It was a very ugly game for the Pittsburgh Steelers on both sides of the football on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, but the offense was the bigger concern.
Throughout much of the Season, the opposite can be said, as the Steelers’ defense hasn’t played up to the standard that Pittsburgh has set over the past few decades.
While giving up 25 points isn’t always ideal, it wasn’t exactly like the Chargers did a whole lot on the offensive side of the football. They finished with just 199 passing yards and averaged 4.6 yards per play. They were 6-17 on third downs, with the Steelers sacking Justin Herbert five times.
When speaking to reporters after the game, it sounds like T.J. Watt believes that the defense still didn’t play up to their standards.
He told reporters that they can’t continue to live and die off of turnovers, and that the Steelers simply have to do a better job of getting off the field.
"We can't continue to live and die by the turnovers as a defense," Watt told reporters. "We need to get off the field, we need to stop the run. Critical third downs, we need to do a better job of.
"No excuse for it. We need to play better."
"We need to get off the field. Our job is to get on and off the field as quickly as possible," said Watt. "Good defenses spend a lot of time on the bench, and we haven't been doing that enough in totality this whole year."
It’s tough to get off the field when the offense didn’t do much on Sunday night, considering they only had 11 first downs.
However, this has also been an issue for a lot of the year.
If the Steelers aspire to be the team they’re looking to be moving forward, it has to start on the defensive side of the football, and Rodgers has to play better offensively.
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