We now know what the Steelers defense looks like when you remove three of their four star players. It was not expected to be pretty and it was worse.
You cannot take away T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Joe Haden and expect the quality of defensive play to remain. The Steelers defense already was missing two-thirds of its starting line in Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu, both on injured reserve. That put nearly half of what should have been their 2021 starting defense out for the game Sunday night against the Chargers.
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The only star on defense who remained was Cam Heyward and the Chargers double-teamed the All-Pro lineman most of the night and still could not prevent him from making a game-changing play that ultimately was not a game-winning one. Heyward batted a Justin Herbert pass into the air that Cam Sutton intercepted at the Chargers’ 34 late in the fourth quarter that led to Chris Boswell’s 36-yard field goal and a temporary 37-34 Pittsburgh lead.
Linebacker Devin Bush was supposed to be a star based on where the Steelers drafted him two years ago and what they gave up to do so. Whether he still hasn’t fully recovered from his ACL surgery last fall or something else, he’s not the player they expected and he’s not helping their defense much. He had a terrible game against the Chargers. Bush’s attributes when they drafted him were speed and quickness and he has neither. Halfback Austin Ekeler outmaneuvered and outran him on a 10-yard touchdown pass he caught short over the middle. Bush could not get off a block on another TD as Ekeler ran right past him.
What do the Steelers need? They need those three defensive stars back quickly, or at least two of them. Watt not only was second in the NFL with his 12 1/2 sacks, but he’s also good against the run. Fitzpatrick, who has a decent chance to return this week from the reserve/COVID-19 list, would have made a difference, especially on the winning touchdown pass of 53 yards from Justin Herbert to Mike Williams.
It’s not going to get easier for the Steelers this Sunday when they face quarterback Joe Burrow in Cincinnati. The Bengals roughed them up in Pittsburgh 24-10 on Sept. 26 when Burrow threw three touchdown passes. The Steelers were without Watt and their other starting outside linebacker, Alex Highsmith, in that game. Melvin Ingram and Jamir Jones started in their place and neither is with the team anymore.
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With that bit of happy news from the Steelers defense to kick things off, let’s delve into other areas in the residue of their first loss in six games that dropped them to 5-4-1:
• Ben Roethlisberger continues to thrive since those rough days early in the season when many declared him “washed up.” He threw three touchdown passes and no interceptions and checked in with a 103.7 passer rating after a week in which he did not practice as he waited to test negative and return from the reserve/COVID-19 list. His turnaround from those first four games when the Steelers started 1-3 has been remarkable.
Roethlisberger had a passer rating of 78.9 through the first four games when he threw four touchdown passes and four interceptions. In his past five games (he missed their tie against Detroit on the reserve/COVID-19 list), he has a rating of 104.4 with nine touchdowns and no interceptions. He hasn’t thrown an interception since Oct. 3 in Green Bay.
He would have added to his impressive game-winning drive total of 50 that is tied for third with Tom Brady had the Steelers defense not melted down and allowed the Chargers to score on a 53-yard pass play with 2:09 left in the game.
Where Roethlisberger failed one time Sunday night was his underthrown deep pass to Chase Claypool, who was wide open for what should have been a 42-yard touchdown on their second series of the game. Claypool instead had to wait for the ball and ended up at the 5-yard line for a 37-yard pickup. That mistake was compounded when the Steelers, in what has become typical lately, could not score from the 5 on four plays — two runs followed by two passes that turned things over on downs at the two.
This brings us to our next point:
• Pittsburgh cannot run, even though Najee Harris looks like a star back in the making. NBC’s Chris Collinsworth kicked off the game by mentioning how the Steelers were going back to their old-fashioned ways and “pounding the rock.” I’m not sure where he got his information, but the Steelers rank 27th in the NFL with an average of 90.7 rushing yards per game and tied for 28th with an average of 3.72 yards per carry. Any way you look at it, that’s not pounding the rock.
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The problem was and remains their offensive line. It’s just not good enough. Rookie center Kendrick Green continues to get shoved back into his quarterback and running backs as if he’s performing the moonwalk. They get no push, which is why offensive coordinator Matt Canada continues to try jet sweeps near the goal line (Claypool gained three yards on that ill-fated first down at the 5 in the second series) and, basically, ignores trying to send Harris up the middle.
The Steelers were playing the worst run defense in the NFL on Sunday night (155.1 yards allowed per game heading into it) and managed just 53 yards on 14 carries in the first half before they basically had to abandon the ground game in the second half. They finished with 55 yards on 18 carries, a 3.1 average. Harris had 39 yards on 12 carries for a 3.3 average.
That line’s pass protection has been hailed in some areas, but it’s not their doing, it’s all Roethlisberger. He leads the league with an average release time on his passes of 2.39 seconds, giving defenses little time to get to him. However, when he really needed the line to protect him Sunday night, it failed miserably. With 2:09 left and trailing by 41-37, the Steelers took the kickoff and set up shop at their 25, plenty of time for another epic Roethlisberger winning drive.
Instead, the line caved and Roethlisberger was sacked on first and second downs for a total loss of 19 yards, virtually putting the outcome to rest.
• Diontae Johnson has become the current and next Steelers wide receiver star. He caught seven passes for 101 yards Sunday, including a few that were spectacular — his 10-yard touchdown in the back corner of the end zone in the second quarter among them. He has 59 receptions for 714 yards and four touchdowns and has erased his biggest weakness: drops. Pro Football Reference had him with 13 dropped passes last season, 19 through his first two seasons. It has him with none this year.
It’s a good time for him to have such a season, too, because 2022 is his fourth and final under his rookie contract and the Steelers typically try to extend the contracts of their better players heading into their final season.
• In light of the injury to Watt, did the Steelers make a mistake by acceding to Melvin Ingram’s wishes and trading their No. 3 outside linebacker to the Chiefs last month? Maybe, but it’s not like Ingram is lighting things up for Kansas City. He’s playing more than he did in Pittsburgh, which was his complaint with the Steelers, but doing less. He played 66 percent of the snaps in the Chiefs’ 19-9 victory over the Cowboys on Sunday but managed just one tackle, no sacks, no quarterback hits and no tackles for a loss. Over his three games with K.C., he has no starts, no sacks, no quarterback hits, no tackles for losses, one solo tackle and two assists.
(Top photo of Devin Bush and Austin Ekeler: Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)