Macafee: Bishop, miscues plague defense

There was a reason that Mike Tomlin continued to challenge Beanie Bishop throughout training camp and into the preseason after he was listed as the starting slot corner on the Steelers' first depth chart.

There was a reason the longtime Steelers head coach threw Grayland Arnold into the competition and then Thomas Graham Jr. after Arnold went down with an injury. Tomlin was simply never satisfied with the play of the undrafted free agent from West Virginia, but he needed to find a replacement for Cam Sutton after the veteran corner was suspended for the first eight games of the season. 

So, while Tomlin continued to say that Bishop needed to do more, he stood by him and Dak Prescott made him pay for that decision early Monday morning at Acrisure Stadium.

Prescott was the best player on the field in the rain-delayed contest as he picked apart the Steelers' secondary for 304 yards and a touchdown and orchestrated two late-touchdown drives that lasted 15 plays or more and led the Cowboys to a 20-17 victory.

But the common theme throughout the night, was Prescott finding Bishop in coverage and simply taking advantage of the rookie.

There was this dime -- arguably Prescott's best pass of the night -- to KaVontae Turpin for a 34-yard gain:

Then, there was this pass to Jake Ferguson where Bishop seemed to lose track of the ball after being blocked by CeeDee Lamb. Just watch as Bishop is looking toward the middle of the field when Ferguson runs right past him.

There are several other examples from this game, including a defensive holding call on a 3rd and 7 stop that would've allowed the defense to get off the field. Instead, Prescott found Rico Dowdle five plays later for a 22-yard touchdown pass.

When I asked Tomlin about Bishop's performance after the game he said: "I think we all know Beanie is going to get targeted and I think Beanie knows he's going to get targeted. He's a young guy in the huddle, such is life in the NFL as a defensive back."

Despite that, the performance on this night should be considered a failure by the defense as a whole. Bishop was the main culprit, that much is true, but the defense was consistently gashed for big plays.

On top of the two examples above, there were back-to-back passes to Lamb in the first quarter that went for gains of 27 and 19 yards. Then, there was a 48-yard pass down the left sideline to a wide-open Jalen Tolbert.

I mean, just watch: 

Donte Jackson looks to lose sight of him and Minkah Fitzpatrick hadn't ranged over in time to make the play. Plays like this happened all night and when asked what happened, Bishop said it came down to miscommunication.

"We were just beating ourselves a lot. A lot of the plays they made, we just weren't communicating enough," Bishop said. "Half the guys were running certain things, half the guys were running other things. Just the communication across the board. That's really it, honestly. It's just getting everyone on the same page. One person might see it as one way and one person might see it another way. So, just getting everyone on the same page with everything."

This isn't the first time there have been miscues of this magnitude either. It happened last week against the Colts when Alec Ogletree caught a pass from Joe Flacco in the middle of the field before taking it 15 yards for a touchdown.

And it also happened in Week 1 when Bishop lost track of Kyle Pitts and Kirk Cousins found him for a 12-yard touchdown pass:

Miscommunications, over and over and over again. 

While the Steelers were able to overcome their mistakes on this day on a few occasions, -- they picked off two passes, forced a fumble and blocked a field goal -- the miscues played a ginormous role in their second straight loss. But how does that improve moving forward? 

"I'm sure we'll come up with a plan after we watch the film," T.J. Watt said. "Obviously, when the home environment is as loud as it is, it always creates a challenge for defenses, but we can't make excuses. We just need to move forward and put out a better product."

That's exactly what is needed. But saying it and doing it are two different things and action is needed if this Steelers defense is going to live up to the hype that surrounds it.