The Pittsburgh Steelers really struggled to stop the run to begin the year. They were able to make some serious progress, though, especially in their wins against New England, Minnesota, and Cleveland. Unfortunately, all of that started to unravel in Cincinnati on Thursday. The Steelers’ defensive line couldn’t stop anything on the ground, and former Steelers OL Trai Essex thinks he has an idea why.
“Coach Tomlin said we’re not gonna be defined by this performance. But it’s starting to become the definition of this defense,” Essex said Friday on his Snap Count podcast. “It’s not a penetrating defense. But for some reason, we had a lot of selfish acts, I think, on the defensive line. Somebody choosing one side versus two gappy. Somebody slanting when they’re supposed to hold up an offensive lineman. Like the offensive line, maybe to a lesser effect, but they still had to all be on the same page. And it looked like they were all doing their own thing.”
Considering the circumstances, Thursday’s loss is one of the most disappointing defensive performances from this team in recent memory. They made great progress in recent weeks. Five turnovers and a win in New England, 55 minutes of dominant football in Dublin, and they completely silenced the Browns’ offense four days before.
Then, they played a Bengals team running the ball at a historically low level through six games, and the Steelers’ defensive line had no answers. They allowed Chase Brown to rush for 9.8 yards per attempt on 11 carries, which was just flat-out unacceptable.
This rep is a decent example of what Essex is talking about.
This is just bad from everyone. Derrick Harmon, outside of the right guard, gets pushed straight outside his gap. He has a decent rip move, but goes to the wrong side and leaves the middle open. Keeanu Benton and Patrick Queen take the left guard and the center, and each tries to force their way to the outside for some reason. Cam Heyward actually does a solid job to hold the left tackle up and let Chuck Clark shoot the gap, but he doesn’t get there in time. Harmon, Queen and Benton all abandon their gaps for some reason, and it leaves the middle wide open for Chase Brown.
These things just can’t be happening against a team like the Bengals. They had just 340 total rushing yards through their first six games, then picked up 142 against Pittsburgh. It’s unacceptable from all levels of the defense, but the Steelers’ defensive line deserves the most blame in the run department. In a crucial AFC North showdown, they were nowhere near up to the task.
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