As bad as Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers offense was during Sunday’s loss to the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers have a bigger problem to worry about as the team prepares for its final four games.
That is whether or not their porous secondary will result in them sitting home for the postseason for the third consecutive season.
Steelers’ general manager Kevin Colbert has ignored the need, other than signing Mike Mitchell to replace an aging Ryan Clark, despite the signs over the past couple years that his veteran group was losing a step or two.
The results haven’t been pretty.
New Orleans’ Drew Brees carved up the Steelers secondary to the tune of five touchdown passes to five different receivers. But it hasn’t been just the elite level quarterbacks that have had success against this Steelers defense.
On the season they rank 16th against the pass (242.3 ypg), a number that could be worse but teams have had some success running at the Steelers at times as well this season.
The alarming part is that they are tied for 27th in the NFL by allowing 24 touchdown passes.
Dive deeper into the issue and you will see that the biggest problem has been allowing the big play as they rank 22nd in the league by allowing 43 pass plays over 20 yards, 27th in the league by allowing 12 pass plays over 40 yards and 27th in the league by intercepting just eight passes.
“We have to keep a lid on it,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin after Sunday’s loss. “I’m not going to search for excuses. It was significant. We have to be better than that if we want to win.”
A lot of those issues can point to a Steelers front seven that ranks just 26th in the league with 21 sacks, but a lot of the issues also point to a severe lack of talent on the defensive side of the ball.
Because opposing quarterbacks have all day to scan the field, the Steelers secondary gets picked apart easily. If they had talent back there, they may be able to make a few plays, but when there is a lack of real NFL talent, even bad NFL quarterbacks are going to have success.
On Sunday alone, Ike Taylor was targeted four times, allowing four receptions, for 103 yards. William Gay allowed five catches on seven targets, for 96 yards. Both players allowed touchdowns, as did Antwon Blake.
“When you play inconsistently that’s what happens,” said Taylor.
It’s not just the corners that struggle as Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell have not been good in coverage either. Neither are the linebackers, who have allowed big plays in coverage all season.
Against the Saints, James Harrison and Sean Spence both allowed big plays in the passing game.
“It’s as simple as they came together and executed and we couldn’t stop them,” said Gay.
On paper you would think things should get better down the stretch with games against the Cincinnati Bengals (twice), Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Falcons remaining.
The Bengals average only 219.0 yards per game in the air and few quarterbacks in the league have struggled as much as Andy Dalton. The Chiefs average only 183.0 and the Falcons 277.0. All three teams also average less points scored than the Steelers are allowing.
But in addition to Dalton, Matt Ryan and Alex Smith are both capable of having field days against this Steelers secondary.
The bad part is it really is too late to make changes and they can’t rely on all of the sudden being able to create pressure. That’s something that this Steelers team hasn’t done consistently since the last time they went to the Super Bowl in 2011.
Taylor and Polamalu should not be starting for any NFL team right now, but the Steelers don’t have many options behind them.
Cortez Allen, who the Steelers thought enough of to make a major part of the future, has struggled all season and is nursing a thumb injury. Brice McCain is also dealing with a hamstring injury that he suffered on Sunday.
However when both are completely healthy, neither does much to improve the secondary by leaps and bounds.
That means when the Steelers line up against quality wide receivers like A.J. Green, Julio Jones and others the rest of the way, it is going to be up to the likes of Taylor, Gay and Blake to eliminate the big plays.
Time is running out for these guys to start getting the job done.
“We’re in control of our own destiny,” said Mitchell. “We have to rally together these next four weeks and get better.”
If they don’t pick up their play and rather soon, the Steelers season could very well be over in four weeks.
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
