This defense may have the talent and potential to do “historic” things, as Mike Tomlin put it, but potential is meaningless until it’s realized on Sundays. The Pittsburgh Steelers very nearly lost their Week 1 game, and blame would have fallen squarely on their $162.8 million defense.
T.J. Watt discussed what went wrong and how they can correct it on 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann.
“It’s just getting back to doing our job,” Watt said. “Each individual guy doing our job, so collectively we can play as fast and as fluid as we want to. All film is good film, whether it’s a win or loss. And although we won the game last week, we did a lot of things that we felt like weren’t Steelers football and that we’ve had all week to correct.”
His explanation may seem trite, but playing assignment-sound football on defense really can make or break a unit. If one of the 11 players doesn’t do their job, it can result in a negative play. And you know this is something being discussed in the meeting room because Juan Thornhill said something very similar about the unit this week.
Whether it’s a defensive lineman chasing tackles and vacating his two-gap responsibilities, or an inside linebacker drifting out of his gap, this can leave the defense vulnerable. That’s especially the case against a mobile quarterback like Justin Fields.
Our Alex Kozora broke down some of the issues on run defense. I recommend checking out that film breakdown for an in-depth look at what went wrong. The good news is the issues are correctable.
“We’ll have a great practice today and hopefully come out Sunday looking like a much different, much more effective defense,” Watt said.
If the Steelers want to live up to Tomlin’s “historic” label, the defense must turn potential into production by playing disciplined, assignment-sound football. The talent is there, the fixes are within reach, and with reinforcements on the way, Week 1 can serve as more of a wake-up call than a warning sign.
