After the first few weeks of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense appeared to be on the path to greatness. Since then, they’ve stumbled and rebounded multiple times over. But the recent issues in back-to-back weeks against the Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens have one former head coach questioning everything.
“Their defense, is it really as good as we think?” Rex Ryan said Monday via ESPN’s Get Up. “Last two weeks they’ve given up 61 points, 819 yards. Are we sure this defense is great? I’m not so sure.”
Beyond the failures of the past two games, there have been a handful of questionable games or specific moments throughout the season. You can lump in the Cincinnati Bengals game from a few weeks ago. A great defense wouldn’t have allowed 38 points and forced Russell Wilson to win in a shootout.
There was also the loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Inexplicably one of the worst rushing offenses in the league got going against the Steelers and with a four-point lead in the fourth quarter they allowed a 15-play touchdown drive to lose the game.
The Steelers’ defense is still a good defense, but greatness is reserved for a select few. There have been too many bad games or bad moments now to describe the Steelers’ defense as “great.”
Entering the final two weeks of the season, they are tied for sixth in scoring allowed at 19.9 points per game and they just fell out of the top 10 in total defense with 323.4 yards per game allowed.
Some of it can be rationalized, like the fact that Donte Jackson, DeShon Elliott, Larry Ogunjobi, and Joey Porter Jr. were missing for some or all of the last two games. But every team is dealing with injuries this time of year and the great units overcome them.
A better counterpoint is the fact that complementary football went out the window with George Pickens’ injury. He has been out for the last three games and the offense suddenly can’t possess the ball. The defense has been left out to dry with how much it has been asked to play.
The defense has spent over 72 minutes on the field over the last two games combined. After 77 snaps against the Eagles, it played 62 against the Ravens for a combined 139 snaps. That’s an awful lot in a six-day span, especially with a third game just four days later to complete the gauntlet.
When at full strength on both sides of the ball, the defense can be great at times. But I don’t think anybody will be reflecting on the 2024 defense as one of the great ones in franchise history when it’s all said and done.
