After a wild Week 1 win versus the Cincinnati Bengals, SteelerNation has been led to much disappointment watching our beloved Pittsburgh Steelers follow that performance up with two straight losses against AFC opponents, the Cleveland Browns and the New England Patriots. Although much of the blame has gone to the offensive side of the football, and rightfully deserved, our defense hasn't been much better, after failing to stay on track with their top-tier Week 1 performance.
Luck hasn't exactly been in their favor as of late, T.J. Watt has been sidelined with a pec injury that has landed him on the injured reserve. On top of that, Defensive tackle Tyson Alualu has underperformed to the point of losing his starting spot to Montravius Adams this coming weekend. Watt’s presence is obviously one that this side of the football misses, as this Steelers front has yet to create a consistent pass rush that would help out the backside of their defense.
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Montravius Adams (57) practices at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex in preparation for his first start of the season. / Credit: Abigail Dean, Steelers.com
Luckily enough, the second phase of this Steelers defense has been playing well, as linebackers Devin Bush and newcomer Myles Jack have been showing a glimpse of what their future potential could be. And that would be holding their own as the first three games of the year are past us. The former Jacksonville Jaguar currently has the third most total tackles in the NFL with 35, trailing the leader by just one loan tackle, and has had a stellar first month of football. Jack is in familiar territory, as he has had his fair share of disappointing seasons while with his former squad, but still remains positive as the season progresses.
“It’s the first quarter in the NFL, man. You can’t hoist up that trophy just yet," Jack said. "But we’re confident in this building. It’s a long year man, I think it’s still September, about to be October in a second, but it’s a long year. We are just getting started. A lot of the mistakes we’ve made can easily be cleaned up so I’m excited.”
Pittsburgh Steelers
- linebacker
Myles Jack
- (51) tackles
Cleveland Browns
- running back
Nick Chubb
- (24) during a regular season game. / Credit: Karl Roser, Steelers.com
As far as what those “mistakes” on the defensive side of the football are, Jack relates them to things he believes the Steelers can control. Although not being direct, the Steelers' problem on defense has been their lack of tackling over the past decade, and the same remains as this young season continues to progress. What is refreshing to hear is that there is optimism inside the locker room as far as what's to come for this defense, as Jack elutes our slow start as “easy fixes”.
“A mixture of a lot of things. Me personally I agree too, we are giving teams things as opposed to just straight up beating us," Jack continued. "I’m very excited man, I think it’s going to be good here on out."
“A missed gap here, a missed assignment here but it’s easy fixes. It’s not scientific or anything. So were cleaning that up. We worked on that last week Friday. We worked on it this week. It’s gonna be good," Jack finished.
It is rumored that Watt may be coming back to action sooner rather than later, as he continues to rehab through his pectoral injury, which would obviously be a big help to this defense. In the meantime, each member of this defense is going to have to step up in his absence and figure out what “things” our defense is giving opponents that have led to this slow 1-2 record, and fast. A tough October schedule looks them dead in the eyes.
Do we think this defense can fix those "mistakes" sooner rather than later?
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