For fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, every game can feel like it’s a nail-biter, whether the team wins by 30 or loses by two. This season especially, winning “ugly” has been the team’s model and many have criticized the Steelers for being worse than what their record says. This is still the NFL though, the highest level of competition in the sport, and cliché as it is to say, any team can win on any given Sunday.
However, there are some aspects of the way that the Steelers play that could explain why winning looks ugly, with one glaring issue being the explosive plays allowed by the defense. Even before the season started, fans and experts believed that the Steelers would only go as far as the defense would take them. So far, that has surely been the case, with the offense struggling to find any kind of rhythm, but there are still moments where fans can’t do anything but throw their hands up and groan.
Whether it’s a giving up a 3rd-and-long conversion, a long touchdown pass, or something else that feels like it halts any momentum the team had, the Steelers seem unable to shake this explosive-play issue. Luckily, it seems that this is a problem the team is aware of and trying to minimize, as defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was recently asked how the defense is still allowing plays of this nature despite its improvement. He pointed to the most recent game against the Bengals to give examples of plays he and the team are trying to eliminate.
“Last week we had a tipped ball that went for 30-plus,” Austin told reporters via a team-issued transcript. “We had a scramble situation where we missed a sack, and it ended up being a big play.”
Austin was referring to this 31-yard completion to Cincinnati Bengals WR Ja’Marr Chase. QB Jake Browning’s pass hit off the hand of LB Mykal Walker in underneath coverage, but the ball bounced into Chase’s hands anyway. Catching the defense off-guard, he ran down the right sideline for one of the Bengals’ biggest plays of the day. Something similar happened later in the game, though Chase’s second tipped catch gained just nine yards.
At another point, CB Chandon Sullivan rushed in free off the edge on a corner blitz. Unblocked, he missed the sack attempt on Browning, who completed the pass downfield. Tack on T.J. Watt’s needless roughing the passer penalty for a blatantly late hit and the Bengals turned bad field position into great one.
For Austin, eliminating this random and sometimes funky “popcorn” is the key for the Steelers’ defense to play at an even higher level.
“I think for us we have to try to not shoot ourselves in the foot and make the plays that we can,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work at that. That is a problem. I think that’s really the difference in us being a real lockdown defense and sometimes team gets out on us and us losing the field position battle.”
It’s encouraging to hear Austin acknowledge this, as it seems like one of the last major snags the team is always caught on. If the team wants to make a deep playoff push, plays like the tipped passes against the Bengals cannot be as common as they have been. Playoff-bound teams such as the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins, and Jacksonville Jaguars will take advantage of any spark of misfortune and turn it into a full-blown wildfire.
There is a bright side to this situation though, as the Steelers will be getting former All-Pro Minkah Fitzpatrick back this weekend. Fitzpatrick has been one of the best safeties in the league since coming to the Steelers, and while nothing is certain, it feels safe to say that his return will help put an end to the explosive-play problem. Just as well, the Steelers have a favorable schedule going forward, giving them an opportunity to prove that they can put this worry to bed and give fans confidence going into the playoffs.
