PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Mike Tomlin prides himself on the ‘next man up’ mentality and still does, but he did admit injuries are a part of the defensive problem with little time to correct mistakes.
Following a game where they were pushed around, run around, run over by the Ravens, Tomlin admitted not having key players impacted what transpired. The one player who affects both the pass and run game is safety DeShon Elliott. It forces the defense to put different guys in different spots and it’s been an issue.
“That creates some complexities to already a complex discussion in terms of the gap integrity and the tackling and the communication around some of those attacks,” Tomlin explained. “But we should be better this time of year.”
The Steelers head coach said he was ‘really displeased’ with the pair of red zone touchdowns to the tight ends Saturday.
“It's just too late in the year to have guys running open like that, to be quite honest with you, and so we’ve got some work to do this week in terms of shoring some of that up,” Tomlin said.
Both were miscommunications within the secondary as Isaiah Likely was able to come off the line of scrimmage wide open for an untouched walk-in TD and Mark Andrews, with 49 career touchdowns, was left unchecked in the back of the end zone with no one picking him up.
There is the potential to get Elliott and corner Donte Jackson back this week, but corner Joey Porter, Junior is probably out with a knee injury.
“Injuries play a part, but the guys that went in have played before,” said Steelers captain Cam Heyward. “I will never discount what they do. We just didn’t get the job done.”
“We are going to be in good position,” said Steelers corner Cory Trice. “We just got to make sure we communicate to make sure what everybody is doing so when everything comes up we know what is going on.”
“We all know our job. We know what we need to do. We just got to execute. It’s going to come.”
Derrick Henry controlled the game Saturday. Kansas City’s Kareem Hunt is not that type of running back, but if he has sustained success it’s going to make the Chiefs nearly impossible to beat.
They need to be in their gaps. They need to do their jobs, but as important they must believe the player next to them will do theirs. A player trying to be Superman is likely going to hurt this defense more than help it.
“I think that's always the case when you're missing some people, and we were missing some people (Saturday),” Tomlin said. “People trying to do too much, creating issues in terms of communication or lack of fluidity. We’ve just got to be on it. We’ve got to take care of our responsibilities and trust that others are doing the same.”
It’s the highest paid defense in the NFL by a wide margin. They aren’t earning their money. The Steelers needs those returning to get them back to being an elite group. They’re paid like it.