It’s Time To Have An HONEST Discussion About The Pittsburgh Steelers Defense This Season…

It’s Time To Have An HONEST Discussion About The Pittsburgh Steelers Defense This Season…

Steelers nation, it’s time to have an honest chat about the Pittsburgh Steelers defense here in 2025 after that frankly unacceptable performance versus the Cincinnati Bengals this Thursday night. And um I think it’s time to kind of sit down, talk about some of the issues that this defense is having, have an honest conversation about that, and then also look at some of the areas that I think that this coaching staff can address over the mini bye-week to make this defense better because I do think that the talent is here to make one of the best defenses in the National Football League. It’s just about finding that right mix. Welcome in the Steelers Talk. I’m your host, Jack Sperry. If you guys want in-depth, nuanced, nerdy, kind of in-depth content on the Pittsburgh Steelers like this every single day, that’s what we provide for you guys for free here on Steelers Talk. There’s a reason why we are the largest individually run Steelers News channel anywhere on YouTube. We are the only one with over 100,000 subscribers. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button if you haven’t already uh to join us here on Steelers Talk. Now, let’s talk about this. All right. What ended up turning the game last night in my opinion um in terms of the uh you know the game and and why things kind of went off the rails cuz remember the Steelers stopped the Bengals the first two drives of the game. The defense was looking like it it looked against Cleveland and it looked against Minnesota and it looked like that defense was playing pretty decently those first two drives and then boom, you know, you only force a punt one other time for the rest of the game and they get a bunch of scoring drives and they end up putting up over 30 on you. I think the big thing that in the big swing in that football game, especially because it’s a Thursday night short week, was that stretch between that first touchdown drive that the Cincinnati Bengals went on in the middle of the second quarter to the middle of the third quarter when they went up 10 points. All right, during that stretch, there was 15 minutes and 50 seconds of game clock. All right. During that stretch, the Cincinnati Bengals had 33 plays to the Steelers eight and they possessed the football for 14 minutes and and nearly 14 and a half mill minutes of possession versus the Steelers 2 and a half minutes because of course the Steelers uh threw those two interceptions pretty quickly in those two drives and then this Bengals got the ball out of halftime. So, they really controlled the football for a very large portion of time. And fatigue was always going to be a factor in this football game, guys. It always is on Thursday night. Usually, you want to get a better rotation going on Thursdays because these players just played on Sunday. They haven’t had a lot of rest and and recovery time and all that stuff. But when your defense is on the field for 14 and a half minutes over a fif almost a 16minute stretch in a ball game, they’re going to get gassed, guys. And it’s almost impossible for the defense to stay fresh if that’s the case. So, you know, obviously the the answer to that is just, you know, make a stop on those, you know, those first couple drives and then, you know, you have a sustained drive on offense. You don’t turn the football over. It was just a series of very unfortunate events for the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially in the setting that they were in. A Thursday night football game on the road against a divisional opponent, uh, in a tough place to play. And you know, the defense was simply gassed in that second half, guys. You could tell, you know, you could tell, you know, once they went up 10 after that point, even though the Steelers were consistently putting points on the board there on that in that second half, consistently scoring touchdowns, uh, that defense, you could just tell, was not moving at the same speed that they were in the first half because they were just on the field for so many plays. And uh you could just tell that you know attrition set in and that obviously that’s not an excuse and that doesn’t give the Pittsburgh Steelers defense a pass in this football game. What they put on tape in this game was frankly unacceptable. And we’re going to be talking about a lot of the issues that the Pittsburgh Steelers have on defense from a general perspective, not just in this football game, but just in general this season. And uh you know, it goes far beyond just the fact that they were fatigued in this game. But coming up here on Steelers Talk, we’re going to go over what went wrong versus the Bengals. And then also later in the show here, we’ll talk about some of the solutions that I would prescribe to Terrell Austin and Mike Tomlin to fix some of the issues that the Steelers defense is going through right now. But before we get into the rest of today’s show, let me know down there in the comments section who carries the most blame for the defensive collapse versus uh the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football. You let me know down there in the comments section for today’s pin question. you. Uh, in just a second here, I’m going to tell you about our sponsor today at Prize Picks. And while I tell you about our sponsor here, let me know down there in the comments section, what’s one person that has the most blame for the defensive collapse last night. And with that, let’s have a word from our sponsor here at Prize Pick. And you and I, we both make decisions every single day. 