Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Faces Scheme, Execution, Discipline Issues in Packers Loss, Signals Changes

Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Faces Scheme, Execution, Discipline Issues in Packers Loss, Signals Changes

Steelers head coach Mike Tommen has some big big problems on his hands right now after that 3525 loss to the Green Bay Packers. I’m going to break down why. It’s not just scheme, it’s not just execution, it’s also discipline. And that might be the worst of it all. We’ll talk about it here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I’m your host Chris Carter. Let’s get into it. You are locked on Steelers. Your daily Pittsburgh Steelers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I’m your host Chris Carter bringing you your daily dose of all things in the Pittsburgh Steelers. As always, you can find the show in your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoy it. Subscribe to this YouTube channel to get all of your daily Monday through Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. Thank you for making us your first listen every day because we’re your team every day. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the game map. Create an account. Use code lockdown NFL and you’ll get $20 off your first purchase. More on them later. Steelers fans, it is not a victory Monday. And in fact, it’s a very bad Monday for the Steelers because they have a lot to address as they drew they they drew a 3525 loss to the Green Bay Packers in really bad fashion. And to me, in this game, the defensive problems got worse, despite what I thought was an initial good game plan that gave them a good shot early on in this game that took away what the Packers wanted. And to me, this could mean a lot more worse things are coming around the on the horizon fast for a Steelers team that is still somehow one and a half games ahead in the AFC North, particularly because the Bengals blew it against the Jets. And if they don’t fix the problems that we’re going to talk about in this episode very soon, that league could be gone in just the next two weeks. To me, this loss was worse than the Bengals loss, despite the Bengals being not as good as a team as the Packers. And I hear what people say like, “Chris, that’s that’s insane. The Packers are a Super Bowl contender.” I believe so. I’ve said that. But there’s things in this game that just needed to be better. It was it was how the Steelers lost this game to me that made this a lot worse and showed a lot worse for the Steelers moving forward. The defense got torched by the Packers on the whole. Uh Jordan Love was 29 of 37 for 360 passing yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, was never sacked, no turnovers for what, a third straight game, I think, for the Steelers. Uh, but for me, what makes this worse is that the Steelers did come out and have the right plan in place, the right play calls, the right strategys to counter what the Packers wanted to do on offense. And then that plan fell apart in the second half. All because of a few big plays they gave up. The Steelers did allow a first half touchdown, but for the most part, they locked it down on the Packers and what they wanted to do. Josh Jacobs was not a threat at all night. Uh the Packers number one third down offense was 0 for four on third downs through the first half and that helped the Steelers build a 16-7 lead going into halftime. While while they were set to get the ball at half, everything was lining up the way you wanted it to line up if you were the Steelers in that first half. And then depression set in because Deshawn Elliot, well, first of all, you come out uh and I think they went three and out to open the the second half on offense. But then uh one mistake led to another and things start to fall apart. Deshaawn Elliott gets injured on a play where he was definitely shoved to the ground by Tucker Craft on a third down duck of a pass from Jordan Love. He just threw it up for because he was under pressure and Tucker Craft just throws uh Deshawn Elliot to the ground, catches it, takes he takes off running. Elliot gets back into chase mode. Thornhill’s unable to bring it down and then eventually when uh Elliot does bring him down, twists his knee. That could be a really bad injury. Uh I I find it hard to believe that he’s going to be able to dodge a major knee injury there. He dodged one earlier this year where it thought they thought that he might be gone for the season. He came back uh a few weeks later and that and he’s been really important to the Steelers, but but uh that was a that was a tough loss right there. Um and uh that led to that led to eventually a wide receiver touchdown screen where Darius Slay looked like he didn’t even want to try to make a play on the tackle in the red zone. will come back to Slay later because there’s a lot there with Darius Slay in my opinion. But it’s bigger than just him now or bigger than just one guy or or or a couple guys after that drive the m after that drive where they gave up that big play to craft and then the wide receiver screen. The mistakes grew and they grew fast. They spread rapidly across the defense and that mostly and it was it was disappointing to see because they had mostly played a good game up to that point and they had things in place to keep the game in check. Joey Porter Jr. who looked good in the first half by broke up a pass on on third down over the middle started jumping out of position giving up big