Losing ‘gap control’
PITTSBURGH — Seventh-year Steelers defensive end and defensive captain Cameron Heyward was particularly emotional Monday in taking reporters questions for more than 10 minutes at his corner of the locker room.
“It just hurts to think this was the last time this group will be here,” he said, as he fought back emotions while both constructively criticizing himself and, especially, his young defensive teammates. “We have to grow … The things that happened this year can’t happen next year.
“To only lose four games throughout the entire year, (but) in those games there was a trending habit of (not) stopping the run. And it’s just unacceptable.”
Jacksonville rookie Leonard Fournette rushed for 109 yards on Sunday, after racking up 181 yards in the Jags 30-9 win at the same Heinz Field in October.
In Pittsburgh’s season-ending playoff losses the past two seasons, it surrendered 44 points (last year to New England) and 45 on Sunday to Jacksonville.
Heyward explained what went wrong on defence in this year’s losses, and what has to happen in 2018.
“Our defence relies on a lot of trust. It relies on everybody being in their gaps,” he said. “When guys aren’t sound, we put our team at a disadvantage. It’s not heart. It’s not because guys don’t care. It’s because this group cares a lot. I appreciate everything these guys do.”
Losing “gap control” was the big issue on Jacksonville run plays, Heyward said, and everybody not playing his role was the culprit on some gashing Jags pass plays.
“You can’t have that against good teams. We’ve been talking about that all year,” he said.
“It’s something we’re going to have to grow from. All I can do is try to get better, which I’m going to try to do this off-season. I challenge everybody to just come back better from this situation. I know it hurts. I know it stings. Nobody wants to be in this situation but all we can do now is grow from it.”