Steelers Exposed: Teryl Austin’s Real Problem Isn’t Scheme | Time to Feed Jaylen Warren

Steelers Exposed: Teryl Austin’s Real Problem Isn’t Scheme | Time to Feed Jaylen Warren

How much of the Steelers defensive problems are about Terrell Austin and the defensive scheme? We’ll talk about that on the Locked On Steelers podcast as well as give you our stars and skulls grades. I’m Chris Carter here with Alan Saunders. 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 on your favorite podcasting apps and on YouTube. Like this video if you enjoy it. Subscribe to this YouTube channel to to to get all of your daily Monday through Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. We 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 Prize Pix. Download the Prize Pix app today. Use code lockdown NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. More on them later. As said before, Jo himself, Adam Sunders. You know you love him from steelers now.com. Normally we have him on Tuesday, but I love to have him with grades day and grades day this week is Monday because it was a Thursday night football game. But before we get into the grades, I want to talk about something that I touched on in my postgame reaction video and my my postgame analysis. and that a lot of people are mad at Terrell Austin over this week about the defensive game plan. I saw lots of accusations. They only All they did was run cover three shell. All they did was stick to the same coverages. They didn’t switch anything up. They didn’t try anything different. They didn’t run enough man. They didn’t run enough of the right man. They didn’t double cover guys. And Allan, you and I talked about this. You wrote about this in your postgame call. I did a film study on this for the post cassette. So, we both kind of acknowledge this. It wasn’t any of that. They didn’t run a whole ton of cover three shell. In fact, they ran it very minimally. They ran a ton of man got cooked while doing it. When they called different double coverages, they still got cooked in different ways. The problem was not the game plan as far as the the designs and the schematics and how they were put together. That is that that is I think the the easy fruit that people try to reach you to feel better about about something at the end of the game. The problem to me was that the players that they expected to win their matchups did not win their matchups. And when they tried to get put them in other positions, they tried their second and third third plans to help them win their matchups, they still lost those. Yeah. Yeah. Why uh why is it Terrell Austin’s fault that Jaylen Ramsey got cooked by Jamar Chase 101? Why is it Terrell Lawson’s fault that Joey Porter Jr. couldn’t man cover without taking penalties? Why is it Terrell Lawson’s fault that Andre Yoshivas torched Darius Sllay? Why is it uh Terrell Lawson’s fault that uh Slay got bullied off the ball in the red zone by T. Hagen? Like yeah, like did the game plan work? No, clearly. But like when nobody can do anything, there is no game plan that works. And nobody covered anybody for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. Nobody. The linebackers didn’t cover like the Deshawn Elliott might have been the only guy who had any coverage responsibility whatsoever in that game that you could say even mostly did his job. Like no, everybody else failed at everything they attempted to do and it doesn’t like they tried coverages. I’ve never even seen them run before, Chris. Like they’re just literally trying to find anything that would work and none of it did. And to me, that’s a sign of a different kind of a problem. Maybe even a bigger problem is that definitely the whole thing is like, “Oh, it’s all the coach’s fault because like that means that these players are actually good enough to do this and it’s these big bad evil coaches that failed them when the reality is probably much darker that the players the Steelers invested a lot of money and resources in are not good enough to get the job that they wanted them to get done done. And now what?” And see, that’s where I think the problem could lie. Now, I also want to point this out is that there’s often time there the seasons go up and down. There are plays that are good and bad. There’s a there’s a good chance the Steelers get these guys back in Acure and they have a better day and they are able to limit their their production and they come out with a win. Normally they do split. Normally they do split with the Bengals. Uh you know that that’s that’s just how it goes. And that when they do that that won’t erase this performance. It will, but but it will I think where this defense has to grow is it has to learn the ways that it can win. One, it has to stop the run. That’s something that we’ll get into as well because that’s another part of this. I truly think part of the Steelers general plan when they face a team with a superstar wide receiver like Jamar Chase, like a Justin Jefferson, is they say, “Hey, you know what? That guy’s going to get his. We’re not going to scheme to take him away entirely, which is why he got 23 targets. We’re going to scheme to try to limit everyone else. We’re going to try to take away T. Higgins. we’re gonna try to take away the run. And I think that was the biggest failure was that T. Higgins still ate in this game. The run game was a factor in this game because here’s the thing. You take away T. Higgins, you he doesn’t have the day that he has and the run game doesn’t have the game that he has. The Steelers kick their butts. And like that’s those are the things I think that were the biggest thing. I know Jamar Chase is what