The Pittsburgh Steelers held a joint practice with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday ahead of their impending preseason game Saturday. CB Brandin Echols didn’t think the team’s performance was up to snuff. Speaking to the media after practice, Echols said the Steelers need to be better on Saturday.
“We [need to] come out, way better energy, way better swag, way better communication. We just gotta show that we a dominant group on Saturday,” Echols said via 93.7 The Fan.
While reports on the practice are limited, it doesn’t seem as if the Steelers’ defense had the best day. Echols clearly wasn’t happy with the group’s work. The Steelers weren’t resting anyone on Thursday. Mike Tomlin said in his press conference earlier in the day via the team’s YouTube channel that all who were healthy would play. It was Pittsburgh’s starting defense, then, that seemed to have problems.
With most of the starters not playing in the preseason opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars, it was their first chance for any sort of real competition against another team. Echols played well in the preseason opener, but he felt the group’s performance on Thursday wasn’t up to the team’s standard.
The Steelers have quite the collection of talent on defense. In fact, Mike Tomlin said earlier this week it’s a unit that could be “historic.” The defense also played well throughout training camp, but their first taste of real competition didn’t go well. Last year, the Steelers’ secondary struggled with communication issues down the stretch. Echols’s account of the day sounds like the energy was minimal and the communication lagged.
It’s still early so there’s nothing really to panic about, but it sounds as if the defense needs to figure things out ahead of Week 1. One bad practice doesn’t indicate they will struggle, but the team must bring the energy and work cohesively. Even though a joint practice is more game-like than a regular practice, it still might be hard to bring the same juice that the team would to a game. This lack of energy could be a reason for the purported struggles during practice.
The Steelers will have a chance to right the ship on Saturday, albeit without a lot of key starters. But with almost a month until Week 1, there is plenty of time to figure things out.