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So, for this week’s uh uh action here in week seven, I’m taking the more on Dak Prescott passing yards, the more on Jakori Krosky Merritt rushing yards, and the more on Jaden Daniels uh rushing and passing yards combined. You guys can download the app today to get a lineup in and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup this weekend. That’s code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup on the free prize picks app today. Prize picks, it’s good to be right. All right, so now let’s get into my takeaways from the film from this unacceptable defensive performance on Thursday Night Football. First up here, too many heroes in run defense. And what I mean by this is that there’s too many players in the Steelers run fit that are abandoning their, you know, responsibilities to try and shoot a gap into the back field and try to make a big play uh for a TFL. Okay. And you know, I think that when it comes to run defense, everything is about gap structure and integrity and making sure everyone’s in the right place at the right time. No one’s getting blasted out of their particular gap, forcing, you know, a big hole. And unfortunately last night, guys like Chuck Clark, guys like Patrick Queen, guys like Peyton Wilson at times were just out of position leading to wide open holes for Chase Brown to exploit. And uh the team that came into the night dead last in rushing offense ended up having multiple explosive runs and had almost 100 yards rushing at halftime. All right, let alone the entire game. So, um you know, when when defenders try and, you know, be a hero and they try to abandon their responsibility to try and make a big play, that leaves opportunities for the offense to have big holes and to get explosive plays. And that’s exactly what we saw from this Steelers run defense um you know, last night. And the truth of the matter is, guys, if the run defense for the Steelers stinks, the entire defense is going to stink. It’s the foundation of this defense. They want to get these teams into third and very long situations. And they just weren’t really able to do that. Joe Flacco and the and the Bengals offense was very, very efficient. Whether it was with the ground game with Chase Brown or Sama Pine or whether it was the short passing game, they were just consistently taking a profit and consistently moving the football. and they were very rarely moving backwards, which is really where what the Steelers want to do. They want to force the issue. They want to get these teams to be moving backwards to force third and longs, uh, which would of course accentuate the strength of this defense, which is the pass rush, but they weren’t really able to do that. So, if you can get the run game fixed, um, you guys, we’ve seen it, uh, we we’ve seen this defense play better. Uh, when they’ve stopped the run, this defense, you know, is pretty productive and they do a good job uh, preventing points, forcing turnovers, getting off the field. that sort of stuff. But that just wasn’t the case this week versus Cincinnati. And moving forward, the message from the coaching staff has to be just do your effing job. All right? Just fill your gap. All right? You don’t have to be a hero. All right? You don’t have to go out there and make the big play. Just uh just do your assignment, fill your run fit, and just do your job. All right? If you do those things, we will be successful. And sure, may will we give up like maybe a 2 yard gain versus, you know, having a a minus two or minus three TFL and for you to stuff your stat sheet? Sure. But like at the same time, we’re not going to give up as many 20 yard runs or 30 yard runs and, you know, these explosive plays that shift the momentum in the football game. So that has to be the message uh this week and moving forward in my opinion is to be gap sound. Now the bright side, guys, is that we have seen this run defense be pretty darn good. All right. In the three games previously, uh, previous to this game versus the Bengals, versus the Patriots, versus the Vikings, and versus the Browns, um, you know, three teams that, you know, can run the football a little bit. Uh, they did a really good job, uh, you know, stopping those teams and, you know, preventing them from having big gains and, you know, keeping a lid on the run running game, which of course led to more opportunities to rush the passer and more third and long situations. So, um, if the Steelers can just get that right, that is a foundational kind of focal point that the Steelers need to get right in the future if this defense is going to hit its potential. But then, you know, talking about the pass rush, you know, a lot of people are blaming the pass rush for this game. Um, saying, you know, they’re ghosts and, you know, they’re invisible and all this stuff, but there really wasn’t any time for the pass rush to get home. Joe Flacco uh to his credit got the ball out extremely quickly, had answers to everything the Steelers were throwing at him schematically and it was an average of 2.21 uh seconds was the average time to throw from Joe Flacco in this football game. And you know, obviously that is extremely quick and that is very efficient. And you know, if you’re a pass rusher and you only have uh you have less than two and a half seconds to get to a quarterback, you’re probably not going to get to him, right? So, the Steelers secondary and the coverage needs to do a better job. We’ll talk about some of the problem areas in the coverage here in just a second. Uh, but if you’re blaming the pass rush, for me, it wasn’t really on the pass rush in this one, guys. I actually thought that the defensive line in terms of the pass rush looked pretty good. Cam Hayward had a lot of close calls in this one. Some very quick wins, but Flaco just got the ball out fast. Nick Herbig was his was his usual