Pittsburgh Steelers Should Consider Shaking Up Secondary

It happened again.

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense gave up a glut of passing yards. This time, it was to the Seattle Seahawks and their quarterback Russell Wilson. Of the 436 yards the Steelers allowed in their 39-30 Week 12 loss, 336 were of the passing variety. It's the fifth time this year the Steelers have given up more than 300 passing yards in a game and the fifth time they have allowed more than 400 yards of total offense to an opponent.

Many times this year, those yards haven't mattered because Pittsburgh's defense held when it came to opponents trying to earn touchdowns in the red zone. But that was not the case on Sunday.

And it's becoming more and more clear that the Steelers' coverage, particularly in the secondary, is a major liability. Because of the poor pass defense, the Steelers not only lost on Sunday but dropped from fifth in the AFC (and in line for a wild-card playoff berth) to eighth and are on the outside of the postseason looking in.

Something needs to change. And it's clear what that something is—there needs to be a personnel shake-up in the secondary so the Steelers can do better against the pass.

Player	Tgts.	Rec.	Rec.%	Yds.	YAC	TD	INT	PD
Cockrell	51	36	70.6%	484	173	4	2	4
Blake	88	61	69.3%	825	325	5	2	4
Allen	35	26	74.3%	349	193	6	1	0

The Indianapolis Colts and Matt Hasselbeck, who is 4-0 as a starter this year, are up next. Brock Osweiler and the Denver Broncos loom as does Andy Dalton and the Cincinnati Bengals. There are a lot of passes coming the defense's way in the next three weeks, and if the Steelers cannot keep those yards at bay, it will again sink their chances of winning and dim their playoff hopes as well. 

There are three main culprits in Pittsburgh's defensive backfield who have led to the team ranking of a woeful 30th in passing yards allowed: cornerbacks Ross Cockrell and Antwon Blake and safety Will Allen. 

On Sunday, Cockrell gave up nine catches on 10 targets for 125 yards, 58 yards after the catch and a touchdown, according to  Pro Football Focus. Blake gave up five catches on seven targets for 115 yards, 80 yards after the catch and two touchdowns. And Allen allowed four catches on five targets for 77 yards, 23 yards after the catch and two touchdowns. None of the three had an interception or a single pass successfully defensed.

This wasn't a one-time lapse, of course. So far this season, Cockrell has given up 36 catches on 51 targets for 484 yards, 173 yards after the catch and has allowed four touchdowns to two interceptions and four passes defensed.

It's even worse for Blake, who has played some 200 more snaps than Cockrell this year and has given up 61 catches on 88 targets for 825 yards and 325 yards after the catch while allowing five touchdowns to two interceptions. Only the New Orleans Saints' Brandon Browner is ranked lower at the cornerback position by Pro Football Focus. The Saints, meanwhile, rank 31st in passing yardage allowed this year.

Allen ranks 70th out of 83 safeties this year. He's allowed 26 catches on 35 targets for 349 yards, 193 after-catch yards and six touchdowns to one interception. In contrast, fellow safety Mike Mitchell has been targeted a mere 11 times this year, giving up three receptions for 73 total yards and two yards after the catch. He has three interceptions and hasn't allowed a touchdown.

Not only is Mitchell handling his coverage duties well, teams aren't even throwing at him. There's no need, what with Allen, Cockrell and Blake there to be exploited on a regular basis. Clearly what the Steelers have been doing is not working.

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The problem, though, is that Pittsburgh doesn't have many players to turn to in place of its trio of underperforming defensive backs. William Gay is the team's other starter at cornerback, and there are just two additional corners on the depth chart, rookie Doran Grant and Brandon Boykin, who the Steelers acquired from the Philadelphia Eagles during the summer for a fifth-round pick. At safety, there are just Robert Golden and Shamarko Thomas behind Mitchell and Allen.

It does appear that Boykin could get a shot to steal a job from either Cockrell or Blake. Head coach Mike Tomlin said on Monday (via ESPN's Jeremy Fowler) that "We just had a brief conversation about [making changes in the secondary] and acknowledged that those things are on the table yesterday."

Tomlin continued, "We're yet to formulate any hardcore decisions in that regard because those meetings occur later on in the day. But we acknowledge that those guys need to play better. Particularly, they need to tackle better."

One option, according to Tomlin, is to move Boykin into the slot cornerback job that Gay has been responsible for this year, with Gay taking over for Blake or Cockrell (or a rotation). 

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Boykin hasn't played much this year—just 23 snaps with four receptions allowed for 45 yards, six yards after the catch and a touchdown. His minimal playing time is not reflective of a lack of talent but rather reflective of the size of Pittsburgh's cornerbacks.

Both Boykin and Blake are smaller corners, and Gay had the slot job on lockdown. Having two small corners prowling the boundaries was not in Pittsburgh's plans, and as such, Cockrell has gotten the nod. But the missed tackles and touchdowns allowed are starting to pile up, so expect some experimenting with Boykin's playing time moving forward. 

At safety, Golden would be more likely to supplant Allen than Thomas, after Thomas could not adequately replace the retired Troy Polamalu during training camp and the preseason. Golden has played 313 snaps so far this season at safety (both strong and free) compared to just 18 for Thomas. He's allowed 11 catches on 17 targets for 118 yards and two touchdowns—not that much better than Allen, to be sure—but perhaps enough to warrant additional playing time in place of Allen moving forward.

Regardless of who sees more playing time or who sees less over the next five games, the Steelers desperately need to do something to limit the damage opposing quarterbacks have been doing to their secondary.

The depth chart is thin, but there are ways for Pittsburgh to move players around. Even just removing Allen or Cockrell or Blake could result in improvements—all three don't have to be replaced to tighten up the passing defense. But bend-but-don't-break is becoming increasingly more broken for the Steelers, and the status quo clearly has not been good enough during Pittsburgh's push for the playoffs.