There is one reason and one reason only that the Pittsburgh Steelers have managed to survive for as long as they have up to this point in the season. That is their turnover margin: protecting the football on offense while making splash plays on defense.
They are 6-2 when they win the turnover battle and 1-4 when they don’t. And that one win was two weeks ago against the Cincinnati Bengals when each team turned the ball over once. But there’s more to it than that. The truth is the defense this year has been bad when the offense turns it over. And Cameron Heyward knows it.
“That sudden change, I don’t think we handle those well”, the team captain said after Thursday’s loss to the New England Patriots, via the team’s website. “That was something we really needed to adjust from the game before. A couple times we were on a short field—we had actually a long field where we didn’t get a touchdown on offense in the game before, and so they had a 99-yard drive, and we didn’t get off”.
The Steelers have only turned the ball over 11 times this season, but only once have they forced a punt following a quick-change possession, which was in that Bengals game. While they have allowed only three touchdowns, opponents have produced points nine times off of their 11 giveaways, including one missed field goal.
They have also allowed multiple touchdowns when turning the ball over on downs, which includes the 99-yard drive to which Heyward referred. “We talk about absorbing that and getting back, and I don’t think we absorb it”, he said.
The Steelers entered this season understanding that, in all likelihood, a disproportionate amount of the burden was going to fall on their defense. It was the offense’s job just to protect the football and not get in the defense’s way.
Granted, in some of those situations, when an offense takes over in or near field goal range, there’s only so much a defense can do to mitigate the damage. But that doesn’t apply to most situations. Only a few instances in which they didn’t allow touchdown began in Steelers territory, and the only one that began inside the 45 resulted in a missed field goal.
And it obviously goes both ways. It’s not as though the offense has done a good job of turning the defense’s takeaways into points, let alone touchdowns. But everybody knew that was going to be easier said than done.
It’s the defensive side of the ball that is supposed to be the reliable unit. While the Steelers have largely kept scores down this year after the initial stretch of games, they have struggled to limit the damage in these quick-change situations, and that’s been catching up with them in recent weeks when they’re not taking the ball away in turn.
