Steelers' Mike Tomlin Offers Pathetic Defense For Being Gashed By Tight Ends For A Second Straight Week

The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered their second embarrassing loss in a row in 2023 with a 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots; a week after losing to the Arizona Cardinals. Five days after the Cardinals diced Pittsburgh up with their tight ends, Bill Belichick decided to borrow a page from Arizona's playbook and it helped power the Patriots to victory behind Bailey Zappe, who was making his first career start. Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin offered up some explanations during his postgame press conference as to why Pittsburgh has struggled to defend the position recently.

Tomlin hinted that injuries have played a big part in the challenge the team has defending tight ends the past two weeks against New England and Arizona. Pittsburgh has lost Kwon Alexander and Cole Holcomb to season-ending injuries, while Elandon Roberts entered the game with a lingering injury, but still managed to play. Pittsburgh has welcomed back Minkah Fitzpatrick after a hamstring issue, but he hasn't been able to help with the task of slowing down opposing tight ends. The team is also without safety Keanu Neal for the foreseeable future. 

"We’re minus some of our people in there," Tomlin said in response to a question about covering tight ends. "And we're just trying to find the correct mix."

The Steelers also have Mark Robinson at the middle linebacker position, but his coverage ability isn't where it needs to be for a potential three-down linebacker. The safeties other than Fitzpatrick, such as Domantae Kazee and Trenton Thompson, haven't been able to help much either. 

Cardinals tight end Trey McBride caught eight of nine targets in Week 13 for 89 yards and a touchdown. The second-year man out of Colorado State is having quite the breakout season and was a handful for the Steelers. Patriots tight end Hunter Henry didn't have the flashy yardage total of McBride with three catches for 40 yards, but he scored twice. The second score from Zappe traveled 24 yards and sailed right over the head of a sprawling Kazee.

"We've played some good tight ends," Tomlin said. "So, that's been a component of it as well." 

McBride is still young, at only 24 years old, and does seem to be an ascending talent at the position. Henry is in his eighth season in the league after playing in five seasons with the Los Angeles Chargers organization, and the last two in New England. He's eclipsed 600 yards three times in his career and hit nine touchdowns in 2021. Neither of them are bad tight ends, but no one is mistaking them for George Kittle, Travis Kelce or Mark Andrews.

Tomlin's group also mixed in Blake Martinez for the first time. He made four tackles in his Steeler debut. Injuries are a reality for every team in the NFL and Pittsburgh has been dealt their share of tough ones on the defensive side that are causing them fits in defending the tight end of late. 

Steelers Trying To Get Some Production From Their Tight Ends 

The Steelers offense as a whole had a rough night with two touchdowns and just 190 yards of passing offense. The team, however, seemed to be making a concentrated effort to involve the tight end which had been a criticism of the unit earlier in the season. 

Pat Freiermuth led the group against the Patriots with three catches for 18 yards while Connor Heyward had two catches for 15 yards. Darnell Washington was targeted twice and made a catch for 12 yards. The team even tried a throw from Heyward to Washington on a trick play from the one-yard line that, despite not working, was an attempt at trying something a little different before they eventually punched in a score. 

What did you think about Tomlin's answers? How do they do better stopping the tight ends? Comment below!

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