Last year, part of the reason for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ collapse was their inability to stop the run. Sure enough, that beast roared its ugly head again on Sunday. While the Steelers crawled out of MetLife Stadium with a win, nearly their entire front seven struggled. Former NFL CB Devin McCourty is specifically worried about the lack of physicality with the Steelers’ linebackers.
“My biggest concern with Pittsburgh is, from their linebacker position, they’re athletic freaks,” McCourty said on Chris Simms Unbuttoned on Monday. “When you look at Payton Wilson and you look at Patrick Queen, they’re not real thumpers. You play against offenses like the Jets, that say we want to run, and we want to run downhill. I think that’s gonna be a little bit of a struggle.”
It certainly was a struggle on Sunday. Payton Wilson steps into a starting role for the first time this year, and his debut against the Jets was fine, but nothing extraordinary. He had five tackles, with one of them being for a loss. However, he didn’t make as much of an impact as some had hoped.
Neither did Patrick Queen, as he would tell you himself. Queen’s stat line looked a little better, as he had eight total tackles and one QB hit. However, he was mostly invisible as well. His performance was mostly fine, but like Wilson, the Steelers’ linebackers didn’t do anything notable.
Playing ‘fine’ is okay when Aaron Rodgers throws four touchdowns and wills your team to a win. But against some of the more talented teams in the league, many of which the Steelers play later in the season, it’s not going to cut it.
From Wilson and Queen’s perspectives, their performances are disappointing. Wilson has high expectations in his first year as a starter, some of which are due to his own comments. The Steelers are hoping Queen can return to the high level of play he was at before they signed him after a somewhat disappointing first season in Pittsburgh. It’s safe to say neither got off to the best start on Sunday.
Some of it isn’t entirely their fault. For example, it probably isn’t easy to stop the run when the defensive line is getting shoved back into your face every play. That doesn’t change the fact that Pittsburgh must fix its problems, though. Right now, this is arguably their biggest. If the Steelers can get better play from their linebackers, it will go a long way towards accomplishing that feat.
