The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Defense Is Bad.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Defense Is Bad.

Hey everybody, Alex Kazora, Steelers Depot.com, back with some more Pittsburgh Steelers tape breakdown and analysis. The Pittsburgh Steelers defense is bad and you already know that. Let’s talk about it. Before we start, if you guys could like this video, subscribe to the channel, and check out the site steelersdepo.com, would really appreciate that. So, we’re just going to go through a collection of clips from the Sunday night loss to the Green Bay Packers in which the Pittsburgh defense continues to struggle for a variety of reasons and there are no clear explanations or really rather answers for how it’s going to get better. So, some individual, some collective, some schematic. This one individual mistackles continue to be a problem for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Missed a ton of them in this game. Little kind of smoke route here from Jordan Love early in this one. Darius Slay, the quarterback to the bottom, having to make this tackle one-on-one. He cannot and allows a lot of yak here. And that was a theme of the day, an early indication of which way this thing was going to go. Slay saw his role reduced. He played literally half the snaps in this one. We’ll see if that happens going forward. But they’re going to challenge these corners. Whether that’s in the run game we saw in Josh Jacobs rushing touchdown, it was crack replace. They cracked the safety, forced the corner to tackle, he could not. And they’re going to challenge these guys to try to make these tackles out in space. These bigger receivers Green Bay has. And Darius Slay not up to the challenge on this rep. Pittsburgh’s defense did hold their own in the first half. They won on third down, but I still thought Green Bay was showing the advantage in the schematic chess game of beating the blitz and countering what Pittsburgh was trying to do. Pittsburgh blitzed heavy in this game, especially on early downs. Maybe that was some of the run blitz stuff to make sure Josh Jacobs was contained after that terrible showing against the Bengals. But we saw Green Bay really have success with the quick game against the Blitz. Couple elements at play on this one. We’re seeing the linebacker rush Cole Hulcom. And so that’s one part of this. It’s an RPO. Love sees the blitz and then throws to Tucker Craft in the flat to really started his great and frankly historic day against Pittsburgh. This touchdown, the first of two he had. The other thing to look at is the lack of response to motion and it’s miscommunication. And it’s really frustrating to see this team struggle so often with bunches and switch releases which which was more of a 2024 issue and just simple trades and motions like this. The 2 by two just to start craft goes in motion and there’s no communication in who’s picking this up. Pittsburgh’s in man here. Elliot is trying to rally late, but he’s so, you know, out leveraged and late to the ball, ends up missing the tackle and Craft ends up scoring. And so they’re if they’re in zone, then yeah, sometimes nobody follows and, you know, that’s the coverage, but they’re not in zone on this play. Pittsburgh’s playing what appears to be at least man coverage. And Elliot is late and there’s no response here. I mean, Clark motions, but then Craft motions. Clark puts up a signal. No one else is communicating. with him and Elliott is late across the field. So just a simple motion throwing Pittsburgh off. That’s one part of this play. And then beating the blitz here as Hulkcom rushes in. And you he’s late to to try to make the tackle if he’s not rushing. If he’s not blitzing on this play, maybe he’s getting out there to help and make this stop. But a lot going wrong on this play on Craft’s first touchdown. We see it again and see an even better example on this play. Pittsburgh. And this is by the way, let’s get the down and distance here too. Early down. This is first and 10. Pittsburgh bringing some pressure. They’re going to bring strong safety Deshawn Elliott. And the Packers are just countering with this quick pass game. Three-step game. Ball out quickly to beat the blitz. Throwing into the blitz as well. Pittsburgh running these man pressures and you see this pick and rub here too. And we saw in the Bengals game last week Pittsburgh really struggle with these picks and rubs and you know more bunched sets that would get Pittsburgh late to the ball. And we see it here. Patrick Queen trying to go under kind of the rub set by the receiver. May not mean a true rub, but they’re just kind of this condensed set. Queen trying to work through traffic. He’s trailing the whole way. You have the safety blitzing in essentially taking himself out of the play. Also blitzing from extreme depth here. I assume this wasn’t timed up