The Pittsburgh Steelers played some sloppy defensive football in their 27-14 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15, and head coach Mike Tomlin admitted that missed tackles were a big factor in the game. In his postgame press conference, Tomlin said the Steelers didn’t do the “fundamental things” they needed to do to win.
“There were several possession downs on defense where we had opportunities to tackle ballcarriers in the flat and we missed those tackles, and that produced extended drives and thus points. And so that’s life in our business. It’s not anything mystical, it’s very fundamental. We gotta play disciplined, we gotta secure the ball, we gotta tackle, we didn’t do some of those fundamental things well enough tonight to secure victory,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
He added that he thought the missed tackles from the Steelers were “significant” in the game.
Pittsburgh allowed the Eagles to extend drives and pick up yards after the catch with their poor tackling in the flat. Donte Jackson missed one early on RB Kenneth Gainwell, and CB Joey Porter Jr. and LB Patrick Queen had a bad miss on RB Saquon Barkley that got Philadelphia to the one-yard line and allowed them to extend their lead to two scores.
Against a team as talented as the Eagles, those types of mistakes and lack of fundamentals aren’t going to be ok. The Steelers had to be at their best, and they weren’t good enough for long stretches and let the Eagles wear them down because the defense couldn’t consistently get off the field. Offensively, Najee Harris’ fumble was a mistake that can’t happen, and Harris said he just took his eye off the ball. That play gave the Eagles the ball back and a chance to extend their lead. Then they were aided by the poor tackling of Pittsburgh’s defense.
You can’t have a lack of fundamentals and beat a contending team, and the Steelers learned that the hard way today. They’ll need to clean things up for their matchup with the Baltimore Ravens in just six days, and that’s a game where the Steelers will have an opportunity to clinch the division. They won’t beat the Ravens and MVP candidate Lamar Jackson a second time if they miss as many tackles and play as sloppy as they did against the Eagles. There’s no doubt that Tomlin and the rest of the coaching staff are going to harp on their mistakes this week and ensure that it doesn’t happen to the degree it did today.