holes in the defense and that appeared to be the thing that we saw the most throughout the night. players jumping out of their assignments to play hero ball, thinking that they were going to do something to make a play, cause a turnover, and compromising the defensive integrity of the concepts and schemes that they called. Then when that started to happen, guys completely left their assignments wide open. uh that where they they lined up if they lined up in zone, you saw them stop anticipating where the Packers were trying to attack and they weren’t pinching down with their zones on the primary reads for Jordan Love and his and his uh his intended targets. And that opened up the pass game even more for the Packers when they lined up a man, they just straight up got cooked. Whether it was because they just got beat with their with bad alignment or they just had a bad matchup in trying to line up who they were going to get on on on different guys. And it’s one thing when you’re just losing to, you know, one of the best wide receiver duos and Jamar Chase and T. Higgins, but against a Packers uh offense that should not be overwhelming you with their wide receiver talent. They’re a good wide receiver room. They should, but I get the the the Bengals overwhelming you with wide wide receiver talent. I would get the Vikings overwhelming you with wide receiver talent, but the Packers are just a good room. They’re not a they’re not an elite room. And that became a big problem for the Steelers. And that could be a big problem for the season moving forward if the Steelers can’t contain even even a group like this. I know some people are going to look at the Steelers pass rush as the main problem of this game because they didn’t get a sack. But the fact that Jordan Love on average for the night got passes off before two and a half seconds a after the snap of the ball that that’s not going to allow mo most pass rushers to win at all. And that just can’t that that can’t be a thing if you’re the Steelers that want to play defense the way that you’re supposed to play defense by letting your pass rush win. Uh the problem is that especially in the second half, the Steelers weren’t taking away Jordan Love’s first read, and he was allowed to drop back, get into his rhythm, and they didn’t knock him off of it. Now, early in the game, I did feel like they knocked him off of it, and he he was able to avoid sacks, but you saw he wasn’t getting he wasn’t getting the the placement he wanted. He wasn’t finding his reads as consistently, especially on third down. again they could not convert third down in in the first half but then in that second half consistently whoever Love wanted uh to target in the second half whether it was after that craft catch that where uh Deshun Elliot uh got hurt got what he wanted and even when the Steelers had everything covered Juan Thornhill uh allowed a duck of a pass to go right over his head that he should have intercepted uh and that that beca that became an issue it seemed like uh it seemed like after that and that led to another touchdown. Uh there were just mistakes that compounded upon each other. And after the game, Tom acknowledged something that I thought was really important that he did acknowledge it and something he really hasn’t before that they needed to be better in several areas, especially when when he and he especially acknowledged uh when it came to the plan, the problem that they put together, the problems that they saw in this game are repetitive problems that they’ve seen before. That’s something that he’s denied when we’ve talked to him, you know, uh, in in his Tuesday press conferences, and his postgame press conferences in general. He has refused to talk about that. He talks to keep the focus forward. But listen to the way that he that he answers this question. And then listen to the way that he responds to my question at the end of at the end of this uh clip that I’m going to show you here because I thought this was very interesting as far as uh how how he talked about it when he’s when he notes uh quote positions we put the players in. Here’s Mike Thomas. Mike, the defensive problems that you’ve had repeatedly, is it rooted in the scheme or in the execution of the scheme? You know, we all have to own it. Um certainly you start with the schematics man because you know 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 and we’re not getting better fast enough. Mike what’s missing in the execution you know again I’m not going to talk too much tonight. We’ll take a look at it as I mentioned. Um they made some significant plays uh on possession down ball and you know you got to get off on on third down and we we didn’t do it well enough and particularly in the third quarter it was some significant Mike you guys assembled this secondary with the with the hopes to use several different coverages man zone and different things but between miscommunications and like just losing in man what do you guys have to do better to get the potential that you saw? We just got to be better in all areas and and it starts first with the positions that we put players in. And so, you know, as coaches, as players, as all of us, we own it. Um, we’ll be better. We have to be. That last part there where he said it’s the positions we put players in. And he noticed it’s coaches and players because there there’s a handinhand part in that. That to me is the first real acknowledgement from Mike Tomlin that the Steelers pass defense plan didn’t work and needs