everyone wants to focus on because he got the numbers. But to me, like I I think back to how they used to cover Devonte Adams when he was with the Raiders or or the Rams. When I when I think back at how they played the Vikings game, though Addison finished with 100 yards, 80 one of those yards because of a busted coverage in the fourth quarter when it was that wasn’t about game plan. It was just, hey, you get the boneheaded mistake by this guy over here. But the game plan was clearly to say, hey, you know what, Justin Jefferson, get yours, buddy. You’re going to do your thing. We’re just going to make sure that you don’t, you know, score all the touchdowns away everything else. And they took away Jordan Mason, TJ. Hawinson and until that that busted play Jordan Addison that I think is a big crux of what they try to do on defense and in this game the problem was they couldn’t do the other things and that’s where they have to be able to be better moving forward. Yeah. I mean I think the game plan with Chase was obvious. Uh 16 catches none of them longer than 20 yards. Like the whole plan with Chase was like, “Hey, if it’s Chase on slants, like, okay, be come down the field and beat us five to seven yards at a time. Fine.” Um, it’s all the other stuff on top of that, right? And I think also though, like they they did not have an answer for anything like there was no there was just nowhere to go with when things started to happen. and they tried to blitz, then they give up big plays against the run. Uh they play zone, then Chase eats them up with the slate. They play man, they start to get penalties, then they get beat deep, right? They double, then they get beat deep, they give up touchdowns. Like every every answer the Steelers tried, the Bengals had a better counter for and um and look, there’s not a lot of teams that have that kind of receiving talent. Uh this is just a bad day at the office, like you said. I think it’s reasonable to expect that a much older team will not have its best fast ball on a Thursday night. I I I get that. U but man, like you only get so many opportunities to play these games. Like this secondary was built to beat the Cincinnati Bengals. Not only did they beat the Cincinnati Bengals, they got boots to you know what worse than any Steelers secondary I’ve seen in a ve since like Brady was picking apart like the those secondary that had no talent like right Blake and you know guys like that were starting corners Cody Sensible and like that’s not what this is this was a group of guys t handpicked to come do this job and still getting their butts whipped I think in that regard has to be one of the disappointing Steelers secondary performances in a really long time. And so that poses the big question that I asked at the end of my uh film piece at the Pittsburgh Postcazette. By the way, go to post-cazette.com to read that over the weekend. A big film piece breaking down a lot of these things that we’re talking about here. But the big question I asked is, do you restructure how you’re designed as a defense based off of this failure? Because like you said, you were designed to do this very thing and then you didn’t do that very thing. or do you say, “Hey, you know what? We maybe we make a couple switches here and there, but structurally that’s not the problem. The problem is we need these guys to lock in and be better in these moments.” Do you trust that Joey Porter Jr. is going to have a have better games moving forward? Do you trust that Jaylen Ramsey isn’t going to lose those one-on- ones or even also some of the mental errors? Cuz like on that last drive, there was, you know, the the the first pass to Jamar Chase. I mean, it’s clear they got a safety covering inside leverage, a corner covering outside leverage. They did it right on the other side, but Joey Porter, for whatever reason, thought he was inside leverage and gave up the sideline, allowing the first play. And then the second play, a motion makes either Jaylen Ramsey or Deshawn Elliot, one of the two, not understand that they were supposed to take away Jamar Chase on a crossing route, and he’s wide open for that. And those two play set up eventually the Higgins deep ball, which structurally had a less problem with it. Just, hey, you know what? Great throw, great catch into tight coverage. Ramsey was in position there. They just didn’t make a play on the ball like that. There was a couple of those, too. Uh that’s that’s where it’s like failures on multiple levels, right? Like it’s like schematically, I mean, they they did a lot of things. None of it worked. Uh communication, I don’t think it was as bad as it’s been at points this year, but it certainly there were there were certainly mistakes. And then just physical one-on-one execution. You get into position to make plays and they weren’t routinely able to do it. Can you go into another game with a And look, there aren’t that many of these games, but you do have I think the Packers have probably not as good one, two, but one, two, three, very challenging receivers. The Lions are are every bit as good one, two with Williams and Ammon Raw. Uh, and and you’re going to get the Bengals again. So, you’re going to get some more of these matchups. Can you go into them with the same game plan and saying, “Our guys will be better next time?” No, I don’t think you can. That’s insanity. um what can you do? I mean that you you’re kind of limit like there’s not a whole lot of options. I think one of the things that it really looked to me when I went back and looked at the tape was it’s like they were they had mismatched pieces. Like Joey Porter got two DPIs, one of which I really