Steelers' TJ Watt Holds Nothing Back In Brutally Honest Assessment Of Defense

The Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to get humbled in their Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. After two quality games sandwiching a bye week, the defense laid an egg in what turned out to be a 33-31 defeat. Once Pittsburgh took a 10-0 lead, it seemed like everything fell apart, as they only forced one punt after that. It went from a seemingly dominating performance, to getting dominated whenever they had to try and stop Cincinnati. For a 4-1 team with a supposedly elite defense, this is horrible to see for Steelers fans.

During his postgame press conference, the usually quiet TJ Watt did not hold back on his feelings for how that game turned out defensively.

"Seemed like everything," Watt said. "It was an absolutely unacceptable performance from us on the defensive side of the ball."

Watt is not wrong at all. The Steelers allowed 470 total yards in the game as no one seemed to have any answers for what went down in the contest. There is not a single stat out there that this unit can take comfort in, as they were constantly beat on ground and through the air all game. Nothing was going right after the second quarter started, and it proves that this team is far away from being a true contender in the AFC.

The run defense was especially sloppy. The Bengals went from having the worst running game in the league, to a dominant one. Chase Brown had almost 10 yards per carry on the night by himself. The Steelers were chasing Chase Brown all night long, it seemed. The entire unit also got baited by quarterback Joe Flacco on a read option, where he was able to get 12 yards on the play in the second half.

The Bengals copied the Steelers' gameplan from Week 6: get the ball out quickly. After the first drive, the Steelers could not get any pressure on Flacco. They registered one sack late in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough. He had all day to throw for the majority of the contest, and it resulted in him racking up 342 yards and three touchdowns on 31 completions.

The most insane part of this performance was star receiver Ja'Marr Chase. While he could be the best receiver in the NFL, giving up 16 catches for 161 yards and a touchdown is downright inexcusable, no matter who the cornerback is on any wideout. Almost half of Flacco's passing attempts went to him, because the Steelers could not stop him.

Steelers Need To Take A Long Look In The Mirror

Head Coach Mike Tomlin has always been a zone coverage kind of guy. However, he has desired to load the defense up with big-bodied press man coverage players at cornerback. That's why the Steelers drafted Joey Porter Jr., signed Darius Slay, and traded for Jalen Ramsey. It looked like he wanted to adapt his scheme, and bringing in all those players proved that. 

However, Tomlin and Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin kept spamming soft zone plays, which is the exact opposite of what the Steelers thrive in. When Flacco and the Bengals kept taking advantage of it, Pittsburgh refused to adapt. That's why Chase had 16 receptions. That's why they kept getting gashed in the run game. They refused to change, and it resulted in 33 points getting hung on them. 

The scheming, the play-calling, and the execution on all fronts were absolutely unacceptable, as Watt said. Nothing about that game could be considered good. If Tomlin, his coaches, and his players don't learn from their mistakes, they could easily have yet another collapse and choke away a very winnable division.

What do you think about the Steelers' horrible loss? Let us know in the comments or on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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