to change. Now, this doesn’t mean that Mike Tommen hasn’t thought about this stuff before, but he rarely throws throws it out, throws stuff out there that can say, “Hey, there’s problems here and there. There’s probably, you know, you know, he he will try to kind of circle the wagons, protect his guys, and deal with things in house.” That’s a little different. And to me, that means he might be feeling like, hey, this is a bigger problem. And, you know, if you remember last week when we talked to him, we talked to him on Tuesday, uh, after the Bengals game, he talked about the run defense being the issue. And again, the run defense wasn’t the issue in this one. They shut down Josh Jacobs. They really took took away the the the the Packers run game. It comes down to purely the pass defense and especially the coverage and how the blitzes and the coverage I don’t think align real real well right now. Um and if that is what Mike Tommen’s insinuating that he’s acknowledging it now and that things need to change, um I think he’s right. And in general, I think I’m I’m a patient person. I don’t overreact. They don’t do knee-jerk reactions uh because oftent times things balance out over time and the things get figured out. But this secondary has shown consistently through what eight weeks now they’re four and three. So that’s seven game seven games. Eight weeks, you know what I’m saying? Um eight weeks now that they cannot cover in man consistently well and they haven’t responded well in zone coverage when they’re trying to pull off their disguises either. They’ve had their moments, but in general, they’re still having these big problems and something has to give. Whether that’s Terrell Austin, the defensive coordinator, being the play caller for the defense, that’s one that’s one thing we can explore more as we get into the all 22 later uh in a day or two here. Um a major change in personnel usage, which we’ve discussed here on this show a few times, make maybe some switches at outside corner, who plays what safety role, and that’s going to have to change anyways if Sean Elliot’s injury is as serious as it looked. Um, or maybe a switch in philosophy that has the defense and and less single high safety looks and maybe plays more Tampa 2 where they keep two safeties high to back up the quarterbacks. Or maybe it’s all of the above. Either way, if the Steelers want to be a good team in 2025, they cannot afford the defense to play the way it has through the bulk of this first half of the season. They also need to be a more disciplined team. And Cam Hayward had some strong words on that. I’ll explain more of why that’s a big problem, maybe even a bigger problem for Mike Tomlin to address, and we’ll do that right after this break here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I’m your host, Chris Carter. Stick with us. We’ll be right back. 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So, we also apologize for this episode not getting out until like 6:30 in the morning, but we continue our episode here. And again, I want to focus on discipline because it would be one thing if the Steelers purely got beat because of talent. And I mean, listen, that might have been the biggest factor in the game that led to a lot of the breakdowns for the Steelers on Sunday night because, as I said going into this game, the Packers are a Super Bowl favorite of mine. I picked them to make the Super Bowl. Granted, the team I picked them to play in the Super Bowl ain’t looking too good because that’s the Baltimore Ravens, but that’s not either here or there. The Steelers also lost in the discipline part of the game, and that’s something we don’t see all too often of late. Sure, sometimes they’ll get caught in a bad alignment or a mismatch will happen or you’ll just get straight up beat. Those things happen, but discipline has rarely been the Steelers issues of late. when when the Steelersh problems get compounded by more and more mistakes and then those problems start to stack again. The Steelers defensive plan seemed to have several answers uh for the Packers early on. But once that big play to Tucker Craft happened where Elliot got hurt and then the other big play to Christian Watson where Juan Thornnehill misplayed the deep ball, it was like the game plan went away and the players abandoned their roles. And that’s not what you’re supposed to do when uh when when things get tough. You’re supposed to tighten up. Remember your keys that you studied on to focus on for this game. Play within a structure of what you’re supposed to do and make the plays that you can within that structure. And unfortunately for the Steelers, that’s not what happened on defense. When the Packers made big plays, the Steelers responded poorly. And Cam Hayward kind of called that out. I was asking him questions in the Steelers locker room. Listen to Cam Hayward kind of being a little honest about things in the Steelers locker room after the game. Cam, you guys talked about stopping the run going into this game, and you guys looked like you guys largely did stop the run, but still gave up a lot of points, a lot of yards. What do you guys have to do better to be better against the pass right now? Uh, you got to, you know, adverse a lot better, man. Um, I think this game kind of eroded in the second half and, uh, big plays um were, you know, the death of us today. uh you know um you’re not going to be perfect out there um but you got to keep fighting um and um you know I just think there’s a lot of ball