did not like the call. That was there was one really bad one. Yeah, one I really didn’t like the call. but honestly felt like other than that held up pretty well in man coverage in this game. I feel like he generally did his job. And by the way, against those two guys, if you don’t give up much and you take two penalties, like I I can kind of live with that. Like that’s that’s not the worst thing in the world. Um but the other two guys couldn’t do their thing in man. Yeah. And then you start to play zone and now you’ve got mistakes from Porter in zone. Yeah. Yeah. And and and so like I feel like maybe some split coverages could work where you have one side of the field doing one thing, the other side of the field doing the other thing. That was the one thing I don’t feel like they really tried a lot of in this game. Not that you can just go to that if you haven’t repped it. Not that you can just go to that on, you know, in the third quarter be like here’s what we’re going to go go for, but like I don’t think there’s tactically a lot of bullets left in the gun. like there’s there’s not that much left they can throw at Cincinnati that they didn’t on Thursday. And I think that’s where the Steelers might unfortunately lie right now is that this is where and again this is why you and I we didn’t pick this team as a Super Bowl contender with I thought this team had a chance to get to at best 11 wins this season, get their way into the playoffs, maybe get a more favorable first round matchup a and and get a win there. but that we we’ve maintained this team is going to have its flaws and I thought that the I thought that the flaws would come in a different few different places. But um this is clearly one of them right now. But and I think the best way for them to counteract this is to be able to win those other things we talked about for one stuffing the run, putting them in more of those third and longs. Yes, they gave up some third and longs early, but you need to keep making them force them to win in third and longs and eventually you get those you get the coverage even if it’s just initially cuz like partly the Yasus 34 yard bomb that he that he cooked Darius slay on. It wasn’t like it wasn’t like the Ramsay play where Ramsay was in just a really good coverage on on Higgins at the end of the game and Hagens there was just a perfect ball by Flaco. Perfect reaction by Higgins. He just beat Ramsay at that moment. Slay lost that route immediately. If he hold in one step it was gone. If he holds on to his inside leverage for two seconds Watt gets home sack t stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop stop the drive steel get the ball back no no no touchdown for the Bengals that that drive it’s those types of things that this team needs and I want to talk more about that in our stars and skulls segment because we’ll go over our stars and skulls and who did the worst and the best as far as how things played out. That’s next here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. I’m your host Chris Carter here with Alan Saunders. Stick with us. We’ll be right back. But first, what I want to do this show is brought to you by Rippling. If you’re a business owner, here’s the truth. 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We’re back here on the locked on Steelers podcast. Chris Carter, Alan Saunders. We’re keeping it going here. It’s time to get to our Stars and Skulls grades again. Normally, it it always feels weird after a Thursday night game because it’s happening earlier in the week, but it’s also more days after the game because the game was on Thursday and it’s now it’s Monday, but normally did on Tuesday. But we still want to hit you with these grades. Now, of course, if you follow along the the Steelers grades, we do one to three stars, good, great to elite performances. One to three skulls for bad play without redemption to bad game as a whole in an all-time terrible game. Then, of course, the dreaded bus ticket uh where basically get up out of here, bro, bro. You you you ain’t you can’t be here no more. Uh which last week we gave our first bus ticket to the Steelers uh Acer Stadium Field uh which literally got resolded immediately after the game. So anyways, as we always do when we when the when when the Steelers lose, we cover the skulls first. And so let’s go to our skulls here. We got three one skull performances. I got DK Metaf, Alex Heismith, and Pton Wilson. Um I also wrote about these in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. So you can go to those if you’d like this. There DK Metaf primarily because that interception and he put he did put on him. If he holds on to that football, Steelers probably win that football game because not only do they at least get three points on that drive, but they don’t give the Bengals points the other way around. And that play was such a momentum shifter for a Bengals defense that did not believe in itself. Bengals team that that I thought was on the verge of kind of getting knocked out. He needed to hold on to that ball and that one play was just really rough on it. Yeah, I don’t love that call either. Uh but I I I Go ahead. Give me your theory on that real quick. They didn’t make a call on the field and then they got together and decided it was an interception and once they did that I there obviously wasn’t enough to overturn. But like I nobody seemed to think it was an interception at first. I don’t know. It just seemed weird. Like make the call right away. When you get a chance, I want you to look back at this play and let me know. I saw an angle where you see the the two of them fighting for the ball. DK’s