The Teryl Austin/Defense Complaint Thread (2025)

ok, speaking from the 50+ year experience of watching this team-

If you ever wondered what it is was like in the early 80's, when Bradshaw was still good but the defense got old and slow- then it was like the game today.

 

Maybe we didn't spend enough on defense. Thinking we need spend more and for sure that will work.

 

It's definitely early. But the Eagles and Ravens certainly created the recipe teams will try to emulate. And this totally isn't completely on the IDL, but they're not blameless. Our ILBs were routinely out of position and almost never covered the B Gap. If this isn't rectified, then this will be a very long season. Good news is we do have time to rectify this and Yahya will only get better with reps and Harmon will return soon, but the ILBs need to step up.

 

Poor,poor ILB play!

 

Schematically this defense has been predictable for the better part of the last 15years, from the tail end of Lebeau, all of the Butler years, right through to Austin now.
Said it before, the D has cancelled out a few HOF offensive weapons we've had over that period of time and left a couple of SB rings on the table

 

This was the worst game vs the run by the defense I remember since the Dalvin Cook/Vikings debacle in 2021. Vikings and Cook racked up 242 yards of rushing that game. Steelers lost 36-28.

I have been watching the Steelers regularly since the early 80's when I was a kid... and I didn't remember the bad Steelers teams of '85-'88 giving up that many yards on the ground.

This Jets game was close to Vikings in yards given up... but we somehow won.

 

It has now been our last 5 to 6 games that our defense has been terrible.
Something has to change.

 

The 2021 run defense were 32nd.It was awful!

They are in trouble this year if this is the same thing

 

I told a bunch of my buddies in a group text that I hoped they had Breece Hall on their fantasy teams. Dude was a beast today.

 

The run defense wasn't this bad from '80-'83. Not even close.

Wait until Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson get a hold of this D.

 

I'd place more blame on Heyward and Benton. They were getting pushed around in the trenches all day. When the DL gets blown up on every play it makes the ILB's job much harder. This didn't happen with Smith > Hampton > Kiesel.

Look at the Ravens 2000 D line that won the Super Bowl... one of the best DLs ever. Siragusa and company made life easy for Ray Lewis. Likewise with Eagles 2024 D line with Jalen Carter, etc.

 

299 rushings yards....

 

Similar to the early 80s with respect to our defense and running game of today. Injuries creeped up on our D-line back then with LC and Mean Joe, along with Franco. Any reason why Bradshaw's pass stats spiked up exponentially, especially 80-82 because of a slowing run game and aging D, meant more shootouts, similar to today. But don't remember D being this bad against the run back then.

 

The seahawks with under 200 offensive yards with 2 minutes left vs 49ers....If the steelers defense are bad against this offense,it will be a huge red flag

 

Maybe start to consider sprinkling Holcomb in there a bit more as well.

 

Did You forget the Jags games in the later 1990s .

 

Ok. But....Payton Wilson and Patrick Queen are the 1st team ILBs. They both played very well today. I'm rooting for Holcomb. He lost his spot in TC though.

 

This defense isn’t really built to stop anyone anymore, just to slow them down enough to outlast them.

I don’t know what it is, but they have missing impact play from the middle of the defense for a really long time now.. NT, ILB, S…

I feel our defense is like the Colts defense of the Manning days, was pretty good during the regular season, it lived and died on the success of their edge rusher (no unique blitzes), but it folds in the post season because they just line up and try to beat you with sheer athleticism…

I’m just not seeing much strategy.

 

Fred Taylor. ::shudder::

 

Our front line got pushed around today, except for maybe Watt. The rest including highsmith just sucked today.

and Slay is proving to be a liability. I didnt like bringing in a CB on the wrong side of 30. With Ramsey it might be working out cause he can play safety as well but Slay? I dont know what they were thinking there.

 

Fred Taylor was nothing compared to Dalvin Cook in '21 and Breece Hall yesterday. Again Steelers defenses get abused under the Popcorn regime.

 

Steelers should have traded Queen and kept Roberts. Queen has not lived up to his contract. His tackles usually come 5 yards too late and he seems always flat footed at the snap.

Need an ILB that can bring it:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kVlDZVv5Yrk

 

similar to Devin Bush

 

I liked Spillane, but it is time yo see more of Holcomb. He is stronger against the run. Wilson seems a little light in there.

 

happens too much these days.

Harmon may help, we will see SOON.

Neglected this D line a LONG TIME.

he and Yahya , we will see soon!

Tomlins D is STALE, said that for years. Austin is a pawn of MT, but you knew that.....