disruptive self. Alex Heismith had the most pressures out of anybody on the team last night. and Keo Benson got a sack as well. I will say the one person on the defensive line and on the pass rush that underwhelmed for me was TJ Watt. Uh he got more oneon true one-on-one opportunities than he usually gets and it was against a young right tackle and Amarius Mims who’s had his struggles in this league and TJ still wasn’t able to make that much of an impact. Now like I said, it’s tough for TJ to get to Joe Flacco when he’s getting rid of the ball as quickly as he was even in a one-on-one situation. But you still, you know, expect, you know, if TJ’s gonna get more one-on-one opportunities, he’s still gonna make a bigger impact on the game than he ended up actually having. Uh, but a big issue with this football game, guys, from a game planning perspective, from an adjustment standpoint, in my opinion, from a game planning perspective, was that Terra Austin and Mike Tomlin didn’t double Jamar Chase enough. All right, they doubled him a couple of times. It’s not like they never did it, but they definitely didn’t do it enough. And Cincinnati certainly identified that early on in this game. And then they decided after that second drive in this football game to really force feed him the football. Whether it was screens, whether it was slants, whether it was uh, you know, fades to the end zone, whatever the case may be. Jamar Chase had 16 catches on 23 targets. Honestly, he should have had more catches than the 16 he got. He had a couple drops, but he finishes up with 161 yards, over a first down, per reception, and a touchdown. and he just absolutely chopped up the Steelers defense. And you know, Pittsburgh’s plan coming in is what they’ve been saying this entire time. Ever since that they tra ever since they trade for Jaylen Ramsey, what have we heard from Mike Tomlin? We specifically got Jaylen Ramsay to man up teams like the Bengals. All right, so they’ve been saying it for months now. We’re going to play man coverage against Jamar Chase and T. Higgins. All right, so I mean Jamar Chase said it himself in his postgame press conference. Yeah, we knew exactly what they’re going to run. And what he means by that is I knew they were going to play a lot of man-to-man coverage on me and they came ready with a bunch of rub concepts and then plain simply like Jamar Chase just cooked the guys that the Steelers had against him. Uh whether it was press, whether it was off, whether it was zone, whether it was man, it did not matter. And because of that, you the the proper adjustment that Terrell Austin and Mike Tomlin should have made was to double the guy. All right, but they really didn’t do that on a consistent basis throughout this game. And then, you know, it wasn’t just man coverage, guys. When they did go to zone, and they did throw in Tampa, they did throw in a fire zone. They did throw in some cover three buzz stuff. It wasn’t any better. All right. Joe Flacco was still able to go one, two, three within rhythm. And then Jamar Chase was open against zone as well. And of course, you know, Joe is a is is a established quarterback that’s been in this league for a long time. He can pick apart a defense with his mind. And he certainly did that versus the Pittsburgh Steelers last night. And if you don’t believe me, man, like just take a look at the amount of coverages that Jamar Chase caught a football against last night versus the Bengals. He caught balls against eight different types of coverages. Now, man coverage uh was certainly pretty heavy here. Okay, cover one blitz five times. Cover two man. He caught three balls against cover two man. All right, so man was certainly not working, but then also zone coverages like cover three buzz quarters, which is a man match coverage. You got Tampa two, uh, cover one robber, another man coverage. You got cover three fire zone, and you got two buzz man. So, that all culminates there in 18 catches. And a lot of that is man coverage, but there’s also zone coverage mixed in there. Um, but you know, plain simply, what this comes down to me is Tomlin’s hubris. Okay, Coach T thought, you know, that Jaylen Ramsay, Darius Slay, and Joey Porter Jr. were good enough players to go up against maybe the best receiver in the game today one-on-one with no safety help over the top in terms of a double team and hold up and he was just wrong about that. And then um you know and listen man if you go into the game with that plan that’s fine but like if it’s not working and it’s clearly not working uh you know you got to make the adjustment and the team just didn’t do that. Um and they should have consistently double teamed him at least at the start of the second half but they continued to not do that. He was continuously getting one-on- ones and he was continuously getting open because of that. So, the Steelers, the next time they play Cincinnati in just a few weeks, I really hope Mike Tomlin watches the film and realizes, yeah, we’re not good enough in the secondary to go one-on-one versus Jamar Chase. And I hope they come together with a much better plan in the future uh to really handle the big-time talent that is Jamar Chase, who really killed this defense this week. But I was also really disappointed specifically with Jaylen Ramsay on tape, man. And it wasn’t just what he did against Jamar Chase where he got toasted time and time and time again, but he was also getting toasted against T. Higgins and, you know, others. And, you know, it just wasn’t a good night for number five, unfortunately. And I think what we learned last night, guys, is that Ramsay’s just not a high-end man quarterback anymore on the outside. All right. Back in his prime when he was like saying in Jacksonville, like he was one of the best pure press man, lock him