Film Study: Secondary Concerns Doom Steelers

There are two schools of thought going into Thursday's game against the 1-11 Cleveland Browns.

The first school feels grateful that the Browns have no marquee receivers for the Steelers' struggling defensive backs to cover.

The second school fears that the Browns will become the latest bottom-feeding NFL team to claim victory over the Steelers, channeling the success of similarly awful Kansas City and Oakland.

Which school is right will be discovered when the teams take the field in what should be awful weather on Thursday night.

The Steelers should beat the hapless Browns. Then again, they should have beaten the hapless Raiders, the hapless Chiefs, the hapless Bears, and the struggling Ravens.

Heck, they should have beaten the Bengals, who didn't play a stellar game in either matchup, at least once, too.

In all but one loss (the second one to Cincinnati), the team surrendered and squandered a lead in the fourth quarter. For the Steelers, that's something close to unreal.

The vaunted defense is a shell of itself thanks to injuries, age, and ineffectiveness. But the biggest culprits of them all are the four players in the back.

The secondary is letting Pittsburgh down. They almost single-handedly let the Raiders claim victory on Sunday. In a game in which the kick coverage was tight and the offense effective, it was the defense, particularly the defensive backs, who let everyone down.

You know the tale. Ike Taylor gets beat deep. William Gay is continually burned to a crisp. Ryan Mundy is victimized by something between a bad decision and a bad penalty call.

The problem is that while everyone has been focusing so much on Bruce Arians' failed attempts to call plays in overtime and the coverage unit's inability to slow down or stop anyone from returning kicks, the secondary has gone unchanged.

In case Mike Tomlin somehow missed it, William Gay has been getting beaten and burnt all season long. He's more overcooked now than Clark Griswold's Christmas turkey in Christmas Vacation .

Gay is sitting finally, but if not for a concussion would he be on the bench?

Taylor hasn't been a star either. His awful hands were joined this year by awful decision making skills and a sudden propensity to be beat deep by the top receivers he used to cover adeptly.

He might sit Thursday. He should.

The problem is it doesn't get much better behind them.

Keenan Lewis is untested. He's been okay on coverage, but like everyone else there he's been nothing spectacular. Now he's going to be asked to cover receivers on defense.

We'll know pretty quickly if he fails. Cleveland doesn't have much talent at the wide receiver and tight end positions.

Joe Burnett replaces Gay, just as he did after Gay sustained a concussion against the Raiders. Burnett failed to win a spot as a returner in training camp because he couldn't hold onto the ball. Against the Raiders, he dropped what should have been a sure interception that would have ended the game.

Tyrone Carter and Ryan Clark are great, but they don't cover the middle of the field very well. Clark clearly misses Troy Polamalu, who often took away slot receivers, tight ends, and sneaky running backs by using his immense speed.

Carter is above average and would start on several teams, but he's no Troy. He's also slowly becoming a liability in coverage as teams have learned how to freeze him. He doesn't have the speed to recover—as we saw on one of the Raiders' three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter on Sunday.

All of this boils down to a tremendous headache for Mike Tomlin and Dick LeBeau. They can sacrifice their pass rush by dropping Lamarr Woodley, Lawrence Timmons, or James Harrison into coverage or they can cross their fingers and hope that Lewis, Burnett and safety Ryan Mundy can fill in the blanks the way Taylor, Carter, and Gay cannot.

Either way, the secondary is of primary concern as the Steelers close out one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory.

When you look at the film from the entire season, you realize that this group was never that good. Losing Polamalu made them worse.

Either way, fixing the secondary is the now the team's top priority.

Perhaps whatever medicine they've given the previously anemic coverage units would help.