PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – You normally hear the cliché from the Steelers of getting back in the lab and fixing a problem. You heard it after giving up 27 points and 53% on third down last week to Indianapolis. This week giving up an end-of-the-game touchdown drive and allowing 60% on third down in a 20-17 loss at home to Dallas.
It’s the same problem two weeks in a row against a team that was middle-of-the-pack offensively. This Dallas team had struggled to run the ball, but did it efficiently enough to allow Dak Prescott to throw for 352 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Seems like the common theme, they weren’t on the same page. Look at how many Steelers defensive players, and even the coach, complained about communication.
“We just got to communicate and make sure everyone gets the same call,” said safety DeShon Elliott. “We got to play with more cohesiveness and once we do, we’ll be a much better team.”
“We got to find a way to limit the mistakes on defense to help out our offense.”
“Towards the end of the game they were running the ball well,” said safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. “We were allowing them to get a lot of yards after catch. Miscommunication, all stuff that usually we do at a high level, we didn’t do at a high-level tonight.”
Fitzpatrick said it simpler that guys just weren’t in the right spots.
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“We were beating ourselves the whole game with just little communications through the first half,” said corner Joey Porter, Junior. “It’s football, they got us on the last play. We are bitter about it, but there is nothing we can do now but work on it and learn from it.”
“I just thought early on I didn’t think that we were connected enough from a communications standpoint,” said head coach Mike Tomlin. “They paced us a little bit, but a lot of that’s go to do with Dak. He’s a veteran guy. He’s good in those moments.”
TJ Watt said similar things as Minkah, it started from their ability to run the ball on the Steelers, they finished with only 109 yards as a team, but it felt like more. They were able to make the two, three-yard runs for a first down that helped them score on a 16-play drive and a 15-play drive in the second half. Watt said Dallas out-executed the Steelers, as did the team’s defensive co-captain Cam Heyward.
“It’s fixable things, but it’s things we can’t keep doing,” Elliott said. “Some things are repetitive. Communication should never be a problem in a secondary or on a defense, period. We should have that. We see each other every day. We are with each other every day. That’s no excuse. Somebody got to make a play.”
Elliott took blame saying both of the touchdowns were on him, for plays he didn’t make. The TD pass to Jalen Tolbert, Elliott had the coverage. But it was more than just Elliott, who finished with nine tackles and a pass defended. Fitzpatrick went back to the theme of communication.
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“I think we have to over-emphasize it during the week,” Fitzpatrick said. “We got to practice with crowd noise the entire week. We have to make sure everybody knows what they are doing. We got to make sure everyone is on the same page. It’s a new secondary. A lot of new faces, younger faces. We may not have that chemistry we had in the past but it’s something we can work on.”
Corner Donte Jackson put it this way, ‘It felt like in the back end, there were almosts. Too many almosts.’
“We got to play simple defense,” Fitzpatrick said. “We got a lot of talent in the secondary. A lot of guys that can play man, play zone. We just got to simply the play call and allow us to play fast.”
“We can’t make excuses,” Watt said. “We just need to move forward and put out a better product.”
They face a struggling offense Sunday in Las Vegas, but then again, the Colts and Dallas had issues previously as well.
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