properly cuz Elliot is really late um and really far away here from depth blitzing. And again, this is just pitch and catch. And then poor tackling. Queen can’t make the play. Porter can’t make the play. And ultimately, it’s Elliot, the man blitzing. from Harrisburg on this play who comes in and finally cleans things up. So, you’re seeing the schematic win of Green Bay not running into these blitzes and running these quick three-step games. Just a little flat route by the tight end. Pittsburgh getting caught up in some of that trash here. Even I’m just kind of noticing it now. You see Quinn and Elliot almost collect each other here that slow down both guys as Elliott is late and blitzing from depth here. You see he has to slow down. It’s that’s not impacting the play. Ball’s going to be out no matter what Elliot’s track is. But this all just screws up angles and timing and then add some pretty poor tackling. A bunch of yak behind get these big plays. This was an obvious turning point. The Tucker Craft 59yd reception. And there’s really not much explanation here. Pittsburgh again sending pressure. It’s cover one. The man pressures weren’t working. The Blitz got home. Patrick Queens had about four almost sacks this season. And Love throws this lollipop in the air and Craft catches it. And look at all the yak here. Now, was there a push off by Craft? Yeah, I think there was. But we know these offensive players are rarely called for OPI. And even if you even putting that aside and seeing the catch from Craft, I mean he catches this at what his own 32 yardd line I think it is. At his own 32 and look where this ball ends up at about Pittsburgh’s 26. They just cannot get this guy down. Elliot gets hurt on the play. He’s going to be out for at least a while. while I’m recording this Monday evening, so I don’t know if there’ll be more details about his injury, but it is significant per Mike Tomlin, but Pittsburgh just losing out. This is third down. You have Green Bay backed up. The rush is getting home. You’ve done you’ve done your job. You forced a pretty bad throw. Just kind of this lollipop. Got pressure, hit the quarterback, and you just can’t make the play anywhere. Pittsburgh gets a third down stop here facing fourth and one. Tough situation, advantage offense, but eyes in the backfield. Poor discipline. I know it’s fourth and one. You’re keying the run. You’re keying the running back Josh Jacobs, but the tight end Craft again gets out here to the flat. Pittsburgh’s late. Easy first down. And Green Bay finds the end zone a couple of plays later. Just looking at the eyes here. Everybody in the back action, no one having eyes on the tight end who gets wide open and it puts Green Bay in gold to go. So just an undisiplined game as the wheels started to really come off here again. Looking at all the eyes on the mesh point, nobody on the receiver. It’s a nice design. You got the receiver sort of cracking down, making it look like and selling run here. This is not even an RPO, I don’t think. This is just a straight up play action, but leaving Craft all alone for the first down. Again, we’re seeing Green Bay have the upper hand schematically. This is second and six. Pittsburgh’s bringing pressure. It’s a man pressure. They’re bringing the safety and Love is getting the ball out of his hand right away. Pittsburgh’s man pressures simply were not working in this game. Green Bay was countering them really well. I don’t know what Love’s numbers were against man coverage offhand, but I’m sure they were great. I’m sure they were great against everything considering he threw for 360 yards and three touchdowns, no interceptions, but Green Bay effectively countering and staying a step ahead of Pittsburgh. They’re not running. They’re not play actioning. They’re not dropping back on some sort of five-step drop where they got to let this play develop. The ball’s coming out quick into the flat. Pittsburgh playing man coverage. The cornerback off here, Ramsay. And it’s an easy pitch, catch, and conversion. Another backb breakaking play. Third down, the deep ball to Christian Watson. His first game back from a torn ACL. Pittsburgh again in man coverage. Cover one. Juan Thornhill, the free safety. You know, I think you can probably debate should he be getting depth here and taking that most vertical threat? He probably should be, but even still, never gets a good angle to the ball. tries to track it, never flips his hips, and ball goes over his head as he’s just diving and missing. And it’s a huge conversion here. Real big moment of this one. Pittsburgh allowing Green Bay to convert five of their last eight third downs, including big chunk plays. The 59yd catch by Craft. We just showed this one, the 33 y to Watson. We’re going to look at the 24 yard touchdown by Tucker Craft here in a moment. all on third down. And so Pittsburgh not winning those possession