles Chargers at 220.8 yards per game have fared worse against the primary pass-catching position in the NFL.
Such information, however, did not particularly interest head coach Mike Tomlin, who was asked during his press conference yesterday about his defense’s performances against wide receivers. Even without factoring in the bye week, they are still tied for the eighth-most yards allowed to wide receivers in the NFL, with only the Chargers ahead of them among teams having played fewer than six games.
“I’m not concerned about obscure stats like that at this juncture”, he said in response, via the team’s website. “Keep watching. Seriously. I’m really not [concerned]. My objective is to win, and if we’re gonna win consistently, we’ll address all little tidbits and things of that nature. It’ll get cleaned up with a bigger volume of tape and games to study”.
Now, this doesn’t sound particularly great on the surface. The fact that he seemed audibly frustrated with the line of questioning in his response won’t help matters. And to be fair, Tomlin’s team has given fans little reason to be charitable so far, even with a current winning record.
In addition to allowing the second-most receiving yards per game to the position, the Steelers have also allowed the eighth-most receptions and fifth-most touchdowns. In other words, wide receivers have enjoyed playing against the Steelers this year, though that’s nothing we didn’t already know.
The Steelers have allowed three 100-yard receivers over the first five weeks, and five with 85-plus yards. San Francisco 49ers WR Brandon Aiyuk posted an 8-129-2 stat line in the opener, with Davante Adams of the Las Vegas Raiders going 13-172-2 two weeks later. In the next game, the Houston Texans’ Nico Collins added to the misery with 7-168-2.
Both Cleveland Browns WR Amari Cooper and Raiders WR Jakobi Meyers caught at least seven passes for 85-plus yards. Had he not made numerous mistakes, the Baltimore Ravens WR Zay Flowers would have put together a much more daunting stat line than just 5-73-0.
The fact of the matter is that this “obscure stat” has been a real problem for the Steelers from the very beginning of the year, and it really hasn’t gotten any better, at least in terms of their own adjustments. Flowers could have been another 100-plus-yard, two-score receiver had he not gotten in his own way.
“If we do those things enough continually, we’ll address all of those tidbits”, Tomlin said of narrowing down the focus of the defense to one specific area. The reality is that the quality of coverage has not been sufficient from CBs Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace from the first game, and it hasn’t gotten any better. And I would argue that the sample size of five games should be sufficient to bring this little tidbit out of obscurity.
