There are losses, there are lousy losses, and there are lousy losses that linger.
This might've been all three and then some.
I've got a lot of additional thoughts in the aftermath of the Steelers' lousy, lingering 33-31 loss to the Bengals late Thursday night at Paycor Stadium, and I'm not about to let 'em go:
• However dismaying that defensive performance looked live, that'd only multiply on the video. And not all of it needed to be moving video:
AMAZON PRIME
Uh-huh.
That should be self-explanatory. If it isn't, that's Ja'Marr Chase up there. He's the NFL's premier wide receiver. That was his 16th and final catch, his 23rd and final target. It came with less than two minutes left in a game where a Cincinnati field goal would win it.
That's not just open. That's Neil Armstrong open.
That's not a mistake or a missed assignment. That's an embarrassment. That's the culmination of an evening-long emasculation of a franchise's very identity.
Listen, it's one thing for any of us, myself included, to say stuff like this. It's quite another for a wide array of respected analysts, from former coaches and players to those engrossed in film and statistical studies, to be tearing up this defense as they have the past 24 hours.
Richard Sherman, a five-time All-Pro corner who doesn't need me to list his achievements, was part of the Amazon Prime broadcast team and, upon showing a deep completion from Joe Flacco to Andrei Iosivas over Darius Slay's head, Sherman vocally interjected to decry another corner's general usage: "You also have questions about, 'Hey, why are you helping Jalen Ramsey in this situation? You've got a cornerback making $26 million. If you're gonna put him in this situation, you put him on Iosivas and you can double and bracket the other two guys. But you don't waste him on a bracket, and then you get beat for a big gain. Those are decisions that are gonna be looked at, and they're gonna be scratching their heads."
Will they, though?
I know I still am, but I've seldom had the sense of some deep accountability of this sort under Mike Tomlin, at least as it's applied to his defense.
This is what Sherman meant: If Ramsey's your best guy, you don't use him as part of a bracket, a tactic often tried to take away the opponent's top receiver in which two defenders to cover that receiver and possibly another. You instead use two other corners, Slay or Joey Porter or Brandin Echols or whoever, in that capacity, and trust your best guy to the single coverage. So, in this case, Iosivas.
Watch from another angle to see the double-coverage descend on Chase and Tee Higgins, while Slay's the lone guy chasing Iosivas up field:
See how it doesn't make sense?
I don't do a lot of this, as longtime readers will attest. I don't believe in deferring on the analysis, much less the resulting opinion, to those outside our company. But I feel it's relevant in this scenario to stress not only the volume of this public exasperation but also the vociferousness. It couldn't have been more obvious that Sherman -- and others since this game ended -- had their football sensibilities offended by what they were witnessing.
Like this from 12-year NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who's all over every screen everywhere these days as a freelance analyst: "That Steelers defensive tape is shocking."
Or this from film/stats ace Warren Sharp, another specialist I've followed forever:
looks like Joe Flacco was 47-of-47 on slants tonight and the Steelers couldn't figure it out that he might throw another slant pic.twitter.com/DHTzKC6c70
Is it Tomlin? It is Teryl Austin? Is it, as I've long been told, both?
Better question: When it's all this bad, so bad that it's being called out coast-to-coast by bona fide football lifers, so bad that so many clearly aren't getting the job done ... why should it matter which one's to blame?
• Of those 16 Chase catches, the number that came while he was double-covered: 0.
So yeah, there was a way to win. It was to erase the only option that could beat you.
• Nothing's ever at fault with defensive design, I've noticed in a long time covering Tomlin. No matter how egregiously it might get exposed over a given game or stretch.
"Just from an analysis perspective, I just thought in the first half, we allowed them to run the ball too much," Tomlin would say after this game in his pre-question period. "I think they had about 100 yards rushing at the half, and then we turned the ball over a couple times, and so that just kind of set a negative trajectory and we were fighting uphill the rest of the way."
That's par for this particular course. Blame the run defense because that, in turn, allows for a broader blame on tackling. Blame the offense for ... gee, anything and everything that he can, which this time was two interceptions that both fell on DK Metcalf rather than Aaron Rodgers, and neither of which was reflective of the offense's overall performance or continuing climb.
Why?
Don't look over here. Look over there.
The defense is Tomlin's baby, and he's not about to spend a session with the likes of us reporters feeling the next to explain how he and/or Austin blew it.
• Which is to say nothing of zero takeaways since Dublin.
“Yeah, we pride ourselves on getting that splash," T.J. Watt would say after half a sack and not a thing else from him. "If you’re not stopping the run and getting off the field, and then not creating turnovers, you’re in a whole world of hurt.”