down, number one man-to-man corners in the National Football League. It’s pretty apparent at this point he’s no longer that caliber of guy. Now, I still think he can be a very uh good player for this Steelers defense and we’ve seen him do a lot of good stuff for this team. All right, but he’s doesn’t have the juice athletically to be able to stick with these guys and press man coverage. We saw that last night. I think he’s much more suited to play, you know, uh, you know, in the nickel and play at free safety and play with leverage and all these different things and allow himself to watch the eyes of the quarterback and play instinctively because Jaylen Ramsay is still an absolute dog that can make these high-end plays. But, you know, in terms of just one-on-one man coverage, I’m going to lock you down on an island. I think we saw last night he’s not capable of doing that anymore. And I hope they stop using him as an outside man quarterback in weeks to come. And then also Darius Slay unfortunately uh is very apparently slowing down. And I think it’s because of age. And listen man, father time comes for all of us. And plain simply, Slay is the oldest starting quarterback in the National Football League by a wide margin. There’s only a handful of corners that are still kicking out there on NFL rosters that are above the age of 30. And most of those guys don’t play a whole lot. And the ones that do aren’t very good. And Darius Slay, it’s very admirable that he’s be that he’s been a very serviceable player for as long as he has been. He’s he was a contributor to a Super Bowl champion team last year, but frankly, Slay fit inside that Vic Fangio defense in Philly because he was able to play a lot of off coverage, a lot of quarters, a lot of cover six, and he wasn’t really asked to go in man coverage all that often. And that’s exactly what he’s being asked to do here in Pittsburgh. And it’s just not working out, man. And like Ter, it kind of feels like Terara Lawson wanted him because he was good as a man corner when he had him in Detroit and he still thought he was that guy. But like at this point in his career, Slay at best is an offzone cover corner in that in that regard. And he’s just not a man-to-man press dude. And you know, we’ve seen him uh you know, have mental mistakes. He’s had a number of blown coverages and he’s just getting toasted in man coverage. Man, him going up against Jamar Chase, it just wasn’t even fair on the tape last week. And you know, honestly, I’m even looking at potentially even sitting him down in favor of Brandon Eckles, who just brings more juice athletically than Slay does, especially if the Steelers want to keep playing man coverage. But then Patrick Queen, I think he looked a bit lost in pass coverage last night, man. Uh there’s a couple instances where he just wasn’t in the right place at the right time. And I think that this has been a problem with Queenie for a while now. I want to make abundantly clear, I think he’s really freaking good as a run defender and as a blitzer. And I think he has his moments, especially in man coverage as a pass defender, but in zone coverage, man, he can get lost at times. And it certainly seems like teams make a concerted effort, especially when they identify the Steelers are playing zone, to target his zone because he can get lost and he’s easily manipulatable and all these different things. So, you know, Patrick Queen, I I would say, you know, I’m happy he’s here, but he is a little bit of a liability in coverage at times. And I think that that’s fair to point out, but uh you know I think that you know he is a he is a net positive for this team. But certainly in pass coverage he can he can have some lapses. But then you know another thing here guys and this one really pisses me off if I’m being completely honest with you. Why the hell was was Chuck Clark starting for this defense last night? I mean this starting secondary is all healthy. All right. Chuck Clark was brought in as kind of like a band-aid kind of backup piece in, you know, because some injuries had been beginning to happen during camp. But no, everyone was healthy and Clark was playing at a at a starting level pace and he wasn’t playing like a starter. I mean, last week he goes from being a healthy scratch versus the Cleveland Browns. He doesn’t even get a helmet. And by the way, the Steelers had their best defensive performance of the season with him not even seeing the field to now getting 43 snaps and a starting workload versus the Cincinnati Bengals on a short week. How the hell does that happen? I mean, honestly, like what is the thinking there, Mike Tomlin? What is the thinking there, Tara Lost, to start this guy who has had some really bad tape out there through these first several weeks? like there was a reason why and I was fully supportive of him not getting a helmet versus Cleveland. Now he’s getting a helmet and not only that but he’s getting 43 snaps by the way he’s over doubling Juan Thornhill’s snap production in this game and Juan Thornhill made a really nice play on Jamar Chase. I think Thornhill’s played very aggressively and pretty darn well to start this season. Yet for some reason this team seems to like Chuck Clark more and trust him more. And then you got Jabril Peppers on the roster, fully healthy, ready to go, ready to help your defense. And no, we want to play slow old Chuck Clark that can’t tackle. Like, it just doesn’t make sense to me, guys. It just doesn’t. And you know, Clark might have been the worst uh defender for the Pittsburgh Steelers last night. All right. And I’m talking about Jaylen Ramsay, who was getting cooked time and time again by Jamar Chase. Same thing goes for Darius Slay. We’ve talked about those guys. There’s there are some bad defenders for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I