hand is on the football as he his back hits out of bounds. And as I understand that, as they called with the Vikings play where Jaylen Ramsay’s touchdown was nullified, if someone is touching the football and they are out of bounds, the play is killed and there is no reception. Not if the defensive player has possession. If the if the defensive player has possession, then he could be touching it. It would still be live. But if it’s a loose ball, yeah, I think I was okay with the possession there. I just don’t think his knee came down in bounds. There’s no angle that shows from the sideline view where you would be able to see whether it’s in the only angle you see where his knee hits the ground is straight from behind. You can’t tell whether it’s in or out. Like there’s no depth perception there. Um yeah, I I don’t know. I didn’t I didn’t see an angle where I was convinced. But again, I’m not going to ding him too hard. Still DK I mean look at DK Medaf and look at that corner. Come on, bro. Like he knows. He said it. knows profane and he said right he was he was I don’t know if you saw the saw the quote but uh hold on I need to hold on to the effing ball was the uh yeah no I saw the quote and and I get it but again one skull not too terrible here I then dinged the these two linebackers Alex Highmith and Pton Wilson Highmith only getting one pressure on the night and then also missed two tackles Pton Wilson missed a tackle or two and then also didn’t really do much in coverage but I I didn’t ding them higher because I didn’t think they were biggest problems with the run defense and we’ll we’ll get into those later. What did you think of their performances? Yeah, I think Peyton Wilson had a a coverage bust also uh where Joey got up after making a tackle and kind of was like what the heck. Uh so yeah, perfectly fair. Neither guys were very impactful. Um I didn’t think they were like noticeably bad, but but didn’t do much positively. I hear you there. Let’s move to our two skull grades here. Um three guys on this list. I got Keanu Benton, Joey Porter Jr., and Deshawn Elliot. Now, Allan, I want to point out here, Keanu Bettton was well on track when he got that sack in the first, I was like, “This guy’s figuring it out. This guy’s getting it.” But then when I But then as the as the Bengals kept running and when I looked back and I watched it so many times, it went right back to Benton’s gap. And I when I looked at you looked at the breakdown as far as which gaps, I was like, man, like this is this is rough. He’s getting pushed off the ball. He’s not fighting through. Now, sometimes I thought he got they got away with kind of holding him at the point of attack the same way. definitely got hold on the one big run. Oh my god. Oh my god. And just got tackled. Right. And and just that’s that’s hard to penalize him for. But I I still feel like Keanu Benton has to be stronger in those moments there. And the the past past two games he had been I thought he played better against the Vikings. I thought he played much better against against the Browns. And this is an offensive line I thought he’d be able to take advantage of. And uh man, he did get held in that point, but I I thought he should have still found a way to work his way through that to stop the run. Feel like this is a little harsh on Benton, especially considering he had the sack in a day where nobody did anything in the pass rush realm. Uh I probably would be a little a little easier on him. I thought Elliott was actually good. I’m interested to see what you what you saw there for the two skulls. I just saw Well, he missed he missed some he also missed some tackles in run defense and I thought that was that was a big thing. But I also looked at some of the miscommunication breakdowns, uh, his position on some of the zones. He didn’t hug his zone the right way a lot of times. And then it’s tough for me to discern who this was, but on that Jamar Chase crosser, it looked like the Steelers were in one man and Ramsay backed off saying, “Okay, they’re in motion. I cannot try to trail Jamar Chase when he’s got two receivers inside of him. That’s going to be an easy breakoff. We’re passing him off.” And that’s where the guy who was the cover one deep man switches to man and and is supposed to jump down to Jamar Chase on the opposite side of the field that way cutting off his crosser and say, “Hey, you can hit him, but he’s only going to get five yards.” And so you see Ramsay back off. He plays deep coverage. But the problem was Elliott did not come out of his deep coverage. So to to me that was a really big coverage bust at the wrong point in time. So when I tagged that with some of his missed tackles, that was my big thing. And there a couple zones I didn’t think he hugged the right way. I didn’t think it was his worst game and he was the biggest problem in this game, but I I did think that that was those were some costly losses. Yeah. Okay. If you’re going to give him that busted coverage, uh then then I guess that’s fair. I’ll uh I’ll say a couple that we didn’t name that I think I Well, I don’t know. I guess we’ll we’ll I don’t think you would have given Chuck Clark three skulls, but uh he had missed tackle on the T. Higgins touchdown. Really bad angle coming up. Probably would have thrown one there. And uh yeah, there’s probably a couple more I can think of, but let’s get to the three skulls. Let’s get to the three skulls. I I’ll say this, Chuck Clark is not a three skull. The only reason I didn’t I actually I marked him as neutral because of the the the touchdown break and he has he he he saved the touchdown. Granted, they gave it up like the next