Pittsburgh Steelers Defense Shows Major Deficiencies in Loss to Browns

Every NFL team has to go through days like the Pittsburgh Steelers went through on Sunday. The Steelers went into Cleveland on Sunday with an 18-1 record against the Browns and laid an egg. It was brutal to watch and probably worse to participate in.

A loss like the 31-10 debacle on the road has happened to everyone who has ever played football for a significant amount of time. Everything that could go wrong did, and at some point, the clock just can’t run down fast enough. ESPN’s Scott Brown tweeted out a postgame quote from head coach Mike Tomlin that really summed things up. 

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Mike Tomlin says "we've got to swallow this one and we will."

— Scott Brown (@ScottBrown_ESPN) October 12, 2014"

However, even in a loss like this, players and coaches alike must look at their performances and wonder just where did things go wrong. Well, on defense you can really point to three phases where the Steelers fell flat.

Former Steelers head coach Bill Cowher had some pointed words about the Steelers defense. In the CBS postgame show, Cowher pulled no punches, as pointed out by CBS NFL insider Jason La Canfora on Twitter.

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Coach Cowher calls the Steelers "finesse" on offense and "soft" on defense while discussing them on our postgame show. Wow. Strong coffee

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) October 12, 2014"

Pressure on the Quarterback

It is important to understand that in the first quarter of Sunday’s game, the Steelers defense dominated the Browns offense. Cleveland had 368 yards of offense, a feat made more remarkable by the fact it finished the first quarter with minus-eight yards.

However, when things went south for the Steelers defense, part of it was because the Steelers were completely unable to generate any sort of pass rush. Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer is fortunate to have one of the best offensive lines in the AFC, and it showed on Sunday. The Steelers were only able to manage a single sack, and even it came on middle pressure rather than off the corner.

David Richard/Associated Press

The Steelers’ three-man combo of Arthur Moats, Jason Worilds and James Harrison at outside linebacker never really had Hoyer in any significant duress during the game. Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau didn’t make much of an effort to dial up any exotic pressures and rarely had a numbers advantage on Cleveland.

Moving forward, the Steelers are just going to have to live with what they have. Unfortunately, an eventual Jarvis Jones isn’t going to add the dimension this defense lacks off the edge. If the coaches can’t find a way to generate pressure in new ways, expect every quarterback to have the sort of success Hoyer did today. 

Serious Coverage Lapses

One would assume that when you hold a quarterback to only eight completions on 17 attempts, things went pretty well. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the Steelers. Hoyer wasn’t terribly accurate, but when he was, it was deadly.

Of Hoyer’s eight completions, half of them went for 31 yards or more. This points to a complete lack of pressure (as mentioned above) but also serious lapses in coverage. In particular I look at cornerback Cortez Allen. On Cleveland tight end Jordan Cameron’s 51-yard touchdown, Cameron just ran away from Allen. Allen couldn’t stay in stride with a tight end over 50 pounds heavier than him.

Tony Dejak/Associated Press

It is hard to get too far into the shortcomings of the secondary when you understand how long its players were being forced to try and maintain their coverage assignments. However, on Cameron’s first long completion, it was just a matter of safety Troy Polamalu biting hard on the run action and forgetting his assignment—a product of an effective run game but poor form from a veteran.

In fact, on Jim Dray and Travis Benjamin’s long receptions, the Browns used some manner of run fake to pull players on the Steelers secondary away from their assignments. And that not only bought Hoyer more time, but gave the Browns’ wide receivers gaps in the Steelers secondary they could exploit.

Lack of Gap Integrity

I smiled when I saw Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Mark Kaboly’s tweet. It was so simple yet so true. 

"

Gap integrity

— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly_Trib) October 12, 2014"

The reason I smiled wasn’t because I was happy, but because earlier in the game, I had tweeted this.

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Gap integrity straight into the crapper since 1st qtr.

— Curt Popejoy (@NFLdraftboard) October 12, 2014"

In the first game against the Browns, the Steelers defense struggled mightily with gap integrity against that zone-stretch play to the tune of 191 yards on the ground. At the end of the first quarter on Sunday, it appeared as if the Steelers had figured it out.

David Richard/Associated Press

However, by the second quarter, the Browns' offensive line started to impose its will on the Steelers front, and the front started to fall back into bad habits—things like overpursuit, which left massive cutback lanes the Browns running backs exploited.

But in some cases it was far simpler than that. There are times when you just have to beat your man one-on-one and get to the football. If you cannot, you are giving up your gap, and the running back has four yards before another defender can engage him.

Overall

In the final analysis, this was a terrible effort by the Steelers defense for three quarters. Lack of discipline was a huge culprit in a the lackluster performance. However, don’t overlook the fact that some of the players in key spots on this defense (yes you, Cam Thomas) just aren’t terribly athletic or talented. Games like today give one pause as to just how far this team could tumble as the season progresses.

Game stats provided by NFL.com.