and you know not enough fight on our side. Do you think the fight problem is happening because of the big plays and you guys don’t rebound those well enough? Yeah, we uh I just didn’t I don’t think we handled ad adversity and that second half it just kind of split open. Um and you know, you know, if you get hit hit hard enough, you got to have answers for it. Part of being a professional is fixing your mistakes fast. Uh and answer and answering those problems. Um, you know, I I think this is a lesson we all can learn from. Um, but, you know, hopefully hits home fast. What’s the challenge for a team with a lot of veterans to have a turnaround in the fight in the in the response to adversity or the message you guys have to have? It’s not like there’s a whole bunch of young guys who are adjusted to the NFL. A lot of these guys have experience. Yeah. Um, just just learn from your mistakes. Um, and you can’t be perfect out there, but you can learn. Um, and see what a defense or offense is trying to do for you. Um, and then I think just owning it. Um, then, uh, I’m not, like I said, I don’t think anybody needs to be perfect, but if you can own your mistake and make sure that disappears, it goes a long way. Where’s your confidence level still in the defensive field? Very high. I think the respond to adversity part of Cam’s answer speaks volumes to what happened in the Steelers Sunday night loss. Once the problems emerged, especially on defense, the lack of commitment to their assignments grew. And then you even saw some players not following through on what their assignment was even when they were in position to make the play. Like Darius Slay on that wide receiver screen to Savon Williams was just completely inexcusable. And frankly, so has a lot of Slay’s efforts of late. Uh he was in position. Listen, the Packers did some good blocking up front, but Slay was left unblocked. Could have pinned to the sideline and and at least knocked Williams out of bounds. He does none of that. He barely puts an effort into the tackle and Williams just kind of walks in for the for for the touchdown. That’s inexcusable effort. And that’s not a a rookie that has to learn the tenacity of the game. That’s not someone who might have been caught up. That’s Darius Slay who’s supposed to be the former AllPro veteran that’s making the right striking the right tone, being a good locker room guy, being a good leader, showing an example of how to play tough even when things aren’t going your way. And to me, that’s a big problem if he’s giving you that kind of effort on a very basic request of him in in that position. And it’s not just Slay either. Uh you could also point to Cole Hulkcom. He was out of position a lot early on in this game. Uh, and it’s not even going to be, you know, be be a whole lot. You could talk about Joey Porter, too, jumping out of his assignments or Patrick Queen, I think, not pinching his zone assignments uh uh correctly at times. A lot of it comes back to discipline to keep their role sound in the defensive structure. And sometimes also, as Mike’s acknowledging, sometimes that defensive structure maybe needed to be a little bit different on c on certain looks and maybe needed to try to pinch a different thing. To me, that’s the big thing the Steelers are focusing on. But now, you also have to add dumb penalties into the mix because Nick Herbig’s penalty. I can kind of understand uh live I missed Scoranic being hit and so I thought, “Oh man, I just saw Nick Herbig coming in late.” And again, this is kind of what happens when those plays, those mistakes get made. But Nick Herby, you know, came in to his defense. He was getting hit late. Sure, that that was that was bad. And that’s forgivable. But DK Medcast personal foul penalty wasted a third and two situation where the run game was starting to get back. They were starting to use the run game in the fourth quarter. They were going to try to use that to get back in it and they still had a chance turned a third and two into a third and 17 all because they got into an altercation and he tried to poke the guy in the eye or whatever. And at that point in the game, the Stevens were down just 10 points with 1014 left in the fourth quarter. and the run game still could have impacted the game. They could have run the ball down the field, set up some play action, get a touchdown, and all of a sudden you’re down three, and you’re still in the game. But then that Cats penalty makes it a third and seven, third, third and 17. Uh Roger Aaron Rogers gets sacked, and that was basically the end the end of the game right there. Those are the things that Tomlin cannot have from a team that has several veterans on both sides of the ball that’s that are supposed to set the tone and be the be the example of what to do in the right moments. Uh these should not be NFL vets being caught up with uh with with problems and being and causing more issues to the plans of the team as you know when it comes to personal fouls and and things like that. Tomlin has to stomp that out right now. now and it’s something that should have been stomped out before, but you saw it kind of creep up in this game as the Steelers frustration started to compound more and more tit for tat more and more going back and forth with the Packers. That’s not what you want to be as a team. That’s not being disciplined. And I think even in the Steelers losses this year, you can see, hey, they made a mistake here, but they they didn’t lose their heads. They didn’t they weren’t