know Clark made a nice TFL on kind of like a on a swing play uh early in the game, but he missed a big tackle or missed tackle I should say on T. Higgins when he was playing quarters which led to a touchdown that gave the Bengals the lead in this ball game. He missed multiple tackles in this game. We talked about the run defense and people trying to shoot gaps to try and be a hero. Talk I mean that was that was Chuck Clark throughout the entirety of this football game. Consistently out of position. So, I just don’t get why this team and this coaching staff likes him so much and puts him out there so much. He’s not a good He’s not a good football player. He misses tackles. He’s slow. Um, I would I would much rather see Juan Thornhill or Jabril Peppers get more time. And I think he needs to be benched from now on, man. Like, I just don’t I think after that performance, these there’s just no other way to look at that film and and come to any other conclusion that Chuck Clark is just not a very good football player. It’s nice to have him on the roster in case there’s injuries, but when you’re fully healthy, there’s no excuse for this guy to be out there as a starting safety for this defense. And then, you know, getting to the pass rush again here, guys, not enough uh snaps for Nick Herbig. Talking about snap count here. I mean, Nick Herbig, who has been maybe a top 10 edge rusher in the National Football League since he came back from that hamstring injury, uh, you know, he has been unbelievable and he only got 28 defensive snaps versus the Bengals. He had 15 less defensive snaps than Chuck Clark last night. I mean, if that doesn’t say, you know, mismanagement in terms of your defensive personnel, I don’t know what does. All right. Nick Kerig is one of the best pass rushers, pure pass rushers in the National Football League. And to me, this number and these stats right here are unacceptable. All right, you got Chuck Clark, who nobody wanted before the season. He was available during training camp. He’s getting 15 more snaps than Nick Herig who might be getting 30 plus million dollars per season on his next contract because he’s playing so goddamn well. Especially in a game where fatigue is playing a factor and the Bengals are having the football for long periods of time. We’re still not playing Nick Herig. We’re still not getting him into a a higher workload in this defense. Like it just doesn’t make sense to me. And I got it has nothing to do with TJ Wad or Alex Heismith. guys should absolutely be getting full-time starting reps as well. But Nick Herbick has earned uh you know a third of a share of those starting reps between uh these three edge rushers. And it’s just frustrating as hell that this Steelers coaching staff, especially on a short week when you need fresh legs out there, doesn’t see it that way. Then of course, um it seems like every single week there is at least one major communication issue in pass defense. And unfortunately this week that big blunder came in the biggest of moments in the fourth quarter when they’re trying to drive down and win the football game. And they’re playing cover three and they don’t communicate with lo and behold Chuck Clark who doesn’t get the signal to go down and cut the shallow cross from Jamar Chase leaving him wide open for a 20 plus yard gain setting themselves up uh for a T. Higgins play in man coverage with Jaylen Ramsay in coverage uh to be able to make that catch and then put themselves in position for a chip shot field goal for the win. Um you know the communication issues it seems like every single week there’s a major coverage bust. There’s a big mistake made by like Chuck Clark or Darius Slay or one of these other secondary players that just aren’t playing well right now. And I’m sick and tired of it, man. The communication issues need to be figured out in the weeks to come or else it’s going to be a long season on the defensive side of the ball here in Pittsburgh. And then I’ll just throw this in there. I don’t blame the officials for the loss. The Steelers lost this football game, but they did certainly didn’t help. I mean, Joey Porter Jr. I I thought had some very good reps in man coverage and they flagged it. And I did I thought it was tickytac. Um I thought they flagged Jaylen Ramsey on one where I thought it was very tickytac as well. And you know, they the Steelers weren’t getting the same calls, plain and simply. And then there was a couple of missed OPI calls. I mean, there was one time um where I think it was T. Higgins absolutely abused uh Darius Slay on a touchdown. Uh I believe it was to know a fan on a on a big third down in this football game. And then there was another one where Jamar Chase just straight up pushes off a Jaylen Ramsay and it’s not called. All right. In fact, it’s called defensive pass interference, which is an absolute joke. So, the officials certainly didn’t help, guys. Um but you know, there’s a reason why we have 10 things on this list. It’s not all the officials. Um certainly didn’t help. Gave them some big chunks at times. Uh but you know, at the end of the day, the Steelers defense needs to play better. Now, make sure you guys click that thumbs up icon if you haven’t already. If you are enjoying today’s show, if you love this in-depth nuance discussion uh that we like to do here on Steelers Talk pretty regularly on this channel, especially after Steelers football games, make sure you click that thumbs up icon if you appreciate this kind of content. So, now let’s talk solutions. All right. I’m not just coming to you guys with problems without ways to fix it. Okay, here are some ways and I’ve got eight things that I would do if I were Tara Lawson or Mike Tomlin that I think can make this defense better moving forward starting as