Steelers' Mike Tomlin Only Praised One Small Component In Pathetic Week 2 Preseason Showing

The Pittsburgh Steelers have not shown up well in their two preseason games so far. After a 20-12 loss in Week 1 where they only scored with Kyle Allen and the third-team offense, they only put up three points with both Russell Wilson and Justin Fields playing the entire game. Even though the defense only gave up nine points, they got destroyed in the run game. The Buffalo Bills ate up all the clock in the second half, forcing the Steelers to try and play perfect football, which they could not. 

During the postgame press conference, Mike Tomlin got some of the frustrations off his chest before taking any questions. He talked about how bad everyone played, but said that he was impressed by only one part of the game, and it may be the least important part, depending on who you ask.

"Still not what we're looking for. It was better in some areas but still [junior varsity-level] in too many others. An area of improvement, I thought, was net punting. The field position component of play got flipped this time around. We were much better in this game than we were in the last one."

Cameron Johnston had five punts, all in the first half. On those punts, he averaged 56.8 yards per punt, with his longest being a 65-yard bomb. They did give up 63 yards on five punt returns but one 31-yard return skewed the results, as the punt coverage did its job to prevent big returns most of the time. At very least, it seems like the Steelers have their solution at punter for once. 

In the previous week, Johnston averaged 43.6 yards per punt on his five punts, with the longest one going for 50 yards. They also gave up 50 yards on punt returns in three attempts. There was a significant increase in net yards overall from preseason Week 1 to Week 2. Even if this latest outing from Johnston is not sustainable for a whole season, it still shows what he can be when he's at his best. 

Steelers' Get Chewed Out Completely By Tomlin

After praising the punt unit, Tomlin immediately went into a tangent on everything that went wrong with the Steelers in that game. In basic terms, nearly everyone else played poorly.

"Still not winning enough possession downs on offense, particularly early in an effort to establish rhythm and gameplays and develop personality, and so forth. When you're not winning possession downs at the early portions of the game, all of those things really get stymied. Included in that but also separate from that, i just thought we didn't do a good enough job of protecting the quarterback. We got to do a better job in pass protection, not just in possession downs, but just in general."

That failure on offense led directly to Johnston's five punts. He didn't have any punts in the second half because the Steelers only had three drives, all of which ended in failed fourth down conversions, including two in field goal range. They had so few chances with the ball because of how the defense got decimated via the run game.

"On defense, particularly in the second half, I thought our young people wore down some. [The Buffalo Bills] were able to control the game and minimize our opportunities because they were running the football some... You don't have a chance to have a really good run defense unless your secondary people are really on it... and that's why their run total was what it was."

The Bills' three running backs from the second half combined to rush for 136 yards. That would be terrible for a whole game, let alone a half. The pass defense didn't get much of a chance to do anything, as the Bills barely threw the ball with Ben DiNucci, and when they did, it was just a bunch of screens. The Steelers had no answers for the run game, and that took away plenty of chances for their offense to shine. 

What do you think about the Steelers' performance overall after the second preseason game of the year? Let us know in the comments.

#SteelerNation