The Pittsburgh Steelers have become fluent in embarrassment. One might think that was reserved for the offensive side of the ball, but it certainly is not exclusive, particularly lately. The defense has given up 20-plus points in three consecutive games, the first time that’s happened in over a year.
Moreover, while the Steelers held a horrible New England Patriots offense with no running backs to just 81 rushing yards, they surrendered 150 on the around to the Arizona Cardinals and then 170 on Saturday to the Indianapolis Colts—and the Colts got all of four carries from their top two backs. It’s a deflating feeling for a unit that prides itself on “smashing the run”.
“It is”, OLB Alex Highsmith admitted following Saturday’s game, via Dale Lolley of the team’s website. “As a defense, we pride ourselves on stopping the run. To do that, it’s unacceptable. I’m tired of feeling like this after games. We’ve got three opportunities left. We have to do whatever it takes to turn it around”.
While you will hear everyone in every corner of the locker room talk about how the buy-in within the group remains strong and that they remain confident that they can correct their problems, the fact remains that they repeat on them like indigestion.
The defense benefited from an initial Cameron Heyward effect, the run game improving when he returned. In his first four games after coming back from a groin injury he suffered in the opener, the Steelers held their opponents to an average of 85.5 rushing yards per game.
In the three games that have followed, they are allowing 133.7 rushing yards per game, a number that looks much better than it should be simply thanks to the Patriots. They even managed to allow 300-plus total yards of offense to the Patriots, and 372 last week to the Colts. They had seemingly gotten the yardage issues under control until recently.
Up next is a revenge game for QB Jake Browning and the Cincinnati Bengals. They mustered just 222 yards of offense, including only 25 rushing yards, in their last meeting. That just so happened to be Browning’s first career start, but he’s been much better since then. In the last three games, he’s 79-of-103 for 953 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions.
It takes the Steelers half a season to allow five touchdown passes—another reason that it’s so concerning the defense can no longer hold up its end of the bargain. To hear a player like Highsmith talk about feeling deflated, being “tired of feeling like this after games”, is concerning.
Not because he feels that way, but because they are putting the results on the field that cause him to feel that way. Given what they’ve done, he should feel quite tired of it, as should every other defender in that locker room. The question is, how do you stop from repeating the same issues that cause that feeling?
