One troubling mini-trend this year is the Pittsburgh Steelers defense not coming through in the clutch. Pittsburgh’s defense blew both the Cleveland Browns game and Dallas Cowboys game this year by allowing late fourth quarter game-winning scores. Although they beat the Baltimore Ravens and held them off on a two-point attempt, they did allow them to march down the field at the end of the fourth quarter and score a touchdown with a chance to tie the game.
If Pittsburgh is going to make a playoff run, their highly-paid defense is gonna have to buckle down more. Steelers beat writer Gerry Dulac was on the Steelers Wrap Up Show and blamed Pittsburgh’s defense for the loss on Thursday, highlighting the troubling trend of allowing late touchdowns.
“The fact that they came back from 18-6 down, in those weather conditions, to me was remarkable,” said Dulac. “They take the lead at 19-18 and the defense once again, it’s the third time in six games, they failed to close out the game. I mean, they got away with it at Baltimore, but they’re not shutting the team down at the end when they have the opportunity, and it happened again against the Browns. The lowest-scoring team in the AFC…To me, it was a failure of the defense to close that game out after the offense came back in that snowstorm.”
While it may seem like nitpicking for getting on the Steelers defense for only losing two games and holding the touchdown they allowed against the Ravens against them even though the defense held Baltimore on the crucial two-point conversion, Dulac has a good point. Pittsburgh’s offense was not expected to win games for the team this year. The defense has been given favorable situations a lot this year, and they have folded now twice against bad teams.
The Steelers defense is going to have to hunker down and get back to slamming doors shut in fourth quarter, game-clinching situations. In the playoffs, if Pittsburgh is competitive, it will inevitably come down to a team driving late in the fourth quarter. Those teams will be better than Cleveland and Dallas. Pittsburgh’s offense has not proven to be able to go score-for-score with teams, their defense is going to have to play better and close games out.
Pittsburgh’s defense will have the opportunity to bounce back against the Cincinnati Bengals and QB Joe Burrow next week which should be a big test. The Bengals offense is high flying, meaning the defense will need to make key stops. If Pittsburgh’s defense can show up against Cincinnati, it may go a long way in quieting the haters.
