Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense is not exactly playing as well as they hyped themselves up to be. There are plenty of directions you can look to find something wrong. The bottom line is the unit just hasn’t been playing well enough. Now heading into the fourth week of the season, Steelers insider Mark Kaboly is pointing at the coaching staff for any further issues from here on out.
“Especially on the defensive side of the ball, a bunch of very talented players that should be able to get better as they get more reps together,” Kaboly said on his Kaboly + Mack show on Tuesday. “And if it does not work out right now, you point right to the coaching staff. This is getting to the point right now, where yes, you blame the coaches if this does not significantly get better, or at least incrementally better as the weeks go on. Because there is no excuse of not having the talent.”
With so many new faces, needing time to jell made sense after their terrible Week 1 performance, and it still might have made sense after Week 2. However, some of the same issues that plagued the unit in each of those games reared their ugly heads again in Week 3.
At this point, communication is arguably the biggest problem. The Steelers’ defense still has some work to do against the run. But they did look better in that department on Sunday. Against the pass, it wasn’t the same story. Even though T.J. Watt mentioned that they knew Drake Maye had a tough time diagnosing coverages, they still struggled to stop him. Maye completed 28 of his 37 passes for 268 yards and two touchdowns. There was even a time in the second half when he completed 12 straight passes.
Kaboly is right that the Steelers have the talent. Their defensive line had Cam Heyward, while Nick Herbig and Watt put together impressive performances in Foxboro. Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen should give them a high ceiling at linebacker, on paper. And we all know about the talented secondary they put together, although some injuries have hurt that unit.
Things do need to improve at least incrementally, as Kaboly states. To give the defense some credit, there was some improvement last week. They forced five turnovers and didn’t allow any of New England’s running backs to reach 30 rushing yards. Each was an aspect of the game in which they struggled through the first two weeks.
However, it’s got to change fast. The Jets, Seahawks and Patriots are far from the most talented offenses the Steelers’ defense will face this year. With quite a few tougher tests ahead of them, the coaching staff and the players will have to find some common ground soon.
