DK: Embarrassed like the B-tier team they just might be
It's not the secondary, I swear.
Certainly not in isolation, not even on this Sunday evening at Acrisure Stadium that saw the Steelers' defense devastated for 360 more passing yards -- Jordan Love was 29 of 37 and, at one point, completed 20 in a row -- in being punched out, 35-25, by the Packers.
It wasn't just that they didn't learn a damned thing from the Cincinnati debacle about stopping a relentless string of routine slant routes:
It wasn't just that they couldn't track a prayer-ball lobbed so high it'd register on local radar:
It wasn't just that they couldn't -- or wouldn't, in a couple cases below -- tackle anyone:
It wasn't even that, in this instance, they didn't have someone assigned to try:
That last one ... my God, that's Romeo Doubs, Green Bay's premier wide receiver for a good many years, being treated like some COVID carrier in the summer of 2020.
So don't misunderstand me, please: It's abominable. All of it.
But it doesn't stand out. Not anymore, given this defense's ongoing regression. And definitely not on this day, when pretty much everything but Chris Boswell's right toe went wrong.
So I figured, in a fitting tribute to this chaos, I'd rip through it with a bunch of scattershot bullets:
• Love didn't pick on anyone in the secondary, and he didn't limit his victims to the secondary, either. He passed where he wanted, when he wanted, to whom he wanted:
NFL
All that green's about as grotesque as it gets for a defense, and there weren't exceptions, as there'd been some weeks. There were no interceptions and, more telling, just a single pass defensed, that by Porter. There were no sacks of Love, only five hits on him, and one whole tackle for a loss, that by Darius Slay.
No one was good. No one.
• As close as the defense came to a positive, it was still a negative. Meaning that the Steelers did follow through on Mike Tomlin's weeklong emphasis to stop the run, holding the Packers' Emanuel Wilson and Josh Jacobs to a combined 94 yards on 26 carries for a 3.6 average. But also meaning that it didn't matter much, if it all.
As I'd stated last week, Tomlin's stance was absurd. The Steelers' pass defense ranked 31st in the 32-team NFL a week ago after Cincinnati, and it's guess-where after this one. That had zip to do with the Bengals' running, and it had less than zip to do with anything here.
They can't scheme, and they can't cover.
Tomlin wanted to run from that, attempting to preserve his precious "coverage people" concept created back in Latrobe, the trio of corners -- Jalen Ramsey, Joey Porter and Slay -- who were supposed to anchor his "historic" defense. But the entire thing's bombed in a big way.
And that's because they can't scheme, and they can't cover.
• What's it mean to say they can't scheme?
Thumb way back up to that first play illustrated, then thumb back. I'll wait here.
OK, happen to catch who Teryl Austin had lined against Green Bay's exemplary tight end, Tucker Kraft, who'd end up amassing seven catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns?
That's right, it was Chuck Clark. Fourth-string safety. Age 30. Man-on-man.
We can debate into infinity who's the true defensive coordinator, Tomlin or Austin, but it's beyond a doubt that it's Austin calling in the signals on game day.
That was one special signal.
• Tomlin was asked if the defense's issues are rooted in scheme or execution.
"You know, we all have to own it," he'd reply. "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 these problems are somewhat repetitive. We're not getting better fast enough."
No. They're not getting better. They're not even staying static. They're regressing.
That last sentence of Tomlin's up there, by the way, is akin to Ben Cherington, the Pirates' perpetual nightmare of a general manager, recently stating that his team needs to be "more excellent" in 2026.
• The Steelers led entering the fourth quarter, then lost by double-digits, marking a first such occasion since 1996 against the Oilers. That's the Houston Oilers. That's literal regression.
• But don't take my word for it. Ask the athletes.
"You gotta handle adversity a lot better," Cam Heyward would say. "This game eroded in the second half, and big plays were the death of us today. You’re not going to be perfect out there, but you’ve got to keep fighting. I just think there's a lot of ball and not enough fight on our side."
Not enough fight.
"We need to fight more," Porter would say of what'll solve this. "We need to finish more. Not just ... that's all I've really got to say about that."
Need to fight more.
"It's embarrassing to come out like that and play the way we did," Alex Highsmith would say of the second half, after which the Packers would dominate, 28-9. "To put two performances like this back-to-back, that's not the standard, so we've gotta fix it."
Embarrassing.
• And yeah, this is regression compared to Cincinnati. That one could've been shrugged off as a fluke, a Thursday night asterisk or whatever. Not this one. This matchup pitted two opponents with similar records -- the Steelers are now 4-3, the Packers 5-1-1 -- and similar aspirations, only to expose one as a B-tier pretender until proven otherwise.
• They're in first place. They'll still be in first place next Sunday evening, no matter what happens against the Colts, owners of the NFL's top record at 7-1.
