The Pittsburgh Steelers were supposed to have a defense that was top of the league this year. While they have played to that level at times, the last three weeks have been disastrous. They allowed 27 points twice and 29 to the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day.
Injuries have contributed to the defense’s poor play, but a bigger issue is repeated communication breakdowns. The Steelers have allowed receivers to run wide-open with no defender nearby. When it’s not a receiver running past, it’s tight ends like Travis Kelce working his way over the middle and nobody picking him up.
Pittsburgh has had communication issues in years past, but it has never been this bad. Steelers beat writer Ray Fittipaldo joined WMBS 590’s Sportsline with George Von Benko and offered up the idea that LB Patrick Queen, who wears the green dot, is central to the communication crisis.
“You heard early in the season, new guy calling the shots in the middle of the defense, there were gonna be some brilliant things,” said Fittipaldo. “And there were. But the fact that Patrick is the hub of communication in the middle of the defense, and there’s all these issues now with that. I think it speaks to maybe something that’s going on there. Maybe the coaches, George, maybe they just have to simplify things.”
Patrick Queen was Pittsburgh’s star free agent signing, and he has played well this year. But Fittipaldo makes a good point that these communication issues cannot be ignored. Sure, the Steelers had some issues last year, too, when they were going through an injury crisis at linebacker, but it wasn’t this bad. It especially shouldn’t have been this bad with Patrick Queen calling the plays all year.
Given that we can’t be in the Steelers meeting rooms, we probably won’t know if the communication issues fall on Queen or others. What we do know is that this cannot happen in the playoffs. These communication issues have to be sorted out. Whether that be taking the player who is messing up his assignments off the field or simplifying the calls, something has to be done.
Communication issues can be acceptable early in the year, but for this to happen at the end of the season is unacceptable. Every training camp, we hear players preach the importance of communication. But the team is in Week 18 and still trying to fix things. If the issue is Patrick Queen, the Steelers may have to take the green dot away from him and just let him chase the ball.
