The Pittsburgh Steelers are on a three-game losing streak, which has brought out frustrations in not just the fans, but the players too. Tempers have flared and fingers are seeming to be pointed, even if the players aren't directly calling anyone out in particular. It seems that most, if not all, of the finger pointing is coming from the defense, who has struggled immensely over the last month. Many of Pittsburgh's star play-makers on defense have been visibly frustrated since their Christmas Day loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, a loss which dropped the Steelers to second place in the AFC North.
Alysa Rubin / Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers' TJ Watt and the defense making a tackle on Chiefs' Travis Kelce on Christmas Day in 2024.
With the Steelers' offense not having any sort of consistency throughout the regular season, Pittsburgh's defense led the team to a 10-3 start. The Steelers still lead the NFL in total takeaways by the defense with 31, 15 of which were forced fumbles. While the Steelers have been top-tier at taking the ball away and stopping the run, Pittsburgh's pass defense has been utterly atrocious as of late. In their last performance, Patrick Mahomes threw for over 300 yards and three passing touchdowns on Pittsburgh's home-field, as well as not turning the ball over once.
After the game, some of the big-name free agent signings from the 2024 offseason completely lost their cool, and now have the media wondering what is going on in Pittsburgh's locker room. DeShon Elliott and Patrick Queen were arguably Pittsburgh's biggest offseason additions to the defense and needed to bring quality play and leadership to the defense. On Wednesday, Elliott sounded off and was very upset with Chiefs players being wide open all game. Queen also made a statement saying no one is doing anything about their current issues on defense.
Ryan Clark, a former safety and Super Bowl champion with the Steelers, explained on ESPN's First Take why there has been so much finger pointing in Pittsburgh's locker room.
"When you have these teams and you start to put different pieces on them, right, when you go and you get a DeShon Elliott, who's a free agent, you bring in Donte Jackson, who's a free agent, and you're starting to put some of these pieces together to try to build a team, that's different for Pittsburgh," explained Clark. "What Omar Khan, the general manager, has done this year, they never did."
Clark refers back to when Pittsburgh signed James Farrior as a free agent and how it was a big deal that he became a legendary Steeler. The Steelers are known for developing players through the NFL Draft, as opposed to bringing in a bunch of talent from the open market. After seven seasons without a playoff win, General Manger Omar Khan decided to make a handful of key signings.
"This team is different now," Clark continued. "There aren't a lot of these homegrown and home-raised Steelers that were drafted here, that understand the culture, that know it's supposed to be done one way. Because what used to happen, when we were having these sorts of things, is everybody pointed at themselves. When you ask DeShon Elliott a question and you say, 'Hey, man, what could be better?' You know what you say? 'I gotta be better.' Now, when we get into the room and we lock them doors, we can throw hands if we got to. And even Cam Heyward, because what happens is, when you say, '10 guys do their job, but one doesn't,' you know what my next question is? Who's the one? And so, what you can't do is when you're losing, you can't let folks into your house like that."
Pittsburgh's defense gets 11 days between games to prepare for their regular season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals at home. If the defense doesn't get cleaned up by then, Joe Burrow and his wide receivers are going to have a big game.
Alysa Rubin / Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Steelers' OLB Nick Herbig gets a strip-sack on Joe Burrow as the defense gets a scoop and score against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2024.
Though the last three weeks of Steelers football has been disappoiting, Pittsburgh still has another regular season game and a guaranteed playoff game in the Wild Card round to turn things around for the better. The biggest goal of the 2024 season was to make something happen in the playoffs, and that is still a possibility for Pittsburgh.
Steelers Cornerbacks On Hot Seat After Loss To Chiefs
The defensive backs for Pittsburgh have not been playing well recently. Both Joey Porter Jr. and Donte Jackson have been dealing with injuries, but the backups behind them have not been able to step up. Cam Sutton and James Pierre had poor games against Mahomes and the Chiefs on Wednesday, and a former NFL head coach made sure to call them out on Thursday.
Alysa Rubin / Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers' Cam Sutton high fives Donte Jackson before a preseason game against the Lions.
The locker room in Pittsburgh needs to come together instead of pointing fingers. As Clark mentioned, losing can easily divide teams, but the great ones tend to avoid blaming one another.
What do you think? Does Clark make a good point? How can Pittsburgh's defense come together and finish the season on a strong note? Let us know in the comments below.
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