It’s the leaky defense stupid.

If the O line was good enough to sustain drives... the defense wouldn't be gassed by the 3rd quarter. There's way too many 3 and outs. Time of possession is terrible. Steelers offense hasn't been good since 2018.... and it wasn't that great then.

 

The offense is a issue of course but the other problem,in some game,the steelers defense are unable to leave the field...the opponents have so many long drive against this defense...Remember the second half of the eagles game when the steelers offense had only 2 drive in the second half because the defense could not leave the field...it was ugly.It was a problem vs cowboys too but the turnoveirrs in deep steelers territory save the steelers for a good part of the game.I can name other game like vs chiefs or ravens in the playoffs

 

But the steelers defense were on the field for 1034 plays last season,9th less in the NFL

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2024/opp.htm

On offense,they had 1081 plays,10th in the NFL

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2024/

 

I agree on some of this. The defense is highly overrated and should not be responsible for carrying the team by itself. Steelers in reality are a slightly above average defense that is nowhere near elite. Steelers defense hasn't been elite in 15 years.

 

Yeah,the only year that they were elite since 2011 was in 2019

 

I really shouldn't have written that because it was hateful even though it maybe true. There is enough hate in this world, and I shouldn't be adding more to it.

 

So because the D isn't elite in the playoffs that means that they weren't in the regular season.
Got it..
Then YOU same people stop talking about Dan Marino, Lamar Jackson, or Barry Sanders ever being elite.

 

Add to this the inability to coach up lesser players. You can't expect to draft and keep 1st (or even 2nd) round picks at every defensive position. Tomlin's defenses inordinately rely on highly drafted defensive players to make his schemes work. It would be nice if they could coach up more Day 2 or 3 picks into respectable starters.

 

Our QB play in Ben’s final 2 seaosnson, and since his retirement has been consistently below average, at best. Please show me another NFL team that has consistently won with the lack of quality QB play that the Steelers have had over that time period.

Now we can discuss who is at fault for not having better QB’s, but it is very, very hard to follow up a franchise QB with another great QB. Green Bay going from Favre to Rogers is really the only example I can think of. Usually there is a precipitous drop off for a decade or more.

 

Yep.


Depth is just as important as starting players. I'd argue it is more important. The NFL Season is a war of attrition.


Last man standing wins. Layman's terms?! Best Roster along with having the best depth across the board.


Philadelphia's recent string of Playoff Runs are no accident.

 

If the Steelers tackling is as bad in gm1 as it was in the last preseason game they are in trouble with the NYJ running game. Seriously, it looks like they were trying to tackle greased melons at one point.

 

Still a problem....

 

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.