While the Pittsburgh Steelers defense has held opponents to 20 or less points in the last six games, the Steelers are 4-2 during that span and every game they’ve won has been close. The offense has struggled to step up and put teams away or make life easy for the defense, but captain and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward said Pittsburgh’s defense isn’t going to blame the offense for how they’ve played. Heyward said both units go through their struggles, and as a team, they need to find ways to win.
“As much as the defense is out there, there’s always a chance to make a play. Offense is gonna go through their struggles. Defense will go through their struggles. I think it’s selfish when you just try to say, ‘Oh man, we’re doing it all on defense, the offense needs to step up and do this.’ It’s a team game. Find ways to score, find ways to stop them,” Heyward said via Chris Adamski of TribLive.
Obviously, the Steelers felt like something had to change offensively, as they let go of offensive coordinator Matt Canada on Tuesday. The defense has done a good job forcing turnovers and keeping teams out of the end zone, but the offense hasn’t been able to capitalize and give the Steelers a win they can really feel good about. But Heyward doesn’t think the offense is to blame, and obviously the blame does fall on the team as a whole when the Steelers lose.
Every game, there’s something that a unit could do better. Against the Browns, Pittsburgh’s defense could’ve gotten the last stop in regulation instead of letting the Browns seamlessly drive down the field for the game-winning field goal. More of the blame should be placed on the offense, and it has, but inside the locker room, everyone has one common goal to win and they’re going to be upset with themselves and the play of their unit, whether offensive or defensive, when the team can’t pull it out.
Relying on the defense to continually make plays and score or consistently give the Steelers offense good field position isn’t fair, nor is it sustainable. The offense has to be better, and those players know it. Playing the blame game doesn’t do anyone any good though, especially in the locker room, and the defense is going to do all it can to help the offense out. The change in coordinator could provide a spark to the offense, and maybe we’ll see a more motivated team that comes out and plays a complete game this weekend.
The Steelers have the talent on both sides of the ball to be a playoff team and put teams away, but they’ve relied on winning ugly. As the defense has picked the offense up for much of the season, maybe we’ll see the offense under Eddie Faulkner and Mike Sullivan start to pick the defense up and not make life so tough on that unit. It’s a team game, and the Steelers will win and lose as a team. In the second half of the season, let’s hope we see a lot more winning than losing.
