In the first five games of the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense has largely been one of the better ones in the league. The unit is responsible for two of the Steelers’ three wins on the season, without a doubt.
Hard to ask that group to be much better.
But there is one area the defense can definitely improve on. That would be something very basic in the game of football: tackling.
Through the first five games, the Steelers are averaging 9.0 missed tackles per game. That number is a bit alarming, especially coming off a 2022 season in which the Steelers missed just 5.71 tackles per game with a defense that saw a number of pieces be moved on from in the offseason.
Nearly doubling the missed tackles from last season to this one might be concerning on paper, but a closer look reveals that the Steelers might be on the same pace to do what they did last year in the tackling department.
According to charting here at Steelers Depot, the Steelers missed 8.8 tackles per game last season in the first five games of the year. Here’s how those numbers looked game by game:
- at Bengals, Week One: 6 missed tackles
- vs. Patriots, Week Two: 7 missed tackles
- at Browns, Week Three: 11 missed tackles
- vs. Jets, Week Four: 10 missed tackles
- at Bills, Week Five: 10 missed tackles
As you can see, that’s 44 misses in the first five games last season. This season, Pittsburgh has missed 45 in the first five games, so just an increase of one.
Last season, the Steelers were solid in the first two weeks, but then things went off the rails with three straight double-digit missed tackles performances.
That hasn’t been the case so far this season for the Steelers. Overall, they’ve been quite sound. The 45 misses are largely skewed by dreadful showings in Week Two against the Browns (12 missed tackles) and Week Four against the Texans (14 missed tackles). Here’s how the Steelers look so far in 2023 in the missed-tackles department:
- vs. 49ers, Week One: 9 missed tackles
- vs. Browns, Week Two: 12 missed tackles
- at Raiders, Week Three: 4 missed tackles
- at Texans, Week Four: 14 missed tackles
- vs. Ravens, Week Five: 6 missed tackles
Though the Steelers’ missed tackles numbers are concerning, especially when seeing secondary pieces like Patrick Peterson (6 missed tackles), Minkah Fitzpatrick (5 missed tackles), Keanu Neal (5 missed tackles) and Levi Wallace (3 missed tackles) high on the charts, there is the opportunity for the Steelers to do what they did last season: bounce back in a major way in the tackling department in the second half of the season, cleaning up the mistakes and getting back to the high level of defense they played.
Last season after the Week Nine bye week, which the Steelers entered with 53 total missed tackles, Pittsburgh finished the season with 97 total misses in the 17-game season, giving you that 5.71 missed tackles per game number.
That means in the final nine games of the season, Pittsburgh missed just 44 total tackles, good for 4.88 misses per game — well below its season average. This season, Pittsburgh still has another 12 games to go, so expecting the Steelers to finish with the same 97 missed tackles — or less — seems like a bit of a stretch.
But the Steelers showed last season they could improve in the tackling department as the season went on; guys returned to action and mistakes got cleaned up. They’re going to need to do that again, starting Sunday in Los Angeles against the Rams.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin says tackling is something they’ve been working on in recent weeks. The Week Five showing against the Ravens was a good step in the right direction. They’ll have to show Sunday they can carry that out of the bye week and be more consistent tackling in the second half of the season.
