The Steelers had been one of the top teams in red zone defense during this season, but that fell off in a major way in Chicago. The Bears had the ball inside the 20 three times, and they scored a touchdown on each possession. Prior to the game, Pittsburgh had allowed just a 51.4-percent conversion rate, easily top 10 in the league. After allowing 3-for-3, they are outside the top 10.
“There’s a couple calls you’d like to have back, certainly”, HC Mike Tomlin about the red-zone defense, via the Steelers’ website. “There’s some detail that you’d like to have back. But oftentimes, that’s just the case. It’s not one glaring thing. It’s popcorn. It’s minutia here, minutia there. We’d like to be in a different call under this circumstance. We’d like to have someone better positioned in that circumstance. I think that’s kind of reflective of the red zone output last week”.
It’s worth noting that each of those touchdowns capped off extended drives of 54-plus yards. These were not quick-hitting affairs, averaging around four minutes in game time. Now, all of them did come off of giveaways or a turnover on downs. But at no point during those drives did the Steelers defense manage to settle down. They looked lost all the way through the red zone—right up until the Bears scored.
For a team that relies so heavily on the turnover margin and is very open and vocal about it, this level of performance is unacceptable. And the Steelers can’t go 0-for-3 in the red zone on defense when the offense goes 3-for-3. Mason Rudolph allowed them to capitalize on their opportunities, but the defense allows the Bears to capitalize on theirs, too.
Another thing routinely preached by Tomlin is complementary football, something the Steelers have been missing most weeks lately, whether on offense or defense, the red zone or otherwise. With some exceptions, such as the Colts game, that inability to string together a complete effort has been debilitating.
Turnovers hurt, but what makes them devastating is not limiting the damage. The offense produced a touchdown on one of Pittsburgh’s takeaways. On the other takeaway, the Steelers turned the ball over on downs, and the defense gave up a touchdown, Caleb Williams hitting Colston Loveland for a 12-yard touchdown—in the red zone.
And they had S Kyle Dugger covering him—perhaps one of the calls Tomlin would like to have back. Even worse was the one touchdown they allowed outside of the red zone, which players seemed critical of. Multiple defenders seemed to express frustration with schematic issues that overly stress and complicate things, setting them up to fail.
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