The Pittsburgh Steelers have now lost three games in a row and could now lose out on winning the AFC North. With another embarrassing loss against the Kansas City Chiefs, frustration is starting to show within the Steelers' locker room. Players are not happy with their execution in the last three games, offense not scoring and defense giving up big plays. As the Steelers now look on towards the Cincinnati Bengals, something has to change to have some type of positive momentum heading into the playoffs.
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Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes throwing the ball as Pittsburgh Steelers' Alex Highsmith tries to pressure him.
After the Christmas Day loss, DeShon Elliot spoke openly with the media about his frustrations. When he was asked if there was a theme surrounding the team's three-game skid, he didn't hold back on his displeasures with receivers being wide open and his teammates not doing their jobs.
"First off, guys can't be f****** wide open." said Elliott. "That's the first thing; do your job. I thought we communicated, guys just weren't doing their freaking jobs."
Elliott, who has been on the sidelines the last two games for the Steelers, wasn't happy that these mistakes were happening consistently, and this late in the season. He believes the defense has taken steps back as a unit, making Week 1 types of errors this late into the season.
"Get back to the drawing boards it's Week 18, we shouldn't be having these problems in Week 18." said Elliott. "This a Week 1, Week 2 problem. I don't know where we went down the line started to becoming a different defense than who we were, but we got to get back to who we are."
It's very clear that the defender had some issues with how the defense performed against the Chhiefs.
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DeShon Elliott getting prepared for the Pittsburgh Steelers' Week 8 matchup with the New York Giants.
The Steelers as a team seem to have lost their identity during this three-game stretch. Russell Wilson and the offense have struggled to move the ball into the end zone and have not done a good job of protecting the ball as they did earlier in the season. The defense continues to allow big plays to happen consistently and is not helping itself by allowing drives to drag out as prevalent seen in Philadelphia and Baltimore.
Elliott putting guys on blast could be the first domino in two different scenarios. Either players will agree with his frustrations and look to finally bounce back in Week 18 against the Bengals; or other players will start pointing fingers at each other -- which will lead to another embarrassing loss in the playoffs.
Alysa Rubin / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers' defense gets ready for a play against the Cleveland Browns
The good news is that the Steelers are still going to the playoffs, but if they continue to play as they have in the last three games, it could be another quick exit for Pittsburgh. They are at risk of now playing their first-round game on the road, having not hosted a playoff game since the COVID season in 2020.
The Steelers will use their mini bye to try to figure out what is going on. Both sides of the ball needs to do their jobs and execute the game plan as they did during their 7-1 stretch from Week 6 through Week 14. Pittsburgh cannot expect to win any type of playoff matchup, home or away with players not executing on either side of the ball.
Steelers Have A Lot Of Issues To Fix With One Week Remaining In 2024 Regular Season
Elliott's comments reflect how most Steelers' fans have felt the last few weeks. Mike Tomlin needs to figure out what is going wrong fast or his streak of playoff loses will continue to stack. He knows the product on the field isn't acceptable and not reflective of talent this roster currently has.
The Steelers will get a mini-bye before their last game of the regular season, giving Tomlin and the coaching staff plenty of time to work out the kinks to not only end the season with a win, but some positive momentum heading into the playoffs.
Do you agree with Elliott's comments after the Chiefs' game? Do you have faith that the Steelers' coaching staff can fix the issues from the last three games? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
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