Blocking and tackling. Those are football’s core elements. The Steelers did little of either in Sunday’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, a host of Steelers’ defensive players offered the same rationale for their defeat.
“We kind of beat ourselves,” CB Beanie Bishop Jr. said via the team website Tuesday. “We can’t go out there and play less physical than guys. We missed a lot of tackles and things like that. We got guys to the ball but weren’t making the tackles. Communication is key. We weren’t communicating as well as we have been in past weeks. They kind of gave us a little bit of tempo and hurry-up.”
Per our Josh Carney, Pittsburgh missed 20 tackles against Philadelphia. Linebackers Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, and Nick Herbig “led” the way with three misses apiece. The secondary had their fair share, too. A pair from CB Donte Jackson and CB Joey Porter Jr., while three others missed once.
It allowed the Eagles to extend drives and control the clock en route to nearly possessing the ball for 40 minutes. Twice, RB Kenneth Gainwell escaped tacklers to convert on third down while QB Jalen Hurts broke a tackle on a long 23-yard designed run up the middle.
Communication breakdowns are more complicated to quantify but just as evident on tape. WR Devonta Smith got open on a crosser for a big gain, with Bishop possibly having a breakdown in coverage. Gainwell also got free underneath and nearly scored. The Steelers consistently played a step behind the Eagles.
“It just comes down to execution and communication,” rookie LB Payton Wilson said. “It’s very simple. Stuff that we thought that we fixed from the beginning of the season kind of showed back up.”
Pittsburgh had breakdowns early in the season, most notably in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4. The Steelers played buttoned-up for the past several weeks, and the results followed. Entering Week 15, they had a top-five scoring defense that took a ding after allowing 27 to the Eagles. Had the clock not run out, they would’ve given up more.
From rookies to veterans, the answers were the same.
“Some mistakes on our end,” DT Cam Heyward told reporters. “Poor tackling. Communication-wise and our execution was just not up to par.”
The margin of error will be slim against the Baltimore Ravens, a team capable of winning in a similar fashion to Philadelphia. Pittsburgh does have quarterback Lamar Jackson’s number, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a big game or make a matchup-altering play.
The Ravens will have the benefit of being at home, while the Steelers’ defense has been leakier on the road. At Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh is allowing just 16.8 points per game. On the road, that number spikes to 21.5. The Steelers need to be below that number on Saturday. Blocking, tackling, and communicating will go a long way toward achieving that.