play, but he also made some good tackles. So, I I I wasn’t too harsh on him, per se, but I’ll give you a I think you could pretty much figure out based off of who else I have it named who my three three skulls are. All three corners. Well, uh Joey Porter is a two skull. I The only reason I didn’t give Joey Porter three was because he did break up two third down passes. And like you said, the I wasn’t going to think the one of the penalties I thought was legit. Another one I didn’t think was was legit. Yeah, I think Porter was clearly the corner that had the best day. So, okay. All right. So, we got the two corners and we got another three skull. Um, also on defense, I’ll give you that hint. Patrick Queen, it was Oh my goodness. As good as he was against the Browns, it was the complete opposite. Yeah. Uh, really let Flacco manipulate him with his eyes. Uh, to an extent that I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen. Um, was just kind of running around out there. if you want to add on some blame for the communications problems. Uh I I wouldn’t hate that idea. Um yeah, not good. And then Ramsay and Slay just I mean I think I think it was bad to the point that like you you can’t give those guys those assignments anymore. You cannot go into a game with quality receivers and think that those guys are going to man them up because it just did not work at all. It didn’t. I think that’s that’s a problem to to I’m glad you you you you were able to figure out Patrick Queen and listen this is a person who I think Patrick Queen gets blamed for a lot of things that aren’t his fault a lot of times when people get mad at the Steelers defense but this was a game that very much had a lot of his problem those hug zones we’re talking about there were a lot of times is like you like you point out reading the quarterback’s eyes that’s something that you can do but as the the green dot as the guy one of the guys supposed to understand that the the build of the defense what you’re doing some of those times it’s like buddy he’s trying to look you off the chase slant. He’s trying to the the the number one receivers’s right over here and you guys are in zone in this play. You have to pinch him. If if if you know if they hit you name the type Noah Fant over here, fine. But I am not letting you hit this guy over here. And to me that was part of where Patrick Queen plus he missed three tackles as well in the game. Two two more guys I think maybe I would have put in skull territory. Jack Sawyer got got uh got on a play action pass in coverage. gave gave up a big play and and I didn’t think did much other than that. And I didn’t think Derrick Harman was very good in this game. I thought this was really the first time he looked like a rookie. So I gave as I as no I don’t put my neutrals here because I can’t a cool graphic for neutral but my neutrals in this game and again you can read the the in the post gazette. Uh I put Derek Harmon uh as as one of my neutrals particularly because I didn’t feel like he was the biggest problem in the run defense. He wasn’t the biggest differencemaker either. Um but I left I left him alone there. Um, I also put Watt and Herbig as neutrals. Uh, Watt did have half a sack, but I thought he they a lot the Bengals very much did what the Steelers did to Miles Garrett last week. They negated him. And then Nick Herbig uh had, you know, three pressures, but just also I felt like wasn’t used enough in this game, which is, you know, those rough looking run reps early in the game that I wonder if were the cause of him not playing very much. Yeah. And so, and so I wonder about that. But those are my neutral grades here for Harmon, Watt, Herbing, and Clark. But again, there three skulls, Queen, Ramsay, and Slay. Uh, both of I think that’s first times for all these guys. It’s my worst grade on each of them. I I’ve given Slay a two skull before, I believe. And I think Queen a two skull maybe, but not Ramsay. And I think again that goes back to the crux of the problem here. And listen, these are three important guys. They’ve paid good free agent money to be difference makers in this defense. And when those things h when when you get three this bad performances from three key guys like that, that’s the kind of stuff that can lead to giving up 33 points in a game. Yeah. And it’s honestly like like the one through three really limits like if you had four skulls. Yeah. If I had another level, I could probably up it a little bit more, too. Yeah. Um but but no bus tickets. I know some people really want bus tickets, but No, not not yet. Not yet. Um, not yet. But I want to talk about a potential solution for the slay situation because I do think the Steelers do have some options. Maybe not great options, but something there. We’ll talk about that next here as well as give you our star grades and who performed well. That’s next here on the Lockown Steelers podcast. Chris Carter, Alan Saunders. Stick with us. We’ll be right back. But first, remind you the show is also brought to you by Mazda. Mazda crafts cars for those who do more than simply move. 