Steelers need a new tune
Renegade” doesn’t work anymore. I think that’s clear in the wake of the latest back-breaking drive that happened just after the song played.
So how about a different tune?
How about, “When The Levee Breaks,” by Led Zeppelin? That seems appropriate for this bend-but-still-break Steelers defense.
If you want to stick with Styx, there are plenty of choices …
• “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned (especially on the opponent’s first drive)”
• “Fooling Yourself (if you think this defense is getting any better)”
• “Haven’t We Been Here Before? (yes, if we’re talking about having 12 men on the field again)”
• “Borrowed Time (the Keith Butler Story)”
Listen, we could talk about a lot of things after an ugly, 26-14 loss to the Baltimore Ravens — one that dropped the Steelers into a last-place tie with the Cleveland Browns in the AFC North a quarter of the way into the season.
I’ll let others talk about an offense that had one first down in the second half.
My job is to dissect a defense that allowed a 75-yard touchdown drive to open the game, 451 total yards, and 8 of 17 third-down conversions.
One that stunk at the beginning and the end of the game.
“We gotta get everything fixed,” said linebacker Jon Bostic. “It’s not just one thing where we can say, ‘This is the reason.’”
“Renegade” played with 10:17 left in regulation. The Steelers were trailing, 20-14, and they desperately needed a stop.
The players pumped their arms to fire up the crowd. The crowd responded in kind. And the Ravens marched 82 yards in 14 mindnumbing plays, chewing up 6 minutes and 40 seconds of precious clock.
What happened on that drive has happened all too often since Jacksonville came to town for that disastrous playoff game in January: missed tackles; blown coverages; communication breakdowns.
You had a tight end break wide open on third-and-1 for a 22-yard gain. You had three missed tackles on a first-and18 dump to the running back. You had another insanely open tight end, and saw your first-round safety (hey Terrell Edmunds) buried by a running back.
“We gotta get off the field,” cornerback Joe Haden said. “We had plenty of chances. I missed a tackle. Gotta do better.”
The night overall could have been much worse. Joe Flacco overthrew a hilariously uncovered Michael Crabtree on a first-half play that might have gone for a 56yard touchdown down the right sideline. The Ravens also fumbled at the 1-yard line and dropped at least a half-dozen passes.
But what’s truly damning is the awful start and the awful finish.
You can’t let a division rival just walk into your house and march 75 yards down the field to open the game. It is literally happening every home game of late.
That speaks to getting outcoached, quite frankly.
It speaks to a team being unprepared.
“Obviously, they had a good game plan coming in,” Bostic said. “They were doing a lot of kinda funky stuff to us. That’s to be expected, a divisional game and what not.” Funky? “I mean, it’s not that you’re not expecting it, but they’re doing a lot out of their personnel,” he added. “Running guys on and then those guys aren’t really in the game. They’re running them off real fast. At the end of the day, our operation time has to be faster on defense.”
The Steelers still aren’t communicating adequately?
No, they still aren’t communicating adequately. They were called for 12 men on the field on a third-and-11 late in the third quarter, which made it a third-and-6, which the Ravens converted on their way to a field goal to make the score 20-14.
The call echoed the 12men-on-the-field penalty late in regulation against the Browns in the seasonopener, a penalty that almost cost the Steelers the game.
What happened on the latest one?
“Personnel,” Bostic said. “We all gotta get better as a defense seeing the [offensive] personnel from the sideline, getting stuff in. Operation time, we gotta get faster on that. Guys have to do their jobs, do what you’re being coached to do.”
Haden confirmed the slow “operation time” when the Ravens were running players on and off the field.
“It has to move a little faster,” he said. “At the same time, they were doing a good job of holding their personnel and then running it in at the very last second. And were were trying to match personnel. As fast as they do theirs, we gotta be able to do ours.”
After the Ravens went up, 23-14, Ben Roethlisberger threw an awful interception, and Javorius Allen literally carried T.J. Watt and Javon Hargrave for an 11-yard gain. They should have left him a tip.
By that time, it wasn’t the Steelers gesturing toward the crowd but the Ravens doing it. Alex Collins took a bow. Linebacker Matthew Judon waved bye-bye on the sidelines.
Matty Ice (of the Atlanta Falcons) and his 10 touchdown passes are next.