Resource Allocation Should Put Spotlight On Steelers Defense
Oct 1, 2023; Houston, Texas, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end DeMarvin Leal (98) and teammates run onto the field before the game against the Houston Texans at NRG Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports
Much has been made in recent days about the offensive struggles of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Matt Canada has become “public enemy No. 1” in western Pennsylvania, and deservedly so. Only two teams in the entire NFL have been worse than the Steelers in both total offense and points scored per game through the first four games of the season — the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Giants. But while the offense continues to draw the ire of frustrated fans the defense has displayed equally evident issues.
Those issues take on a whole new frustration when realizing that this is the highest paid defensive unit in the league. Football is not played in a vacuum. The salary cap has created an environment where general managers have to make decisions when allocating resources. Different areas of teams should be held to different standards based on those resources.
Through four games the Steelers are 23rd in the league in points allowed per game (25.0) and are one of only three teams in the league that is surrendering more than 400 total yards per game to opposing offenses. The struggle has been spread equally between the pass and run defense. with a secondary ranked 26th and a run d that’s 29th.
Where this team goes for a fix is anyone’s guess? Tomlin, who has long been considered one of the league’s best defensive coaches and motivators, is, for the first time, showing cracks.
Destroying rookie quarterbacks is something Tomlin has long made a habit of in his tenure. That’s why the most jarring thing about the defense is to this point is how CJ Stroud carved it up. On the opening drive, Stroud and the Texans marched 69 yards down the field in 12 plays. It was deliberate. It was methodical. Tomlin and the Steelers looked undermanned against a guy who was playing in only his 4th game manning one of the league’s worst teams of the past few years.
“I think every single week you’re going to see different types of things,” Watt said after the loss to Houston. “I don’t want to take any credit away from (Stroud). I think he played a great game, he was getting the ball out quickly, getting the ball in his playmakers’ hands, he was able to extend some plays and they were able to run the ball, too, which controlled the time of possession and the tempo of the whole game.”
So what happened to last year’s defense? That defensive unit time and again made critical stops and plays in key moments allowing the Steelers to end the season winning seven of their last nine games. During that stretch, the Steelers’ defense gave up just 16.6 points per game, and only allowed an opposing offense to score more than 20 points once, a 37-30 loss to the Bengals in late November. In four games this season, the defense has given up more than 20 points three times already.
The personnel is largely the same — Watt, Highsmith, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Cameron Heyward, Levi Wallace, Larry Ogunjobi, DeMarvin Leal.
There’s some new additions, like Kwon Alexander, Patrick Peterson, Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts and Joey Porter Jr., but those players were believed to be upgrades over the likes of Akhello Witherspoon, Cam Sutton, Terrell Edmunds, Myles Jack, Devin Bush and Arthur Maulet.
Yes, Heyward has missed the last three games with an injury as he recovers from surgery, but Watt missed time with an injury last year that he sustained in Week 1, as well, and the defense was still serviceable. Heyward is one player. A great player at that, but the defense is, as Tomlin likes to call it, a “collective,’ and an expensive collective at that.
With the offensive struggles having no easy fix in sight, the defense is going to have to figure out a way to up their level to keep this team competitive. And that’s the way it should be. In an ideal world both sides of the ball would be equal in their elite ability and rosters would have no holes. But this is not an ideal world it’s a salary cap world. The Steelers were built to be a defensive football team and it’s time, regardless of how angry everyone is at Matt Canada, they started performing like one.
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