the ones being fiery and doing silly things. This was losing your head. And if this continues, that’s going to be a really big problem because it’s going to lead the Steelers frustrations turning to the more big mistakes and it’s going to make winning a lot harder. It’s already been difficult for the Steelers this season with their tough schedule with they’ve had injuries, they’ve had growing pains, they they’ve had all sorts of of of of issues. But if that gets compounded with undisiplined football, whether that’s abandoning your role in the defense or making or committing dumb penalties that cost you yards in important moments, this season is going to fully unravel and fast. And I know some people are going to say, “Well, it’s fully unraveled already.” No, it’s not because they’re four and three. They’re they’re still at top the division and if they turn things around as we’ve seen them turn things around before they can absolutely still have a good season out of this. And the fortunate part of that is that they won a lot of those earlier games getting to 4 and one where these these two losses don’t destroy them. They do hurt. They do waste an opportunity that could have been to put your put your foot on the throat of everyone else in your division, but you’re still in a position where you can if you turn things around, you can control your season. And despite all the negativity that comes from a loss like this, I do think there were positives in this game, particularly because the offense did put up 25 points, they still weren’t perfect. But I want to talk about something that’s happening on offense that we said had to have happened this year if you wanted the Steelers to find a path moving forward in the coming seasons. We’ll talk about that next year on the Lockdown Steelers podcast because the O line balled out. I’ll talk about that more here in a second on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I’m your host, Chris Carter. Stick with us. be right back. But first, remind you, this episode is brought to you by Game Time. 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We’ve talked a lot of negativity about this game. And listen, it’s it’s not I’m not trying to find a silver lining here. This isn’t a silver lining segment, but I want to acknowledge something that I think is a thing. The Steelers offensive line is playing better and figuring things out. And that’s kind of what makes the defense stinking up the joint so bad so disappointing. I think what makes these these two these both of these losses is that there is an emergence in the team offense from the offensive line, especially in the run game against the Packers, which was one of the best run defenses in the country. Country country like this is college football, the NFL, one of the best run defenses in the NFL. The Steelers ran the ball 18 times for 93 yards, an average of 5.2 two yards per carry on a defense that had the second fewest rushing yards per game allowed in the NFL and the fourth it was the fourth best at limiting yards per carry. They averaged going into this game allowing 3.5 yards per carry. Not only that, but the majority of Aaron Rogers sacks I thought came from him holding on to the ball far too long and taking coverage sacks on on plays where the offensive line mostly had a really good pass rush unit blocked up pretty well. Personally, I thought, and this is just initial review. I’ve done a little bit of quick review looking over just like the broadcast angles. I haven’t had a chance to go over all 22 yet. So, don’t worry me if I’m wrong about some things and I come back tomorrow with my grades and I say, “Hey, I missed I missed this here or there.” Again, I’m recording this at like 5:30, 5:45 in the morning. But, um, I thought Brick Jones, Troy Falano, Mason McCormack, all had very good games. And in my opinion, uh, coming after the game live, I I thought that they were on point. I thought that there were several big blocks in the run game that they all set up. Uh I thought that they were really good in pass protection. I thought Brderick Jones threw some key blocks in the run game. It was very encouraging of what he of his growth and this was a game that I thought they all stepped up. And I also want to give a special shout out to the toughness of Zack Frasier who had a calf injury going into this game. And maybe you couldn’t tell on TV, but Zack Frasier after a lot of these plays, he would make a killer block and you’d see him like limping to the, you know, back to the huddle because he his his leg was clearly not straight. That dude is toughness uh personified. I give him a ton of credit for the good game that he played uh and all a lot of the plays that he made because he did so while injured and he never seemed to really complain about it. He just kept battling through. Kudos to him. I also give a got to give kudos to Spencer Anderson who we’ve seen be that extra lineman on the field. The the the 74 is now eligible. He also filled in pretty well at left guard for Isaac Samalo when he went down with a pec injury. We’ll see what happens there because pec injuries are never good in football. Um and it didn’t matter this time if it was Jaylen Warner or Kenneth Gainwell. The Steelers had answers to get the ground game going whoever was in the back field. And it does appear that it worked. Again, the Steelers averaging 5.2 yards per carry this week. They averaged 7.4 yards per carry last week against the Bengals. And they joined the Lions as the only two teams