The Pittsburgh Steelers had plenty of chances to walk out of Acrisure Stadium with a win on Sunday. Unfortunately, due to several errors, they ended up losing to the Seattle Seahawks, 31-17. The biggest turning point came when Kaleb Johnson did not retrieve the ball on a kickoff, allowing the Seahawks to fall on it in the end zone for a touchdown. Such unforced errors lead some to suspect poor coaching from special teams coordinator Danny Smith.
On his Deebo & Joe podcast, former Steeler Joe Haden defended Smith.
“He teaches that,” Haden said. “Danny Smith does not, not teach that stuff. Because I used to be the returner in that meeting room. He would teach us about the keeping your foot out of bounds, all of that stuff. Just the little nuances that you wouldn’t really know, he would definitely teach us all of that stuff.”
Haden’s words mean something since he was in those meetings. And no matter what Smith is talking about in practice, any professional football player should know that’s a live ball. The kickoffs and landing zones have been tweaked plenty in recent years, but at no point has the kickoff not been a live ball, whether it’s touched or not, where Johnson tried to catch it.
Still, the Steelers have had a few of these issues under Danny Smith over the years. Our Alex Kozora compiled three in a post on X on Monday.
To be fair, the first of these plays is more of a bad bounce, and while still unacceptable, the players seem to realize they need to get on the ball. However, the second is eerily similar to Johnson’s gaffe on Sunday. The Steelers make no attempt to catch the ball or go after it once it hits the ground.
Bottom line, these are inexcusable errors. The Steelers cannot afford to be giving away seven points when the offense can’t get anything going and the defense is getting gashed against the run. That play extended Seattle’s lead to 10, and the Steelers never really came close to digging out of that hole.
It’s a long season, and Johnson only has two NFL games under his belt. He’ll recover and will hopefully have plenty of great moments in the future.