early as week eight versus the Green Bay Packers on Sunday Night Football. All right, so the first thing that needs to be done is the do your job mentality has to be emphasized in the run defense. And I think that this is very very implementable because it’s probably already there. All right. I’m sure uh Chuck Clark, Deshawn Elliot a couple of times, Patrick Queen a couple of times, they’re going to be called out in these team meetings for being out of position. I think that the big thing this week heading into Packers, especially because they got Josh Jacobs and they got a really good run game, is to fill those gaps. Don’t try to do too much and do what you did versus New England. Do what you did versus Minnesota. Do what you did versus Cleveland and play gap sound run defense. We know this team is capable of it. Um, so that just needs to be the message in terms of fixing the run defense. Then another thing that I would do here, guys, is don’t run so many cover one blitzes. I mean, we’ve been running this cover one style defense this entire season where the Steelers are sending five players to the quarterback in pass rush and then they have one-on-one coverage across the board. But the problem with that, guys, is that this team is not really a good man team. All right? like Darius Slay is not athletically, you know, inclined enough to handle some of these crazy route runners in the league. Same thing goes for Jaylen Ramsey in one-on-one coverage if I’m being completely honest with you guys. Um Joey Porter Jr. is really the only guy that uh really thrives in man coverage in this secondary and Brandon Eckles is probably second uh in that category. So, I think the sooner that this coaching staff realizes that this is not a team that is a good man-to-man coverage team, I think the better. And I think the best way moving forward is to do postnap rotations into zone coverage like most modern defenses do like Flores does, like McDonald does, like Salah does. Like there’s a lot of these teams that play mostly zone, but they find creative ways to, you know, keep the quarterbacks guessing and rotate different players to different spots. That’s the type of defense this Steelers defense should be. And if they can uh you know go to that style of defense, I think they’ll have more success in just a straight man-to-man system uh that they’ve been mostly running this year. Then we get to uh my suggestion here, which is I think they should take a a page out of Brian Flores’s playbook here and Vic Fangio’s playbook here and play more man match coverage. All right. And usually man match is played from off alignment at corner so you so you’re not in the face. Uh, and what that allows uh, guys like Darius Slay, Jaylen Ramsey to do is, you know, use their instincts, keep their eyes on the quarterback, you know, follow, you know, the coverage rules and then stick to the guy that goes into uh, into their zone there. So, I think that that is something that Brian Flores has done extremely well in Minnesota. It’s something that Vic Fangio has done really well in Philadelphia. Um, you know, those are two of some of the best defensive play callers in football for a reason, and it’s because when taught correctly, those kinds of defenses work extremely well. So, I would want to see the Steelers play more quarters and palms, more of these man-match style of defenses. Uh, because I think that Jaylen Ramsey and Darius Slay in particular are more suited for that style of defense. I mean, Darius Slay won a Super Bowl as a starter for a man-match style defense last year in Philly. And Jaylen Ramsey has had some of his best career years in a Fangio style defense as well in Miami and then of course in LA. So, you know, I just don’t think these two guys at this stage in their career are built to, you know, go up one-on-one and win consistently. I think we’ve seen that on tape plenty so far this year. I think that might be the biggest change that this Steelers defense needs to make if they’re going to play better in the weeks to come. But that doesn’t mean you don’t play any man coverage. I would put Joey Porter Jr. on an island in man coverage more. And what I mean by that is I want Joey Porter Jr. on a receiver one-on-one to use his press man ability. Okay? Because this is what he does. Joey Porter Jr. is not a great zone corner. You know, he doesn’t have great technique. Um, you know, he doesn’t have great instincts in zone, but what he can do is that he can get in the face of a player and he can shut them down with his long arms, his physicality. you know, he’s the only really high-end man corner on this team. So, what I would do and how would how I would address kind of this mismatch of cornerback talent in this Steelers quarterback room is I would put Joey Porter Jr. on an island on a singular receiver on one side of the formation and then I would rotate the rest of the coverage to the other side of the formation. All right. And I think that this would allow the Steelers to close windows to other receivers, but also take away uh Joey Porter Junior’s receiver at the same time. I think that this is some of the best stuff that the Steelers have done on defense over the last several years. We saw it a couple of times last night versus Cincinnati, and it was one of the only times where the defense actually looked good. So, I I think that this is kind of what’s best for the Steelers is you got Joey Porter Jr. one-on-one on his man in press coverage where he can jam and shut them down and then you got the rest of the defense kind of dispersing to the rest of the area where the other receivers are to try and close windows uh and play zone coverage the rest of the way. I think that’s the best way to set up this Steelers defense and I’m hoping that Terrell Austin and Mike Tomlin agree with