Despite a big comeback win in the season opener, the Steelers’ locker room did not reap the benefits of a Victory Monday. Instead, HC Mike Tomlin had them come in for a lengthy film session, breaking down what went wrong. After all, the Steelers were favorites to beat the Jets, yet they [needed to make franchise history](https://steelersdepot.com/2025/09/chris-boswells-game-winning-60-yard-field-goal-sets-new-steelers-record/) to win.
“It is easier to make corrections after a win. Getting out of there with a win was awesome, but it was an ugly one from our point of view”, Steelers OLB Alex Highsmith [said on The Insiders yesterday on the NFL Network](https://www.nfl.com/videos/alex-highsmith-joins-the-insiders-for-exclusive-interview-five-days-before-seahawks-steelers). “We know what type of defense we can be. We know the players that we have. If we want to continue to win games, we’ve got to play better than we did. We had a long film session yesterday, just dicing it up, seeing ways we can be better”.
To his credit, Highsmith was arguably the Steelers’ best defender on the day. In total, he recorded eight tackles, including the team’s lone sack, with three total quarterback hits. Jalen Ramsey has a good argument to make as the Steelers’ best defender, but I’m sure as the film session showed, there wasn’t stiff competition.
After boasting that they could have one of the best defenses of all time, the Steelers came out flat. Cam Heyward, incentives in hand, was largely quiet, outside of a couple plays. Keeanu Benton and the inside linebackers were particularly disappointing. Injuries in the secondary complicated things, with DeShon Elliott and Joey Porter Jr. exiting.
“They just came out, they punched us in the mouth that first half, first three quarters, really”, Highsmith admitted. But the Steelers are hard at work correcting their mistake, and that starts with film sessions. “You can’t just expect things to happen during the game and not practice them. We’ve just got to come out with better intensity this week at practice”.
The good news is that while the Steelers’ defense looked underwhelming, the offense looked like it could hang with good teams. Aaron Rodgers threw four touchdowns in his first Steelers debut, a franchise record for debuts. But they’re certainly not going to put up 34 points every week, so they can’t allow 32.
The Steelers don’t frequently allow 32 points, of course, but they are 1-9 when they do in the past four-plus seasons.
Will an extra day of film change anything for the Steelers going into next week? Maybe—maybe not. Arguably the biggest issue on defense wasn’t schematic but rather execution. They failed the mano a mano portion, starting with disengaging from blocks. But after allowing 32 points and nearly 400 yards, they have to try something.