The Pittsburgh Steelers’ coaches have come under media fire this week, and rightfully so for losing four of their last six games. That was amplified even further by Patrick Queen directly calling out schematic issues on defense after the loss to the Chicago Bears last Sunday. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin was asked about those comments and whether they led to any constructive conversations in the meeting room.
“There always is. There’s always gonna be things that happen every game that we’re not happy with as coaches, [and] they’re not happy with as players. And that’s why we get back at it every week,” Austin said Thursday via audio provided by the team. “Every call is not gonna be perfect, every player’s not gonna be perfect, and we just have to be able to come out on the right side and make more plays than we give up. And so that’s really what our focus is. Our guys have been good. They’ve been good all year.
“The feedback is always good. I’d much rather have guys that have some feedback and want to know, ‘Hey, how can we make this better?’ than guys that just throw their hands up in the air.”
It’s probably not a great thing when the dirty laundry is aired to the public like it was, but football is an emotional sport, and Queen’s comment was made in the immediate aftermath of a tough loss in a game that was very winnable. And to be fair to Queen, he is the quarterback of the defense and communicates calls from the sideline. He has to feel at least some ownership in that discussion.
Now that it’s been a few days and emotions are back down to a normal level, players have been taking a more political approach to airing potential grievances with the scheme. Cam Heyward took the veteran leader route on Wednesday by sharing blame between execution and play calling. But the fact that scheme has even entered the conversation is rare — and telling.
The last six weeks have been rough, but they haven’t reached the depths of the three- and four-game skids we saw in 2023 and 2024. With a difficult final stretch ahead, including games against the Buffalo Bills, Baltimore Ravens (twice), the resurgent Miami Dolphins, and the Detroit Lions, it wouldn’t take much for things to take a turn for the worse. The emotions and frustration could reach a boiling point if that happens.
Players and coaches can take accountability all they want, but none of it means anything until they can turn things around as a defense. Mike Tomlin said he thoughtfully put the “historic” defense comments out there before the season to challenge the unit to be great. And with a record payroll, the Steelers really have no excuses left.
They aren’t going to finish the season in the top 10 as many hoped, but they certainly can’t finish with the worst total defense in franchise history, at least not if anybody wants to keep their jobs.
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