But after flying out to Los Angeles the following week and lining this secondary up against the Chargers' Justin Herbert, owner of the league's passing lead at 2,140 yards?
Not without colossal change.
• The only for-certain change between now and then will be the absence of DeShon Elliott, felled in this one by a gruesome knee injury. In addition to wishing this legit good dude nothing but the best, I'll point out the painfully obvious that a team that can't cover or tackle can ill afford the one guy who might've been most reliable at both.
• Arthur Smith's been only about a billion times more effective as a coordinator than Austin/Tomlin, but his work wasn't without a blemish worth bold-facing: Jaylen Warrenbulldogged his way through the NFL's No. 2-ranked run defense to 50 hard yards on 10 carries in the first half, then was handed the ball once in the first 17 minutes of the second half, finishing with 62 yards. This despite the Steelers having taken a lead into the second half.
"It wasn't necessarily a decision," Tomlin would say. "We just were behind the sticks, and the game circumstances got away from us."
• Oh, right, that: His team was flagged six times for 65 yards, three times for 15-yard personal fouls on DK Metcalf, T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig, with none of those offsetting.
"It's not our style of business," Tomlin would say to those, "and we can't live like that."
• Aaron Rodgers wasn't awful or awesome -- 24 of 36 for 219 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions -- but he'd never previously held the ball so long, almost as if hoping to get sacked, which would happen three times. Not the smoothest move with Isaac Seumalo lost early to a strained pec.
Add in the offense going 1 for 10 on third downs and, yeah, not exactly progress there, either.
• Just have to share on a more personal level: I'm not comfortable column-izing like this. I prefer not just to complain or criticize but to put forth possible solutions. And I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing those in this scenario.
Could it be, for instance, that the secondary's just having some collective confidence crisis?
I put that to Juan Thornhill:
I put it to Porter, too, and actually preferred his one-word answer:
If it isn't that, though, then what?
Who'll replace a starter here or there? I'll start: Why not Brandin Echols over Slay? Why not acknowledge that Slay, at 34 two years older than any corner in the game, keeps getting beaten on measurable/visible speed and quickness?
Who'll be claimed or plucked or acquired in a trade of some sort? Or will Omar Khan make any move on this front or any other in the context of how all this is unfolding ... or unraveling?
How about some semi-takeover of the defensive coordinator's duties?
When Tomlin was asked specifically about his original expectations for his secondary and how that might be righted, he replied, "We've just gotta be better in all areas, and it starts first with the positions that we put players in. So it's coaches, it's players, it's all of us. We own it. We'll be better. We have to be."
THE ASYLUM
DK: Embarrassed like the B-tier team they just might be
It's not the secondary, I swear.
Certainly not in isolation, not even on this Sunday evening at Acrisure Stadium that saw the Steelers' defense devastated for 360 more passing yards -- Jordan Love was 29 of 37 and, at one point, completed 20 in a row -- in being punched out, 35-25, by the Packers.
It wasn't just that they didn't learn a damned thing from the Cincinnati debacle about stopping a relentless string of routine slant routes:
It wasn't just that they couldn't track a prayer-ball lobbed so high it'd register on local radar:
It wasn't just that they couldn't -- or wouldn't, in a couple cases below -- tackle anyone:
It wasn't even that, in this instance, they didn't have someone assigned to try:
That last one ... my God, that's Romeo Doubs, Green Bay's premier wide receiver for a good many years, being treated like some COVID carrier in the summer of 2020.
So don't misunderstand me, please: It's abominable. All of it.
But it doesn't stand out. Not anymore, given this defense's ongoing regression. And definitely not on this day, when pretty much everything but Chris Boswell's right toe went wrong.
So I figured, in a fitting tribute to this chaos, I'd rip through it with a bunch of scattershot bullets:
• Love didn't pick on anyone in the secondary, and he didn't limit his victims to the secondary, either. He passed where he wanted, when he wanted, to whom he wanted:
NFL
All that green's about as grotesque as it gets for a defense, and there weren't exceptions, as there'd been some weeks. There were no interceptions and, more telling, just a single pass defensed, that by Porter. There were no sacks of Love, only five hits on him, and one whole tackle for a loss, that by Darius Slay.
No one was good. No one.
• As close as the defense came to a positive, it was still a negative. Meaning that the Steelers did follow through on Mike Tomlin's weeklong emphasis to stop the run, holding the Packers' Emanuel Wilson and Josh Jacobs to a combined 94 yards on 26 carries for a 3.6 average. But also meaning that it didn't matter much, if it all.
As I'd stated last week, Tomlin's stance was absurd. The Steelers' pass defense ranked 31st in the 32-team NFL a week ago after Cincinnati, and it's guess-where after this one. That had zip to do with the Bengals' running, and it had less than zip to do with anything here.
They can't scheme, and they can't cover.
