Although it’s just two games into the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense is on pace for some really dubious numbers if things don’t get corrected sooner rather than later.
After playing well and giving up just three points in the first half of the opener against Cleveland, the defense has surrendered 50 points in six quarters. If that sounds bad, then consider they haven’t even played some of the better offenses on the schedule yet.
As much as I dislike statistics sometimes in gauging a team’s value, it’s hard to dismiss them. Right now there are some very key defensive stats that need attention or else 2014 will be a lost cause.
1. Rushing yards allowed – The Steelers currently rank 29th in the league. They’ve given up 340 yards rushing in two games. Only the Rams, Packers and Raiders are worse.
2. Yards per carry – The Steelers are giving up 5.2 yards per carry which ranks 6th in the NFL. Think about that for a second; that means offenses are facing far shorter second and third downs than most teams.
3. Third down stops – Back to the 29th spot are the Steelers where they stop opponents only 30% of the time on third down. The league’s top defense in this category is Seattle where they stop drives on third down 55% of the time
4. Turnovers – The Steelers rank dead-last in takeaways but at least they have company. Only the Lions have zero fumble recoveries and zero interceptions like the Steelers do. With the offense usually good for at least one turnover a game, the defense has to do better and that has to start now.
5. Sacks – The Steelers rank 20th in the NFL in sacks and maybe that doesn’t sound too bad but consider they only have three total and then it doesn’t look all that good. Fact is that it isn’t. Not only are they not getting sacks, but they aren’t even getting what I would call consistent pressure at all.
In recent years, we’ve seen teams reach the Super Bowl with less than stellar defenses when it came to yards and points allowed but they were often good when they had to be. That means they created turnovers, got timely sacks and held firm in the red zone.
Oh and speaking of the red zone, the Steelers are dead last there as they’ve given up scores every time an offense has gone inside the 20.
We can debate whether Dick LeBeau is past his time or whether the talent just isn’t there as long as we’d like but the bottom line is that this defense is capable of doing things better and it starts with tackling. Things can fall into place from there.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio
photo courtesy bleacherreport.com