• Want to know who was ready for the Thursday nighter, short week and all?
Yeah, Arthur Smith's offense. From front to finish.
That's why I don't like bringing up all this Tomlin/Thursday weirdness. It's a convoluted historic stat that stretches a small sample size over far too long a stretch and, to boot, encompasses far too many different teams and players. But more than that, it's almost akin to making an excuse for plain old bad work in this game.
No thanks.
• And no, I'm not done with this ...
The Steelers spend $163,298,456 on the defense, more than any team in the NFL, and $91,545,679 on offense, less than any team in the NFL. Which, no matter how often this gets spoken, never stops being mind-blowing. The gap alone.
Well, that defense now ranks 28th in the 32-team league, 31st specifically in pass defense, and it sure as hell ain't because they occasionally have off-weeks in tackling running backs. Rather, it's because they're not being utilized the way they should be.
The offense now, meanwhile, ranks 12th in scoring, averaging 25.0 points after breaking through 30 against the Bengals. And almost every category's seeing consistent improvement.
That's coaching. Both ways.
• I'm not here to get anyone in trouble, so let's just say that there are ways the players speak of Smith and ways they speak of Austin, and those ways seldom converge. Including in my time in the locker room after this one.
• This whole weekend should've been spent by the Nation savoring 397 yards of offense, headlined by Rodgers' continued fine play, Jaylen Warren's relentless running for 127 yards on just 16 carries plus 31 more yards through the air, and, of course, Pat Freiermuth emerging from a frozen block to make two top-notch touchdown catches that should've cemented it.
I talked with both afterward, and it was easy to see, even in the somber setting of that locker room, that both knew they'd played their part. Good for them. Terrific football players.
• Don't expect Warren to get his fingernails dirty, by the way, in the was-it-or-wasn't-it-a-flea-flicker mess. Rodgers said it was, and Tomlin said it wasn't. Warren, when I brought it up, simply smiled and flicked his hand.
• Loved the way Rodgers worded this: "This is the NFL. We had a chance to really open up some space, but we're 4-2, still first in the division, got a couple home games coming up back-to-back, another Sunday night opportunity against my former team. I'm not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike isn't, and hopefully you guys follow suit.”
THE ASYLUM
DK: Lots of lousy, lingering material
There are losses, there are lousy losses, and there are lousy losses that linger.
This might've been all three and then some.
I've got a lot of additional thoughts in the aftermath of the Steelers' lousy, lingering 33-31 loss to the Bengals late Thursday night at Paycor Stadium, and I'm not about to let 'em go:
• However dismaying that defensive performance looked live, that'd only multiply on the video. And not all of it needed to be moving video:
AMAZON PRIME
Uh-huh.
That should be self-explanatory. If it isn't, that's Ja'Marr Chase up there. He's the NFL's premier wide receiver. That was his 16th and final catch, his 23rd and final target. It came with less than two minutes left in a game where a Cincinnati field goal would win it.
That's not just open. That's Neil Armstrong open.
That's not a mistake or a missed assignment. That's an embarrassment. That's the culmination of an evening-long emasculation of a franchise's very identity.
Listen, it's one thing for any of us, myself included, to say stuff like this. It's quite another for a wide array of respected analysts, from former coaches and players to those engrossed in film and statistical studies, to be tearing up this defense as they have the past 24 hours.
Richard Sherman, a five-time All-Pro corner who doesn't need me to list his achievements, was part of the Amazon Prime broadcast team and, upon showing a deep completion from Joe Flacco to Andrei Iosivas over Darius Slay's head, Sherman vocally interjected to decry another corner's general usage: "You also have questions about, 'Hey, why are you helping Jalen Ramsey in this situation? You've got a cornerback making $26 million. If you're gonna put him in this situation, you put him on Iosivas and you can double and bracket the other two guys. But you don't waste him on a bracket, and then you get beat for a big gain. Those are decisions that are gonna be looked at, and they're gonna be scratching their heads."
Will they, though?
I know I still am, but I've seldom had the sense of some deep accountability of this sort under Mike Tomlin, at least as it's applied to his defense.
This is what Sherman meant: If Ramsey's your best guy, you don't use him as part of a bracket, a tactic often tried to take away the opponent's top receiver in which two defenders to cover that receiver and possibly another. You instead use two other corners, Slay or Joey Porter or Brandin Echols or whoever, in that capacity, and trust your best guy to the single coverage. So, in this case, Iosivas.
Watch from another angle to see the double-coverage descend on Chase and Tee Higgins, while Slay's the lone guy chasing Iosivas up field:
See how it doesn't make sense?
