The Pittsburgh Steelers played as bad defensively as they have all season in their 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals last Thursday night, and LB Patrick Queen is ready to put the performance behind him.
“It’s the NFL. Sometimes it happens, even though you don’t want it to. Sometimes it’s ugly, but at the end of the day, it’s NFL. They get paid to play, their coaches get paid to coach. We just gotta make the plays, go out there and execute better,” Queen said Monday via Chris Adamski of TribLive on Twitter.
If Thursday was the Steelers’ first poor defensive performance of the year, it would be a lot easier to flush it and chalk it up to life in the NFL. But the reality is that the defense has been bad more than it’s been good. The Steelers have allowed 30 points in three of their six games this season, they’ve struggled against the run, and when they aren’t getting pressure, teams have thrown all over them.
It’s a talented defense, and the Steelers have had games where they’ve played up to par. Even though they allowed 369 yards, they forced five turnovers in Week 3. They were solid in Week 4 and good in Week 6 before collapsing in Week 7. It’s not as if this is a group that can’t turn things around, but it wasn’t just a bad one-off performance, and that makes it worrisome.
The Steelers are going up against a Green Bay Packers team on Sunday that has a plethora of weapons at receiver and one of the league’s best running backs in Josh Jacobs. It’s a huge test, and Pittsburgh absolutely has to step up defensively. If Queen thinks that this team can just flush the loss against the Bengals and then go out and play better on Sunday, then prove it.
For a team whose defense has always been its hallmark, the Steelers are lagging in that department right now. It’s inexcusable to score 31 points and still lose, and Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin need to fix things before they continue to spiral, while the on-field execution needs to be a lot better. Maybe the Bengals game was a wake-up call and we’ll see a motivated defense the rest of the season, but it’s far and away the biggest concern for this team right now.
