For a franchise that has branded itself as physical and tough for decades, the Pittsburgh Steelers performance last week was a tough one to watch. Not only did the Steelers get dominated by the Texans, but they lost the physical battle too.
While Najee Harris ran well, that’s where the positives just about ended. The Steelers were unable to throw rookie QB C.J. Stroud off balance and didn’t record a single sack.
One point that was brought up a few times after the loss was that the Steelers haven’t had a padded practice yet this season, and perhaps that was contributing to the lack of physicality. While there are mixed opinions about the utility of these practices, Tomlin certainly thinks their lack of them has hurt the team. He talked about this today on The Mike Tomlin Show.
“We gotta make sure that the pile is falling a certain way,” Tomlin noted. “There weren’t a lot of breakout runs in this last game, but I thought they controlled the line of scrimmage. I think a lot of times it has to do with how you practice. Based on recent circumstances, we haven’t practiced in pads. That’s the result of a couple of weeks, particularly early in the season, not getting it to carry your pads and establish pad level and the things that you do fundamentally when you have pads on. I think it tees up performance. Getting the pads back on this week, hopefully, that’s a significant component in terms of getting the pile to fall in the direction that we need it to fall.”
The Steelers haven’t had a padded practice partly due to some things out of their control. They had back-to-back short weeks. They played Monday Night in Week Two and then had the whole plane delay fiasco leaving from Las Vegas in Week Three. Due to these two short weeks, there wasn’t much time in the schedule to have a padded practice while still giving the team adequate rest.
Tomlin isn’t the only one who thinks that these padded practices are hugely important. Veteran Cameron Heyward has also mentioned that the team can get complacent without the padded practice work during the season. And that’s true, maybe it’s more of a mentality thing as opposed to a physical thing. It’s tough to doubt the opinions of both Tomlin and Heyward, two highly respected football minds who have been around the Steelers organization for a long time.
Padded practice, no padded practice, whatever it takes so they can control the line of scrimmage better is fine by me. Because for a team that hasn’t been able to move the ball through the air with much consistency at all through four weeks, that’s going to be a key part of the formula to winning ballgames in 2023.