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Zack Frasier, Brick Jones, Isaac Seamalu, Cam Hayward, Roman Wilson, Brandon Eckles, Darnell Washington, Chris Boswell, Johnny Smith, Spencer Anderson, and Corus Weightman. I’ll start with the three offensive linemen. Zack Frasier. Zack Fraser would have gotten a two star here if it wasn’t for that holding call that that wiped out a Jaylen Warren touchdown. And however you feel about it, it was a costly holding call because it turned seven points into three points. Uh so I I dinged him for that um there but not too harshly because uh he had a really good game otherwise. Brderick Jones and Samlo each gave up three pressures in this game but neither neither gave up sacks. I didn’t feel like they were the biggest problems. Jones also got called for a hold grated kind of got erased by that Pat Footh touchdown late in the game there. Uh what was your assessment of those three offensive linemen because I want to get to the other two guys in a bit. Yeah, I thought the penalties were costly. um the the hold ends up getting erased, but the the the Broadick Jones hold ends up getting erased. The Frasier, there’s about uh two or three sequences on offense where you can really look at like look, the offense was good in general. So like, you know, I you’re kind of nitpicking, right? But like they they can easily like the Metaf play, there’s one the sequence here where it’s a penalty on Frasier and then a penalty on Mason McCormack uh immediately after on the tush push. Uh that that’s another one where it’s like, man, that that’s a couple that’s a couple times where this offense could have done a little more. And and look, look, the big story of the game is the defense melting. The offense scores over 30 points. You take that every week. Uh but they definitely had some self-inflicted wounds that kept them from getting more. And I think that that’s where it went into there. Now, again, back to the other guys here. I put Cam Hayward here because he actually led the team with six pressures. when I look back at it, like again, if the coverage just holds up for another second, the Steelers at least have three, four sacks in this game. I think that’s a they were they were getting close to getting home in the interior. Uh, and he could have had more, but and I also didn’t think he was the problem in the run game. I also want to point out this is my first ever star grade for Roman Wilson. Congratulations, Roman Wilson, because he made two catches for 13 yards, but that one catch I thought was really impressive when he was able to get get beyond the sticks there. And he had another catch that was wiped out by the Brother Jones penalty. Yep. and and there but I thought Roman Wilson kind of showed hey guys I I you don’t need to ignore me. I can make plays. I I do exist and though Calvin Austin will be coming back so I don’t know what they’ll do with that but I do think that maybe he should have earned some more playing time with that. But I want to get to Brandon Eckles here Allan because I have a theory here that I Brandon Eckles only got one star in this game because he didn’t he wasn’t tasked with doing a whole lot. But it’s very rare that people are picking on Brandon Eckles and with his with his uh youth and his athleticism maybe I have a theory maybe the Steelers need to like don’t get rid of Darius Slay entirely but maybe flop Brandon Eckles to when you want to run man coverage especially outside or in the slot put that guy there before you put Darius Slay there. Slay can still be a solid, you know, zone defender who feels out plays and plays certain spots of the field and does it smartly. But when you want raw man up, be physical running bump and run coverage, that’s where I think Brandon Eckles might be a bigger asset to this defense than Darius Slay. I thought the defense was better when Eckles was in there. I don’t know that that’s all on Slay or and he was replacing Porter a little bit, too. Um, but I I felt like Eckles was fine. Uh, probably had the best day of any sill defensive back. Um, I do think there are some distribution of personnel things that they can do a little bit differently. I I’d like to see a little bit more of Eckles. I’d like to see a little bit more of Juan Thornnehill than we saw this game. Yeah. And I’d like to see more of Ramsay and maybe even Slay at safety instead of corner. So, if you’re looking for a way to play Eckles, like if you don’t trust Thornhill and you think Eckles is good enough, then play Eckles at corner and play Ramsey at safety. Obviously, Ramsey wasn’t able to cover in man outside corner anyway. Ramsay’s been fine when you can play him in the slot, but it’s it’s clear that Ramsay’s not an answer in man coverage outside corner. It doesn’t look like Slay is either. Maybe it’s Eckles and and I think that’s possible. Uh, I I thought he he’s played really well when they’ve needed him all year. So, I think there’s definitely some some deployment stuff they can try that’s not necessarily X’s and O’s, but just trying different guys in there that I mean, why not? Uh, I I that’s that’s where I’m at right now with with Eckles. Again, Washington Smith both had touchdowns. Washington also good run blocker. Boswell didn’t miss a kick and also was uh um put all his kickoffs in play. Also put Spencer Anderson here because I thought he had a couple good blocks. I’ll put Kus Wakeman in here. He had two punts, so not a lot, but both punts were placed inside the 20, so did did his job there for that. All right, we got four two star guys. Aaron Rogers, Pat Fmouth, Mason McCormack, Troy Falanu. Now Aaron Rodgers, I felt Allan, not even the DK interception. If he just doesn’t throw that that first interception where he just chucked it up into double coverage and was just like, “Come on, man. That’s not the one you want to throw.” Check it down to Warren there. If he doesn’t make that play, this is a three-star game. And also probably the Steelers win this game. Yeah, I just think they were kind of feeling themselves a little bit right there. Things are going really well and then, you know, try to push a little too hard. He had he had open options underneath. I think Roman Wilson was one of them. I