Pittsburgh Steelers’ defensive leader and long-time captain Cam Heyward knows the power and meaning of his words. It makes his comments following Sunday night’s 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers all the more eyebrow-raising. Speaking to reporters in the locker room, Heyward asked the entire team to take a hard look at itself.
“I’m not looking for an excuse,” Heyward said via the WPXI ‘Black and Gold Zone’ post-game show. “I’m looking to just play better. We talk about it, but do we really know what we’re doing, play in and play out? Do we trust the guy next to us? Defense, offense, do we trust each other to be in the right spots to make plays?”
Largely, Pittsburgh’s defense did its job against a talented group of Los Angeles Chargers’ skill players. The unit allowed just 23 points, with the other two coming on Aaron Rodgers’ safety.
Despite a slew of Steelers’ turnovers that gave the Chargers the ball in opposing territory three times, the defense kept the score down. Quarterback Justin Herbert was knocked around in the first half and sacked five times on the night. Starting running back Kimani Vidal averaged 3.7 yards per carry with a long of 12. And the Chargers held a 35 percent third-down conversion rate, a far cry from the No. 1 unit coming into the game that moved the sticks half the time.
Not everything was positive. The defense failed to take the football away. A key component of how Pittsburgh wins, T.J. Watt vented his frustration over the need for takeaways to produce wins. But little could salvage a win with an offense unable to do anything. Aaron Rodgers and company did nothing until the final minutes of the game and didn’t convert a single third down until there was 3:59 left in the game. Rodgers had the worst performance of his 9-game Pittsburgh career and took the blame during his media session.
Still, Heyward’s comments are alarming. If there are issues with Pittsburgh’s understanding of the play or the belief in others to do their job, it’ll be hard for the Steelers to solve their problems. For such a veteran group, now more than halfway through the season, to openly question the fundamentals of the team is worrying.
“Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes,” Heyward said.
There are lots of mistakes to learn from. With a Sunday night West Coast game, Pittsburgh is already behind schedule to prepare for Sunday’s Week 11 tilt against the Cincinnati Bengals. With the Baltimore Ravens red-hot and winners of three-straight, the AFC North is wide open and up for grabs. Like usual, the two upcoming meetings between the two teams could decide the division. But if Pittsburgh can’t right the ship, the Week 18 finale might not mean much.
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