me on that. Now, in terms of Jaylen Ramsey, what I would do is I would keep him in the slot and at free safety. I know Jaylen still wants to, you know, go and, you know, go one-on-one versus, you know, Jackson Smith and Jigba and and and the and the Garrett Wilson’s and the and the and the Jamar Chases of the world, but man, he just has to be a little bit more self-aware and understand he’s just not that guy anymore, man. Now, he can still be a very valuable player to this defense, and he has to fully embrace the Charles Woodson path at this point, in my opinion. All right. I still think he can be one of the better nickel defenders in the league. He’s still a great tackler, great blitzer, great run defender, and then, you know, when he’s allowed to play with leverage and have eyes on the quarterback, that’s where he’s at his best. He is so instinctual, and he can really affect the football game in that way. But if you do what the Steelers do and you just stick him on a man, say, “Go win one-on-one,” and that guy’s just more athletic and shiftier than Jaylen Ramsay is, that’s just not using his skill set in the best possible way. So, I would put him in the slot or at free safety and allow him to use his instincts. I think it makes uh his role and his impact on this defense uh immediately better. And then also I would consider playing Brandon Eckles over Darius Slay, especially if they want to keep playing a lot of man coverage. Like Brandon Eckles has has at least a little bit of juice. He does have that athleticism still with him and he’s he’s got some wheels now. And you know, he’s he was actually the highest graded corner for the Steelers last night with a 78.8 PFF grade. Now, obviously, PFF grades far from gospel. Um, but, you know, they do get those grades from watching the film. All right? And Brandon Eckles is somebody that, you know, as somebody that has watched the film on the Pittsburgh Steelers, he’s been one of the more reliable corners for the Pittsburgh Steelers this year. Uh, even though he’s not really listed as a starter and, you know, that’s evidenced by, you know, he has the highest grade for a Pittsburgh cornerback this season with 66.1. Jaylen Ramsey is just behind him. But, you know, Brandon Eckles has really done a good job ever since he started back in training camp. You know, he’s really impressed me and he’s got some wheels and he can stick with guys in man coverage better than Darius Slay can. So, if you want to continue to try and play this man style of defense, I think Brandon Eckles has to be the play and I think that you have to sit Darius Slay down. Now, if you want to keep Slay in there, I would say make some adjustments to the type of defense that you’re going to run because he just he’s just not a man corner anymore. Uh, but Brandon Eckles has impressed me quite a bit and he might have he’s he might have earned a starting spot here with another good performance versus the Bengals. And then another thing, guys, this one should be uh without question. It should have already been done. It’s it’s a joke that he even got an opportunity to start last night, but you got to bench Chuck Clark. Um, as long as everybody’s healthy, he shouldn’t be getting a helmet. And you should be playing Juan Thornhill as the full-time free safety. his ability to come downhill, his ability to identify these short crossers and be play aggressively towards them and shut them down, uh to hit people hard over the middle of the field when they want to throw the ball over the middle. Um, you know, Thornhill, I think, has played some really good ball this season. Hasn’t been perfect, but a lot better than Chuck Clark has. And then Jabril Peppers, like when when you want another box defender, put him in there. I mean, just having these games where Peppers doesn’t play a single defensive snap is just lunacy to me. He’s a good football player. Don’t just use him on special teams, especially in favor of somebody like Chuck Clark. But then the final way that I would have uh the Steelers fix this defense is to have a little bit of an even split of reps between the top three edge rushers. All right, last night um you know, the Steelers very clearly had an established number one, that was TJ Watt, an established number two, that was Alex Heismith, and an established number three that was Nick Herbick. I think they have to get out of that frame of thinking and start thinking of, okay, we got three starting edge rushers that were going to play pretty darn evenly because Nick Herbig’s just too good of a player to sit on the bench for a majority of the defensive snaps. And honestly, what I would do, guys, is I would put TJ Watt off the field more on later downs, on pass heavy downs because um he’s such a good run defender. I want him out there in those situations. He is just such an impact on on in that phase of the game. game. So, you got to have him out there on early downs. And I’m not saying take them off the field in big moments all the time, you know, in in third and long situations or anything like that. But like Nick Herbig and Alex Heismith are so disruptive as pass rushers. Those are the two guys where like if you want to take TJ Watt off the field on a couple of third and longs every single game so that these guys can get some playing time and TJ can stay fresh throughout the game and throughout the season. I’m perfectly okay with Nick Kurvig and Alex Heismith getting those kind of later down kind of reps cuz Nick Herig is a little bit lighter, maybe not the best run defender. He’s not terrible against the run, but he certainly uh I can certainly see the Steelers’ stance that he’s more of a passing down specialist. So, if you want to kind of have TJ Watt uh you know uh play the early downs and then bring in Nick Herbig at times, I just think