so far to rush for a 100red yards or more against the Browns defense this this year. Uh that’s real growth from a young unit that this team needs to take steps forward. Shout out to them. And got to say shout out to Pat Meyer because he has gotten a lot of flack for the Steelers offensive line. not just manifesting overnight over the last two years with Brick Jones in his rookie year, Brick Jones in his second year and then and that being last year along with Troy Falanu uh being hurt, James Daniels being hurt, there was a lot of things that was saying, “Hey man, Pat Meyer is not good at his job.” It’s still just a halfway point and they could fold backwards at some point. But right now, as much as we’re piling on Mike Tomlin, Terrell Austin, and rightfully so because the defense isn’t looking good, you got to give it to Pat Meyer and this offensive line. They’re playing better. And I do think there were there were still mistakes in this in this offensive game plan from Arthur Smith. Uh because I thought the Steelers should have come out the ball in the second half running the ball down their throats the way that they were. And I I get that, you know, initially you try to pass play and there was a penalty and there things things set you behind, but this run game was really working. And to me that is the investment in this team right now that you put in with your with your draft picks. Get behind those guys. let their athletic athletic big bodies be the group that determined the game. And again, this was a 25point performance for an offense against one of the better defenses in the NFL. I’m I feel like I’m kind of splitting hairs here a little bit, but I did think they could have run the run the ball a bit more. They were not a good third down offense. They only converted one of 10 on the night and the team lost time in possession again. This time 3148 to 2812. Um, but still I thought there were positive aspects of the young parts of this offense that could be promising moving forward if they continue to grow together. I thought Roman Wilson second game in a row where I’m seeing him emerge and finding himself and finding his confidence. He made that first deep ball connection uh with Aaron Rogers where I was like, okay, Roman Wilson and got his toe tap in. Um, and then uh late in the game that touchdown. Granted, what is a catch in the NFL? I don’t know, man. like I I just know that that call would not have stuck in a few years ago. But either way, great effort. He finished the play. He got the touchdown. Good for good for him there. That’s two impressive deep ball catches for Owen Wilson. And then Aaron Rogers, despite the sacks that he took that I did think were rough, he still looks the part of the quarterback who can command the field, still made some amazing throws. the the the defensive pass interference penalty that he that he got uh that he drew with with Calvin Austin with the deep ball that he threw. It was an impressive throw kind of off his back foot that just underthrew it but put the defender in a tough spot where he had to face guard. It was a good defensive pass interference call and it it saved the Steelers drive and that led to their their touchdown pass to DK Medaf. Um I thought that he was impressive there. I thought also his deep ball to Medaf that didn’t get get caught because it was a really good breakup but I thought that was another great throw. He had several great plays. He also drew them off sides on a key play and threw a really good ball that Roman Wilson should have caught on third down. Granted, they didn’t get the offsides call. I don’t know how they didn’t get the offsides call, but again, I I I don’t think that that’s the big thing here. I think the Aaron Rogers uh finished the 24-36, 219, two touchdown passes, efficient, getting the job done. And I think that’s where there’s real potential for this offense to figure things out and continue to grow together to be a force that puts up points consistently even in competitive games against good teams because again that Packers team that just beat the Steelers is a good team, maybe even a great team, maybe even the best team in the NFL right now. So I think take that with a with a grain of salt. Um, I I think that’s again when you look at the offense and what they’re putting together and the things they’re figuring out, that’s what makes this defensive let down so disappointing because if the Steelers were even having the kind of defensive year that they had for the most part of last year before their fourame skid and even through that, they still finished as a top 10 defense last year. This team, if they had that kind of a defense this year, this team would probably be seven and one right now. Maybe even eight and No. No. play. Have they played eight games? They’re four and three. I don’t know how I don’t know math. They’d be six and one or seven and0. Haha, there we go. Now look, look at me counting now. That’s why I do think that there needs to be some urgency to fix these problems on the defense and that has to come from Tomlin on the on the way down. There’s sometimes that I think that the the switches are minute are something that’s like, hey, this little matchup here, get it addressed. Don’t don’t need to shake up shake up everything. And oftentimes that is the case. They’ll they’ll you know, the football is such an an incredible game because you will see the smallest things turn into the biggest problem. But if you fix this one thing over here, everything starts to