I don't do a lot of this, as longtime readers will attest. I don't believe in deferring on the analysis, much less the resulting opinion, to those outside our company. But I feel it's relevant in this scenario to stress not only the volume of this public exasperation but also the vociferousness. It couldn't have been more obvious that Sherman -- and others since this game ended -- had their football sensibilities offended by what they were witnessing.
Like this from 12-year NFL quarterback Dan Orlovsky, who's all over every screen everywhere these days as a freelance analyst: "That Steelers defensive tape is shocking."
Or this from film/stats ace Warren Sharp, another specialist I've followed forever:
Or this from NFL Network's Brian Baldinger:
Is it Tomlin? It is Teryl Austin? Is it, as I've long been told, both?
Better question: When it's all this bad, so bad that it's being called out coast-to-coast by bona fide football lifers, so bad that so many clearly aren't getting the job done ... why should it matter which one's to blame?
• Of those 16 Chase catches, the number that came while he was double-covered: 0.
So yeah, there was a way to win. It was to erase the only option that could beat you.
• Nothing's ever at fault with defensive design, I've noticed in a long time covering Tomlin. No matter how egregiously it might get exposed over a given game or stretch.
"Just from an analysis perspective, I just thought in the first half, we allowed them to run the ball too much," Tomlin would say after this game in his pre-question period. "I think they had about 100 yards rushing at the half, and then we turned the ball over a couple times, and so that just kind of set a negative trajectory and we were fighting uphill the rest of the way."
That's par for this particular course. Blame the run defense because that, in turn, allows for a broader blame on tackling. Blame the offense for ... gee, anything and everything that he can, which this time was two interceptions that both fell on DK Metcalf rather than Aaron Rodgers, and neither of which was reflective of the offense's overall performance or continuing climb.
Why?
Don't look over here. Look over there.
The defense is Tomlin's baby, and he's not about to spend a session with the likes of us reporters feeling the next to explain how he and/or Austin blew it.
• Which is to say nothing of zero takeaways since Dublin.
“Yeah, we pride ourselves on getting that splash," T.J. Watt would say after half a sack and not a thing else from him. "If you’re not stopping the run and getting off the field, and then not creating turnovers, you’re in a whole world of hurt.”
• Want to know who was ready for the Thursday nighter, short week and all?
Yeah, Arthur Smith's offense. From front to finish.
That's why I don't like bringing up all this Tomlin/Thursday weirdness. It's a convoluted historic stat that stretches a small sample size over far too long a stretch and, to boot, encompasses far too many different teams and players. But more than that, it's almost akin to making an excuse for plain old bad work in this game.
No thanks.
• And no, I'm not done with this ...
The Steelers spend $163,298,456 on the defense, more than any team in the NFL, and $91,545,679 on offense, less than any team in the NFL. Which, no matter how often this gets spoken, never stops being mind-blowing. The gap alone.
Well, that defense now ranks 28th in the 32-team league, 31st specifically in pass defense, and it sure as hell ain't because they occasionally have off-weeks in tackling running backs. Rather, it's because they're not being utilized the way they should be.
The offense now, meanwhile, ranks 12th in scoring, averaging 25.0 points after breaking through 30 against the Bengals. And almost every category's seeing consistent improvement.
That's coaching. Both ways.
• I'm not here to get anyone in trouble, so let's just say that there are ways the players speak of Smith and ways they speak of Austin, and those ways seldom converge. Including in my time in the locker room after this one.
• This whole weekend should've been spent by the Nation savoring 397 yards of offense, headlined by Rodgers' continued fine play, Jaylen Warren's relentless running for 127 yards on just 16 carries plus 31 more yards through the air, and, of course, Pat Freiermuth emerging from a frozen block to make two top-notch touchdown catches that should've cemented it.
I talked with both afterward, and it was easy to see, even in the somber setting of that locker room, that both knew they'd played their part. Good for them. Terrific football players.
• Don't expect Warren to get his fingernails dirty, by the way, in the was-it-or-wasn't-it-a-flea-flicker mess. Rodgers said it was, and Tomlin said it wasn't. Warren, when I brought it up, simply smiled and flicked his hand.
• Loved the way Rodgers worded this: "This is the NFL. We had a chance to really open up some space, but we're 4-2, still first in the division, got a couple home games coming up back-to-back, another Sunday night opportunity against my former team. I'm not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike isn't, and hopefully you guys follow suit.”
I think he meant you.
Want to participate in our comments?
Want an ad-free experience?
Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits!
We’d love to have you!