With the NFL season almost halfway over, there are still a lot of questions about the Pittsburgh Steelers. While they’re atop of AFC North, it’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll be actual contenders come playoff time. At times, the Steelers have looked great, with their offense and defense complementing each other. However, in their latest game, they looked more like pretenders than contenders. Their defense got pushed around in a 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, and Pete Prisco thinks age is the reason for that unit’s struggles.
“I didn’t think they were fool’s gold until the other day when that defense was horrible,” Prisco said Monday on the 2 Pros and a Cup of Joe podcast. “And you had a team in the Bengals who went into that game, had not rushed one rushing play over 13 yards on the entire season, and went in and ran it on them. Just gaping holes.
Then, you look at the passing defense. Jalen Ramsey looked terrible the other night. You look at that secondary, Darius Slay, Jalen Ramsey, Chuck Clark. It’s old and they played old and that’s a problem. T.J. Watt is not a kid. Cam Heyward’s not a kid. They have age issues on that defense.”
The age of many of the Steelers’ defensive stars was a major concern going into this season. Watt is 31, Heyward is 36, Slay is 34, and Ramsey is about to turn 31. Those players are all big parts of the Steelers’ defense, and some of them might be past their prime.
That issue was on full display against the Bengals. They’ve got a lot of talent at receiver, headlined by Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, and the Steelers struggled to contain them. Chase caught 16 passes for 161 yards and one touchdown, and Higgins caught six passes for 96 yards and a touchdown.
Also, the Bengals game against wasn’t the first time that the Steelers’ defense struggled this year. In Week 1, the New York Jets ran all over them. Then, in Week 2, Jaxon Smith-Njigba had a big day against them, catching eight passes for 103 yards.
After that, the Steelers looked like they were turning things around defensively, but that didn’t last. The Bengals’ high-powered offense exposed a lot of their flaws, and that was without Joe Burrow under center.
While there’s a lot of the season remaining, the Steelers’ defense better figure things out quickly. It’s set to face several more talented offenses. The Steelers have some aging stars, but they’ve shown that they can still be as good as they once were in big moments. If they can just show more consistency as a unit, then they might be able to fix things. That’s easier said than done, though.