downs, not just losing them, but also giving up big chunks of yard yardage and touchdowns in these critical weighty moments. So Pittsburgh again sending pressure, poor contain. Love able to roll to his right here. Bad angle by the safety. Big play for Green Bay. In one play to really just sum up how bad this defense has been, how disorganized they are, how rudderless they appear. Two-point conversion after the Josh Jacobs touchdown. And just do a bit of math here. Uh the NFL allows for 11 players on the field. Pittsburgh did not get that message. We’ll count them up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10. One short, missing what appears to be a quarterback. Pittsburgh in their nickel defense. You have both safeties out here. Clark Clark and Thornnehill after Elliot’s injury only have two corners and Ramsay and Porter. So, there should be either Brandon Eckles or Darius Slay on the field. That is not picked up by anybody except for maybe Chuck Clark. Clark was kind of signaling here, but no timeout called. Clark’s trying to show something. looked to the sidelines and Romeo Dobs wide open on the two-point conversion to put Green Bay ahead by a field goal 22 to 19. And even though Pittsburgh only had 10 out here, you’re still getting maybe some element of miscommunication. I they’re trying to pass this off here, but you have Porter and Ramsay and really in theory this still should have been covered. I think miscommunication on first in first out rules here and Porter unable to pass this off properly. So even though you were down a man on this play probably still if he had played this right with good communication been able to cover Dob. So he’s wide open. So, a bunch of layers of issues on this play. Bad personnel, the incorrect number of personnel, and then probably still some level of miscommunication or just not passing things off cleanly, which has been an issue against the Bengals. And now against the Packers and then that Tucker Craft touchdown, the second one at least that really salted this game away. Third down, Pittsburgh again playing man coverage, looking to bring pressure, sending the inside linebackers. Not a lot of help here. Chuck Clark gets dusted on this angle route by Tucker Craft. And you really feel the lack of speed from the Steelers secondary. Clark and Thornhill not able to get a step on a big tight end, a good tight end. Craft is obviously a very talented player. He was having a great season before this game, having an even better season after it, but just no speed at all. Clark can’t touch him. Thornhill can’t touch him, and it’s a touchdown. The second of the day for Tucker Craft. So, Green Bay consistently beating man coverage, beating the blitz, getting the ball out quickly, getting Yak, and just winning at basically every level, whether it was scheme, whether it was, you know, postcatch, um, ball in the air, Pittsburgh not making any plays at all, a defense that is old and slow looking every bit of its old age and lack of speed. So obviously two really disappointing performances in Pittsburgh’s road does not get any easier facing the Indianapolis Colts a number one ranked offense flying high this Sunday at Aquaur Stadium. The NFL is funny and things can change on any given Sunday and maybe Pittsburgh will pick things up, but it is looking pretty bad right now given the high expectations for this team. We had 10 days off to rest, recover. Pittsburgh came into this game with a healthy defense. Did not leave it with a healthy defense with injuries to Elliot and backup most tackle Daniel Laquali. But no excuses in this one. Pittsburgh stopped the run. And that’s usually what their their go-to is whenever the defense falters. It was early in the season. It was fair against Seattle or the Bengals game in week seven. Can’t stop the run. You can’t build the rest of your defense. They generally stopped the run. Things got worse after Elliot left in this game in the second half. But, you know, Pittsburgh was able to contain Josh Jacobs. and said, “This was a true look in the mirror. We just can’t cover. We have no answers. Nothing is working. We’re old. We’re slow. And quarterbacks are picking us apart. Even on this field, if by the way, you can see the pit logo underneath the uh the Steelers logo that the Panthers playing there the day before. So, the field not great either, but no excuse. I mean, the Packers were the much better team. They had the youth, the speed, and that was on display. So, let me know your thoughts in the comments below. Appreciate you guys watching. Please like this video, subscribe to the channel, and check out the site steelersdepo.com. Thank you again, and we’ll talk to you soon.

Breaking down the Pittsburgh Steelers’ bad defense shown in Week 8’s game against the Green Bay Packers. #Steelers #Defense #SteelersDepot

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