PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – For as great as they thought this defense can be, you are starting to hear Steelers defensive players question fight, urgency, buy-in after the Steelers gave up 35 points, 28 in the second half along with 454 yards in a 10-point loss to the Packers Sunday night.
“You got to handle adversity a lot better,” said Steelers captain Cam Heyward. “Big plays were the death of us today. You’re not going to be perfect out there, but you got to keep fighting. I just think there’s a lot of ball and not enough fight on our side.”
“We can’t let penalties or stuff that goes against you affect your heart in the game. When you have a love affair with this game, there always has to be a buy-in. How can you affect the next play? You got to let what happened before, go. That’s just how this game works. If you continue to feel sorry for yourself, it’s going to avalanche.”
“I think it just comes down to understanding situations, doing your job, and doing it at a high level,” said linebacker Patrick Queen. “Just playing with a sense of urgency. I think when you understand the situations, and understand the formations, at the end details are keys. I think that’s the part that we got to be better at. We just got to lock in on the details, do what we do , and just be better.”
“You know, we all have to own it,” said head coach Mike Tomlin admitting that coaching is a part of this. “Certainly, you start with the schematics because that's the leadership component of it, and certainly we’ll be looking at everything that we’re doing, man, because some of those problems are somewhat repetitive. We’re not getting better fast enough.”
It was also the Steelers third straight game without a turnover, which Queen said means they have to hunt the ball better.
Just like the yards the Packers gained, the comments kept coming from the Steelers locker room late Sunday night.
“We just didn’t finish,” said corner Joey Porter, Junior. “We need to fight more. We need to finish more. I feel like it’s all of us.”
“It’s embarrassing to come out like that and play the way we did,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “Just to put two performances like that back-to-back, it’s just embarrassing. It’s not the standard. We got to fix it ASAP.”
“We got to play better, a lot better and fast.”
“Guys being out of position, including myself,” said safety Juan Thornhill. “Not making plays we are supposed to be making, that was pretty much it. We got to eliminate the small communication issues that we've been having."
“I don’t think we handle adversity,” Heyward said. “I think that second half split open. You got to have answers for it. Part of being a professional is fixing your mistakes fast and answering those problems. I think this is a lesson we all can learn from. Hopefully it hits home fast.”
“I think just owning it. If you can own your mistake and make sure it disappears, it can go a long way.”
“It sucks,” Queen said. “It sucks. You want to put it all together in games. You go through practice all week and have a good practice, and it don’t work out in the game. So it definiteIy sucks, but I think at the end of the day, we’re going to be better. It’s a long season.”
That’s the talk we’ve heard most of. How much talent they have and how good they are. But only sporadically have we seen it on the field. There is hope they will improve but with each game, it seems more and more like just talk.