that Nick Herbick’s too good of a player to not play more at this point and I would love to see the Steelers coaching staff play these three guys relatively the same amount of snaps over the course of a football game. Now, at the end of the day here, guys, we’ve talked a lot about this Steelers defense and what’s wrong with it, how it can get better, what they need to do to uh, you know, get out of this funk that they’re in. But at the end of the day here, man, I I really do believe that this team will play better moving forward. You know, it was kind of a weird uh you know, Thursday night matchup on the road in a tough spot to play in the division. And you know, we’ve seen uh Philadelphia, the Super Bowl champions, lose to a one- win team. All right. In the New York Giants the week prior, we saw the Los Angeles Rams, one of the best teams in football in my opinion, lose to M. Jones and a super injured uh 49ers team two weeks ago on Thursday Night Football. By the way, the Rams were home in that game as well. So, weird things happen in division on Thursday night football. I think we’ve seen that. And I think now that the Steelers have a little bit of time here on this mini bye-week, I think we’re going to see a little bit of a different uh Steelers defense next week when we play the Green Bay Packers. I hope I’m right on that. Uh but if not, we’re always going to be here letting you guys know exactly what went wrong right here on Steelers Talk. So, where are you guys at? Let me know down there in the comments section. What is your confidence level in this defense figuring it out this season? Uh, give me a one through 10. Uh, one meaning no confidence at all to 10 meaning I’m super confident they’re going to figure it out. They’re going to be just fine. Let me know what you guys think down there in the comments section. Now, I know this fan base is down in the dumps right now, but you know, I just want to end this video on some positivity. Uh, and you know, really, uh, we usually do offensive and defensive takeaways in our film, kind of breakdowns after games here on Steelers Talk, but we really focus on the defense because the offense is playing really well. All right, the the run game is humming. The jumbo personnel packages are are working well. Um, you know, the tight ends are are playing really well. DK leads the league in and and receiving touchdowns this year right now. Uh, you know, Aaron Rogers is slinging it. He’s making plays out of structure. He’s got incredible arm talent. It’s tied for the league lead in in in touchdowns right now. Um so this offense is absolutely huming. So if this defense can just figure it out a little bit and be competent, this feels like a team that could really make some noise uh when you really want to be playing your best football in January. And before I go here, I’ll actually leave you with a quote from Aaron Rogers’s postgame press conference last night about how uh you know, this is a week-toeek league. happens in the National Football League. Bad games happen, but you can’t allow yourself to ride the roller coaster, and you got to uh keep that steady hand. This is what Aaron Rogers had to say last night. Quote, “We had a chance to really open uh up some space in the division standings, but we’re 4-2, still first in the division. Got home games coming up. Another Sunday night opponent against my former team. I’m not going to ride the roller coaster, and I know Mike Tomlin isn’t. Hopefully, you guys talking about us, the Steelers fans, follow suit.” All right, guys. That’ll be it for today’s edition of Steelers Talk. I know it was a bit of a longer one. Appreciate all the sickos and the psychos that stuck with me here throughout this really long video. Uh we really went in depth today because there’s a lot of issues that the Steelers need to address here in the coming weeks if they want to become the defense that I think we all expected this defense to become. So, make sure you guys click that subscribe button uh to track this team’s journey throughout the 2025 season. Until next time, guys. Here we go. Steelers.

Steelers News and rumors: The Pittsburgh Steelers defense has fans scratching their heads after a shocking 33-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS and use code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!

Bengals QB Joe Flacco threw for 342 yards and the Steelers allowed 470 total yards to a Bengals offense that had been reeling in past weeks without QB Joe Burrow. The Pittsburgh Steelers defense is left with a ton of questions about how they can rebound and improve after this showing. Jack Sperry of Steelers Talk by Chat Sports discusses what went wrong on Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football and how the Pittsburgh Steelers can fix their woes on defense.

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Joe Flacco vs PIT (Week 7):
– 31/47
– 342 YDS
– 3 TDS

Cincinnati Bengals offense vs PIT (Week 7)
– 470 TOT YDS
– 328 PASS YDS
– 143 RUSH YDS
– 0 TO

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense which was top 5 in turnovers forced did not force a single turnover from the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals had a NFL leading 11 turnovers heading into Thursday night’s game but were perfect behind QB Joe Flacco.

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Ja’Marr Chase vs PIT (Week 7)
– 16 REC
– 161 YDS
– 10.1 AVG
– 1 TD

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Chase Brown vs PIT (Week 7)
– 11 CAR
– 108 YDS
– 9.8 AVG

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– Steelers News: INSTANT REACTION After 33-31 LOSS vs. The Bengals | Defensive FAILURE Leads To Upset – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm1K2iG6zHg
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