The Pittsburgh Steelers have allowed far too many explosive plays over the last two weeks, with Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott completing five passes of 20 or more yards against them on Sunday night. The defense has operated more like a turnover-dependent, “bend but don’t break” unit instead of the all-around elite unit that it looked like through the first three weeks. Struggles at the slot cornerback position are one thing, but the communication issues in the secondary that have popped up over the past few weeks lead to even more questions.
During his weekly press conference, Mike Tomlin was asked about the defense giving up explosive plays against Dallas. Tomlin gave Dak Prescott his flowers but did not let his defense off the hook.
“We didn’t manage communication well enough,” said Tomlin. “I love Acrisure Stadium. It is an asset to us. It makes things challenging for opposing offenses, but we respect it also because it makes things challenging from a communication perspective oftentimes for us as a defense. I didn’t think our communication at times was up to snuff.”
The Steelers have one of the best home-field advantages in the NFL. When the sun goes down, illuminating the Pittsburgh skyline, and thousands of Terrible Towels are waving in unison, it’s hard to imagine many environments that are louder or more distracting for players and coaches.
Even with a rain delay of over an hour on Sunday night, Steelers fans stuck around to support their team in an ugly, low-scoring game that came down to the last play. The noise of the Steelers fans has led to tons of false starts and other communication issues for opposing offenses over the years. It’s certainly interesting to hear Tomlin comment on the reverse effect of the crowd noise and how it influences defensive communication.
After Sunday’s game, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick discussed the communication issues in the secondary, referring to them as “easy fixes.” But back-to-back weeks with multiple blown coverages leading to wide-open receivers and chunk plays might reveal this to be a larger concern than he’s making it.
The Steelers have a lot of new players starting in their secondary, including cornerback Donte Jackson, safety DeShon Elliott, and slot cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. It takes time for a secondary to develop chemistry, and it isn’t easy when facing veteran quarterbacks like Joe Flacco and Dak Prescott, who are exceptional at reading defenses and exploiting communication errors. The Steelers will face a variety of quarterbacks down the road who are more than capable of reading a defense, such as Aaron Rodgers and the Jets in just two weeks.
Acrisure Stadium is going to be as loud as ever — and that’s the way we want it — so the Steelers will have to fix their communication issues in practice the next few weeks. It will start with Fitzpatrick’s leadership, and I expect the four-time Pro-Bowler to get the job done and fix these mistakes.