happen. It’s why Mike Tomman, when you ask him a question, I asked him about the pass rush not getting home, you know, enough in this game. He said, “Hey, we’re not going to judge that in a vacuum. We’re going to look at the big picture here.” And to his point, I think that was his way of saying like in a press conference where he’s got a million other things to worry about and this and his team just lost like two games in a row and has a lot of things things to fix. he’s not going to have time to just be like to to to know how the the average per second that Jordan Love uh threw the ball. And when I got a chance to like look that up on NextG, I was like, “Oh, well, that’s that’s why the pass rush did didn’t get home.” But this is where I think it’s bigger than just a little thing here, a little adjustment there. This team needs to have urgency to change something, especially in its pass defense. The run defense, I think, can figure itself out. That’s that’s the minute things that when they were losing the run game. I think that’s the minute thing that they can figure out on their own. Cam Hayward can work with Derek Harmon can work with Keanu Bettton. I think the guys up front, they can figure those things out. The pass game looks like a much much bigger challenge right now. And that might need some urgency on on all on all parties involved. Not just from Jaylen Ramsey or Joey Porter, not just from from Juan Thornne, not from Terrell Austin or Gerald Alexander the the defensive backs coach, but from Mike Tomlin, from everyone there say, “Hey, maybe we need to switch things up.” And maybe because the Steelers use a ton of single high safety looks, maybe they do need to go to two high two high shells and they have to say, “Hey, front seven, y’all got to win. Y’all got to win straight up. take away the run and allow us to play more of this Tampa 2 coverage to give our corners the support so that they’re not getting caught out in no man’s land the way they have and maybe we work some more uh some more of the looks that we want to have and are better prepared to take away things in the past game that other teams are doing. Again, still got to go over all 22. I’m finishing this episode like 6:20 in the morning, but uh so we’ll have it up as as soon as possible. I’m going to take Monday first I’m going to take a nap. Then I’m going to take Monday to go over film, prep my grades, go over things because there’s a lot to cover and a lot to critique. But we’ll be doing it as much as we can as fast as we can to get you ready for Tuesday’s episode where we do our stars and skulls grades. It’s going to be a graveyard game. I can tell you that much because there were a lot of bad grades to hand out and maybe our first real bus ticket of the season. Uh but we’ll go over all of that on tomorrow’s episode. Hang in there, Steeler Nation. Hang in there, Steelers. Octon Steelers listeners and viewers, thanks so much for tuning in. I know it’s a it’s a rough Monday sometimes, but we hope that you can you can get yourself up the off the mat with the with the Steelers. We hope the Steelers can do that, too, because it’d be nice to cover winning football for a little bit. But we’ll break down all the things that they need to do to get there in our in our grades episode that’ll come out tomorrow with our stars and skulls. You can read my work in the Pittsburgh Postgazette, post-gazette.com. I’ll have some critiques there as well coming up uh pretty soon. And we’ll have more to go over uh this week on the Locked On Steelers podcast. Fantastic. I’m your host, Chris Carter. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram and all the social medias, Carter Critique. It’s always my handle, Tik Tok, wherever you see me. Uh you can also uh read my work in the Pittsburgh Post because, as I said, you can find me here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast every day, Monday through Friday, breaking down the Steelers on your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoy it. Subscribe to this channel to get all of our daily content as well as our locked on Steelers squad show and our bonus episodes. We’ll be back here tomorrow with our lock with our stars and skulls grades on the Steelers on the Locked On Steelers podcast. Heat. Heat.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 35-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers featured several problems from scheme, to execution and discipline. Christopher Carter breaks down how the problems continue to stack for a defense that’s underperformed, and a team that could be missing out on an emerging offense. But could the issues be too many to fix? Chris takes you into why Tomlin’s answers in his press conference could be the first signal that bigger changes could be coming for the defense soon, and Cam Heyward’s locker room interview where he called out the Steelers for not responding to adversity well.

Chris takes you through more of the problems he saw, as well as the good parts of the offense, like Jaylen Warren and the offensive line, as well as Aaron Rodgers. Could the Steelers’ offense be in the verge of a breakthrough to be one of the more balanced units in the NFL? And could that be what makes the Steelers’ defensive shortcomings that much more urgent to fix?

Steelers’ Mike Tomlin Faces Scheme, Execution, Discipline Issues in Packers Loss, Signals Changes https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7JorgD8nGLtvvMy1ogFetg

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