With the Browns' victory over the Ravens Sunday in Cleveland, the Steelers now find themselves in last place in the AFC North despite being at .500 at 6-6-1.
Such is life in the AFC this season, where 12 of the 16 teams went into this week's games at .500 or better.
Despite their loss Thursday night to the Vikings in Minneapolis, the Steelers remain in the mix for the AFC playoffs. Even with Cleveland's victory, the Steelers remain two games out of the division lead with four games remaining. Two of those remaining games are against the Ravens and Browns, so they have an opportunity to not only get a victory for themselves, but deal a division opponent a loss.
But to do that, they had better find a way to shore up their run defense.
"Football is a complex yet simple game. You've got to whip blocks, you've got to make tackles," said Mike Tomlin.
The Steelers aren't doing nearly enough of that. And it's leading to some historic numbers against their defense this season.
With the NFL moving to a 17-game schedule this year, records were sure to fall. But the Steelers are on pace to shatter team records -- well before they play their 16th game.
The 2010 Steelers allowed 1,044 rushing yards on 333 carries, an average of 3.3 yards per carry, the team's fewest yards allowed in a 16-game season. The most rushing yards the team has allowed in a 16-game season was 2,008 in 1989.
These Steelers have given up 1,813 yards and 5.0 yards per attempt on 365 carries -- through 13 games. In their past six games, they have given up 1,071 yards on the ground, an average of 178.5 per game.
NFL teams don't look at what's happened for the season when they researching an upcoming opponent. They look at the trends in the last four games because attrition due to injuries can drastically change what a team is capable of doing.
With Stephon Tuitt not playing a snap this season and Tyson Alualu lost in Week 2, the Steelers have played without two of their three starters on the defensive line all season. But the rushing defense in the second half has been atrocious, as opponents have run at will on the Steelers.
The Steelers' upcoming opponents -- the Titans, Chiefs, Browns and Ravens -- have to be licking their chops.
Then again, the Steelers have played two of those teams, the Browns and Ravens, recently and have had two of their better run-stopping games in the second half of the season in those contests. They limited the Browns to 96 yards on the ground in a 15-10 win in Cleveland in Week 8. The Ravens managed just 107 rushing yards in a 20-19 win by the Steelers just two weeks ago.
What the Steelers have struggled with in recent weeks is when opponents -- at least their non-AFC North opponents -- use an additional offensive lineman as a blocker.
The Lions used a formation that featured six offensive linemen on 28 of 71 offensive snaps. They rushed for 229 yards in a 16-16 tie with the Steelers.
The Chargers didn't use an additional lineman the following week in a 41-37 win over the Steelers, mostly because they trusted quarterback Justin Herbert to attack the Steelers defense. Herbert did that, throwing for 382 yards and running for an additional 90.
The Bengals used six offensive linemen just six times, mostly because they didn't need to do so. Joe Mixon ran for a career-high 165 yards on 28 carries as the Bengals just bullied the Steelers in a 41-10 win while rushing for 198 yards.
The Ravens didn't use an additional lineman at all against the Steelers, but the Vikings, working on a short work week, rolled that look out 17 times. They rushed for 242 yards as Dalvin Cook gained 205 yards on 27 carries himself in a 36-28 victory.
"We didn’t make the necessary adjustments. We didn’t get off blocks, not enough disruption," said defensive lineman Cam Heyward.
Heyward wasn't referring to the coaching staff in that case when speaking about adjustments. He was referring to the defensive players on the field.
The additional lineman creates an additional gap for the defense to fill. And more often than not, the Steelers haven't done a good job of filling those -- or really any other -- gaps on a consistent basis.
In a copycat league, the Steelers can expect to see that additional lineman on the field for the remainder of this season -- unless they show they can stop it.
"We make no excuse. It is what it is," Tomlin said. "We've got to be better than we were. We'll turn over every stone to do that. We've got a long week coming up between this and our next one. We'll make good use of that time and assess not only what we're doing but who we're doing it with."
