The Pittsburgh Steelers were riding a practically perfect preseason into their 2023 regular season opener against the San Francisco 49ers. As it turns out, though, the hype train ran out of rail without ever picking up any steam that actually mattered. The belief going into Sunday's game was that even if the retooled offense struggled, the pricey Pittsburgh defense would be able to have their backs. After a 30-7 loss that left a ton of bad taste in the mouths of the fanbase, the defense proved unable to keep up with the multifaceted attack that San Francisco brought. All this wasted a brilliant performance from TJ Watt, something that was not lost on him postgame.
AP Photo / Matt Slocum
Steelers Kenny Pickett had a very rough outing in their 2023 season opening loss to the San Francisco 49ers
Steelers Watt Gives No Excuses For 2023 Opening Loss
Looking shell-shocked in his postgame conference, Watt was unable to offer any answers as to what went wrong between the dynamic energy leading up to the game, and the game itself. No smirk, no grin, no laughs; Watt was stone-faced with the media, but gave responses that indicated a man who understood the hill the Pittsburgh defense has to climb.
The first question posed to Watt was about the difficulty the defense had getting into a groove, considering the rotation going on due to injuries. Entering the game, there were concerns between both Cameron Heyward and Larry Ogunjobi, and things didn't get better during the game itself. Heyward missed time with a groin injury, DeMarvin Leal dealt with an elbow issue, and it seemed like necessity was dictating the rotation rather than strategy. Regardless of the player who was on the field, Watt had no excuses for the way the defense played.
"Never gonna make an excuse for that, we always have the next man up mentality. It doesn't matter who's in the game, the standard is the standard like we talk about all the time and today it definitely wasn't enough."
It wasn't just the performance that never really seemed to find its rhythm outside of a single scoring drive at the end of the first half, it was the massive gap between the hope and the reality of the day.
Watt was asked about the fast start that the 49ers got off to in comparison to the sluggish, out-of-sorts game that the Steelers put forth. Again, without much emotion on his face, though you could see the pride that was stinging, Watt never came close to anything resembling an excuse. The preseason was just that, and now that things count, Watt knows what transpired isn't up to any sort of par.
"I don't know. I don't know if there's one thing I can say right now, I mean, you guys watched the preseason. We were able to start fast in all three phases of the game, and today was definitely not like that. I mean, even to be able to stop the bleeding, come on at halftime and have, what, a two play, seventy-plus yard drive is not acceptable at all."
The dust has barely settled, but already the reaction from Watt shows a player who can't figure out what exactly happened. It will be a very long week within the Steelers organization, and hopefully during that time, they will find some answers.
Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images
Steelers TJ Watt did all he could but the Steelers still dropped their 2023 opener to the 49ers, 30-7
Steelers' Watt Can't Take Anything Away From 49ers Performers
As rough a day as the Steelers had, the 49ers romped around Acrisure Stadium without much standing in their way. For all the talk leading up to the 2023 regular season opener, somewhere along the way, it was as though the Steelers forgot who they would be playing on Sunday.
Watt knew what they would be in for against players like Christian McCaffrey and second-year quarterback, Brock Purdy, but it's hard to believe the rest of the defense was at the same level of preparedness. Watt got a question about whether the team simply wasn't ready for what McCaffrey brings to the table, but Watt said it was simply too early for him to tell anything about why the breakdowns happened.
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Steelers Kenny Pickett was outplayed in the 2023 season opener by Brock Purdy
As for Mr. Irrelevant, Purdy went through the game without much difficulty from the Steelers outside of Watt. A young quarterback with a partial season under his belt seemed like the perfect prey for an expensive, talented, deep defense, and yet the task ended up being too much for Pittsburgh to rise to. Watt was asked whether it came down to Purdy doing something they didn't expect
"Like I said, it's too early for me to start making decisions on how the game went...We weren't able to affect him enough to put him in tough situations, but he executed better than we did today."
That's a huge piece of humble pie for this proud defense to swallow, but it's filled with truth. Watt knows that the defense was needed to salvage any chance, and when the squad couldn't do that for the offense, the end result was the loss we all watched unfold. It's only one game, but there are already questions aplenty for the Steelers to find answers to. Here's hoping that the hype wasn't completely a smokescreen, and this isn't the start of a very long 2023 season for both Watt and the Steelers.
What does the defense need to do to right the 2023 Steelers ship? #SteelerNation