Tomlin wanted to run from that, attempting to preserve his precious "coverage people" concept created back in Latrobe, the trio of corners -- Jalen Ramsey, Joey Porter and Slay -- who were supposed to anchor his "historic" defense. But the entire thing's bombed in a big way.
And that's because they can't scheme, and they can't cover.
• What's it mean to say they can't scheme?
Thumb way back up to that first play illustrated, then thumb back. I'll wait here.
OK, happen to catch who Teryl Austin had lined against Green Bay's exemplary tight end, Tucker Kraft, who'd end up amassing seven catches for 143 yards and two touchdowns?
That's right, it was Chuck Clark. Fourth-string safety. Age 30. Man-on-man.
We can debate into infinity who's the true defensive coordinator, Tomlin or Austin, but it's beyond a doubt that it's Austin calling in the signals on game day.
That was one special signal.
• Tomlin was asked if the defense's issues are rooted in scheme or execution.
"You know, we all have to own it," he'd reply. "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 these problems are somewhat repetitive. We're not getting better fast enough."
No. They're not getting better. They're not even staying static. They're regressing.
That last sentence of Tomlin's up there, by the way, is akin to Ben Cherington, the Pirates' perpetual nightmare of a general manager, recently stating that his team needs to be "more excellent" in 2026.
• The Steelers led entering the fourth quarter, then lost by double-digits, marking a first such occasion since 1996 against the Oilers. That's the Houston Oilers. That's literal regression.
Not enough fight.
"We need to fight more," Porter would say of what'll solve this. "We need to finish more. Not just ... that's all I've really got to say about that."
Need to fight more.
"It's embarrassing to come out like that and play the way we did," Alex Highsmith would say of the second half, after which the Packers would dominate, 28-9. "To put two performances like this back-to-back, that's not the standard, so we've gotta fix it."
Embarrassing.
• And yeah, this is regression compared to Cincinnati. That one could've been shrugged off as a fluke, a Thursday night asterisk or whatever. Not this one. This matchup pitted two opponents with similar records -- the Steelers are now 4-3, the Packers 5-1-1 -- and similar aspirations, only to expose one as a B-tier pretender until proven otherwise.
• They're in first place. They'll still be in first place next Sunday evening, no matter what happens against the Colts, owners of the NFL's top record at 7-1.
But after flying out to Los Angeles the following week and lining this secondary up against the Chargers' Justin Herbert, owner of the league's passing lead at 2,140 yards?
Not without colossal change.
• The only for-certain change between now and then will be the absence of DeShon Elliott, felled in this one by a gruesome knee injury. In addition to wishing this legit good dude nothing but the best, I'll point out the painfully obvious that a team that can't cover or tackle can ill afford the one guy who might've been most reliable at both.
• Arthur Smith's been only about a billion times more effective as a coordinator than Austin/Tomlin, but his work wasn't without a blemish worth bold-facing: Jaylen Warren bulldogged his way through the NFL's No. 2-ranked run defense to 50 hard yards on 10 carries in the first half, then was handed the ball once in the first 17 minutes of the second half, finishing with 62 yards. This despite the Steelers having taken a lead into the second half.
"It wasn't necessarily a decision," Tomlin would say. "We just were behind the sticks, and the game circumstances got away from us."
• Oh, right, that: His team was flagged six times for 65 yards, three times for 15-yard personal fouls on DK Metcalf, T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig, with none of those offsetting.
"It's not our style of business," Tomlin would say to those, "and we can't live like that."
• Aaron Rodgers wasn't awful or awesome -- 24 of 36 for 219 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions -- but he'd never previously held the ball so long, almost as if hoping to get sacked, which would happen three times. Not the smoothest move with Isaac Seumalo lost early to a strained pec.
Add in the offense going 1 for 10 on third downs and, yeah, not exactly progress there, either.
• Just have to share on a more personal level: I'm not comfortable column-izing like this. I prefer not just to complain or criticize but to put forth possible solutions. And I'm sorry, but I'm just not seeing those in this scenario.
Could it be, for instance, that the secondary's just having some collective confidence crisis?
I put that to Juan Thornhill:
I put it to Porter, too, and actually preferred his one-word answer:
If it isn't that, though, then what?
Who'll replace a starter here or there? I'll start: Why not Brandin Echols over Slay? Why not acknowledge that Slay, at 34 two years older than any corner in the game, keeps getting beaten on measurable/visible speed and quickness?
Who'll be claimed or plucked or acquired in a trade of some sort? Or will Omar Khan make any move on this front or any other in the context of how all this is unfolding ... or unraveling?
How about some semi-takeover of the defensive coordinator's duties?
When Tomlin was asked specifically about his original expectations for his secondary and how that might be righted, he replied, "We've just gotta be better in all areas, and it starts first with the positions that we put players in. So it's coaches, it's players, it's all of us. We own it. We'll be better. We have to be."
They do? Why? What'll happen?
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