Poor individual performance and bad scheme is one thing. Basic football miscues are another. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense had plenty of both in Sunday night’s loss to the Green Bay Packers. A second half collapse that saw all of the above. In arguably the lowest moment that summed up the problems. Pittsburgh’s defense had just 10 men on the field for the Packers’ two-point conversion to go ahead 22-19, helping get WR Romeo Doubs wide open for the easy score.
Speaking to reporters after the game, Tomlin explained what went wrong.
“Echols was in for Slay,” Tomlin told reporters post-game via the team’s YouTube channel. “Echols thought that they were going for one. I think he came off the field because he is not on field goal block, and we weren’t able to get the transitional component of that.”
We pointed out the error in our post-game film review. The only person who seemed to spot the issue was safety Chuck Clark, waving to the sideline to try and get the message across. It never landed and Love found Doubs all alone on the left side.
Like every NFL defense, the Steelers are far more multiple than they used to be. The unit plays 15-plus people per game even before considering the impact in-game injuries can have. Against Green Bay, 20 different defenders logged at least one snap.
That stresses the need to communicate rotating personnel, especially as Pittsburgh split up Darius Slay’s snaps for the first time all season. Echols subbed in for him for two drives, including that particular one, and came off the field not realizing he was needed for the two-point play.
“That happens from time to time when you’re rolling a lot of people. You never like it. But the reality is the more people you play, the more complex rotations are, particularly when rotations get abnormal.”
It’s a more difficult task than it once was, but Tomlin can’t make convenient excuses for it. Having ten players in a critical moment, a play that will determine if Pittsburgh is trialing by one or three, isn’t acceptable. Blame falls directly on the coaching staff. Positional coaches are most-often in charge of handling rotations, meaning DBs Coach Gerald Alexander must do a better job. But DC Teryl Austin and Tomlin himself must also catch these problems and correct them, even as Tomlin praised Austin’s overall performance.
This is not a new occurrence for Pittsburgh. Combing through our defensive charting, this is the sixth time since 2021 the Steelers’ defense has had just 10 men on the field for a snap. That doesn’t even count moments where Pittsburgh took the field with 10 and called timeout before the play or instances where the Steelers had 12 men on the field. It happened in Week 15 of last season against the Philadelphia Eagles, though the Steelers still won the down thanks to T.J. Watt’s forced fumble on QB Jalen Hurts.
It occurred in back-to-back weeks in 2023 against the Cincinnati Bengals and Arizona Cardinals, against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022, and against the Green Bay Packers in 2021.
For a defense reeling with so many issues, the Steelers are compounding problems. When players aren’t playing well, everything else must be buttoned up. Communication must be clear. Effort must be high. Blunders like having 10 men can’t happen. Pittsburgh’s problems are mounting – fast – and Mike Tomlin has to get control of a defense that feels rudderless.