think Johnny Smith was open as well. And and honestly, like maybe I’ll put a little bit of that on Arthur Smith, too. Like I first and 10 there. The defense had just been on the field for a very long time. Yeah, I think I think I’m trying to see Jaylen Warren averaged like seven yards a carry like like I eight almost um I think first and 10 there I’m probably handing the ball off to my running back and trying to keep the defense off the field for a little bit cuz like okay the theory of this play is even if it works it’s a 50-yard touchdown and the defense is right back on the field anyway. Not to say that you don’t want to take the touchdown, but I think in that instance, twoing a little bit of clock would have been a better idea. And I think they kind of fell into a trap of of thinking things were going too well and then man, like you said, very quickly, uh, the tide turned the other direction. Yeah, I just I look at that. I mean, again, you’re coming off of giving up a touchdown and the first play you throw uh or no, actually that was that was the medap interception, but still it’s just it’s a big mistake that that really cost you in in the in the moment. Um, and uh, I just I look at that and I think, man, like if this if the Steelers can find a way to uh to avoid that interception, again, the the the Metaf one, sometimes things happen when it bounces off of you and and and you get that to happen. But the uh um the the interception when you threw it in the double covers, that’s just you’re asking for more more problems there um in in in that one. U, but anyways, still uh again, not digging Aaron Rogers too much for that one. Again, he gets two stars because he was elite. I mean, uh, Pat Fmouth kind of reminded everyone, yeah, this is why they have me here. Uh, I get targeted. Uh, so he gets his two stars there. Only reason he didn’t get three is cuz he dropped the third down pass. Uh, and that was a little hot, but you know, just not a three star grade. But then my other two stars here, McCormack and Falanu. And I want to say Allan, I’ve noticed this since the Vikings game when they run and those guys are at the the crux of the run play. They’re averaging like five, six, seven yards a pop. like a lot of those good Jaylen Warren runs are come behind these two guys. And I know Mason McCormack had that false start on the uh the tush push play, which is just what the Eagles do every week. So, I don’t understand why that was different there. But, uh but the reason I gave him a two star grade versus a one-star grade with Frasier because he also made a mistake, is because I felt like McCormack and Felanu are becoming much more core players to the Steelers run success these past few weeks. And that’s a really good sign for this team moving forward. We talked about finding bread and butter and there is some bread and butter behind running behind these two guys. They’re doing a good job. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And um I think they’re a big part of that rushing success we just talked about with Jaylen Warren. Fatanu in particular I think is really um starting to to it feels like there’s a corner being turned there where he’s a young player. He’s getting his first real NFL reps. obviously missing his entire rookie year due to injury and it the the the growth curve is starting starting to look really impressive for him. It really is. So, okay, those being your two stars, the one stars that we’ve named. I have one three star grade. It’s pretty easy. This is probably your easiest three star grade that you’ll ever get a chance to guess. What if we just build the whole team out of Jaylen Warren? Yeah, you got just build the whole team out of Jaylen Warren. Jaylen Warner corner. Jaylen Warner safety. Jayen Warren deal. Jaylen Warren being a bad man and he was in this game. I’m just truly continue to be impressed again in pass protection. Um you know and you know what there could have been some more checkdowns uh in in the passing game like on that deep ball that got intercepted where he threw it into double coverage. Jaylen Warren that you know Roman Wilson Jay War was open. I would have given it to him there. um this this guy is becoming a do it all back and and granted again offensive line doing a lot of the work there but again 16 of 127 for almost eight yards per carry uh and doing so much after contact to you and again that contact’s coming five six seven yards downfield sometimes but he continues to be truly impressive I think he is the most consistently highest graded graded player I have for the Steelers offense right now maybe only challenged by Aaron Rogers uh I I feel very vindicated because I was saying for years that if the Steelers would just give the ball to Jaylen Moore and Moore, they would have much more success. And look, the Bengals run defense is awful. But this has been happening all year. Uh Warren is in my mind easily a top 10 NFL running back. Uh I think he can be even better than that. um to keep feeding him. That’s I mean I know they want to keep him fresh, but like I still felt like there were times where the the one drive they end up scoring on the on the first Pat Farmouth touchdown, but it was Warren, Warren, Warren, Warren. They go 40 yards in four plays and then they throw five passes for negative eight yards before they get the touchdown. I’m like, just keep giving the ball to war. If the Steelers just hand off to Jaylen Warren on pretty much every play, they probably win the game. Like I just feel the Bengals could never stop it. You take away the two turnovers you get from trying to push the ball down the field. Like I mean you got to keep people off balance but man uh he’s so good. He’s so good. He’s he’s playing so good right now. Uh averaging on the year 4.4 yards per carry. Um and I think that’ll go up as they continue. And I think a lot of part of this too is remember those early weeks offensive line wasn’t getting a whole lot of push because they were figuring some things out. But I think especially since the Vikings game, this run game has started to really click. And if you’re and the again, the Bengals not a run defense to write home about. But again, it’s not like Jaylen Warren didn’t have hasn’t had a good day against other defenses uh like uh last week even though it was just 52 yards. It was on 11 carries where that’s 4.7 yards per carry against the number one defense run defense in the NFL going into that week. Um, and then again when they played the Vikings, uh, it wasn’t him, but Kenneth Gainwell got 99 yards, uh, on 19 carries, 5.2 yards per carry. So, the run game’s there. And I think that Jaylen Warren’s definitely the better running back than Kenneth Gainwell. Uh, but getting making finding other ways to to make sure that controls the pace of the game. Maybe that’s the one big critique I have on the offense from this loss is that, you know, it’s tough to blame anything. And I’m not saying that they were the reason that they lost this game at all. They put up 31 points, you put up 31 points with this team, you should be able to win every football game. But I will say moving forward, maybe you think, hey, let’s try to possess this ball a little bit more because that’s the other I think it’s the one big thing the Steelers offense doesn’t do consistently. And that is that’s win time of possession uh in in in in the in the in the entirety of of it. Because right now, crazy enough, with all the good things the Steelers offense is doing, like I think they rank what um uh they rank what, like 16th in scoring or 13th in scoring uh going in going into this uh going into this weekend before all the other teams played. Uh but they ranked like 29th in time of possession. That’s the big thing that I think dings this offense and keeps them from being um uh a really a completely true dominant offense. Yeah. Yeah. We haven’t seen those kind of take over the game drives. And uh and look, I mean, they scored pretty much at will. So, you know, you kind of have to take what you can get there. I don’t think this is an offense with overwhelming talent one through 11. Uh I’m not going to complain about what they got, right? But it like of the numerous things that you can point to when you lose a game by two points that would have helped you win it, just one really long boring offensive drive that kept the defense off the field for a long time would have gone a long way. Also, uh I I made a mistake here. I had to do the the per game stats. They’re averaging 25 points per game. That’s right now tied for ninth in the NFL, which was not on my radar. They’d be a top 10 scoring offense. And granted, that could easily change with the rest of these Sunday games. We are recording this before uh Sunday 1:00 games kickoff in the NFL. Uh but uh I I do think they deserve credit. But again, Jaylen Warren, big part of that, and maybe he can even be a bigger part of that as they continue. We’ll keep covering things here on the Lockdown Steelers podcast. Allan, thanks so much for joining us here for the show. Let people know where they can find you, follow you, and get more your work. ASA_PGH on social media. SteelersWow.com is where you can find my written work and my podcast, Steelers Morning Rush and Steelers Afternoon Drive or on the Steelers Now YouTube page or anywhere you find podcast. Just search Steelers Afternoon Drive. Absolutely. He is Alan Sers of Steelers Now.com. Thanks for Allen for joining us. Thank you all for joining us here on the Locked on Steelers podcast. I’m your host Chris Carter. Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, Blue Sky, wherever you get uh your social media. Uh uh it’s at Carter Critiques and uh you can get us here also on the Longdon Steelers podcast uh 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 Monday through Friday episodes as well as our bonus content. And also reminder, read me in the Pittsburgh Post cuz by going to post-cazette.com. We’re back here tomorrow breaking more things down on the Steelers as we head into this big matchup against the Packers coming up next Sunday night. Keep it here. The Locked Steelers podcast. Heat. Heat. N.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive woes against the Cincinnati Bengals showe plenty of issues, but Christopher Carter and Alan Saunders show it was never about scheme. But that might be the big problem for the Steelers, as their attempts to find answers won’t be easy with Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay losing as consistently as they did in man coverage in their Thursday night loss.

Also, Chris and Alan go over this week’s Stars and Skulls Locked on Steelers grades for their week seven performance. Jaylen Warren continues to prove he needs the ball more often in the run game while Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick are proving to be a dynamic duo on the right side of the offensive line and Aaron Rodgers plays as advertised. But who were the biggest culprits on defense that received the most skulls this week betwen Ramsey, Joey Porter Jr., Patrick Queen and others?

Steelers’ Teryl Austin’s Biggest Issues Aren’t Scheme, and That’s the PROBLEM | Feed Jaylen Warren https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7JorgD8nGLtvvMy1ogFetg

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