Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers dropped a second game in a row Sunday night following a brutal second half against the Packers, falling 35-25 at home. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had:
Here’s an ugly statistic for you: The NFL’s highest-paid defense, the Pittsburgh Steelers, have now allowed more 30-plus point games than not to start the 2025 season.
A not-so-big-surprise: They’ve lost three of those four 30-plus point games.
I doubt that’s a trend even the front office’s most fervent doubters would’ve expected following an offseason where the Steelers retained T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward and added big-name defenders such as Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay.
For a second week in a row, the highly-touted group collapsed in primetime.
There’s plenty of blame to go around, with major issues at every level. Up front, the defensive line allowed a respectable 94 rushing yards (3.6 per carry), but couldn’t record a single sack — or many pressures, for that matter. Sure, Packers quarterback Jordan Love heavily used the quick game like he has all season, but the Pittsburgh front was largely toothless on numerous blitzes and longer-developing pass plays.
For how much star power the Steelers have on the defensive line, you just have to see more production.
But the coverage players behind the pass rush were the much larger problem.
Love posted the hyper-efficient passing line of 29/37 for 360 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions. The Steelers were once again allowing wide-open receivers all over the secondary, and for the second straight week they looked like they forgot how to tackle.
While the Steelers had problem defending downfield targets, Jordan Love’s passing chart backs up the eye test: The Packers were passing at or around the line of scrimmage a lot and depending on yards after catch to do damage.
The Pittsburgh looked unorganized at best and disinterested at worst Sunday night, including this particularly ugly rep from Darius Slay on Green Bay’s second touchdown of the game:
And after safety DeShon Elliott went down, it just got worse. The fill-ins, largely Juan Thornhill and Chuck Clark, were repeatedly out of position and outran by the Packers’ pass catchers. Green Bay tight end Tucker Kraft looked like he was playing on Madden’s rookie difficulty. It didn’t matter if the throw was a lame duck from Love — the Steelers made Kraft look like the strongest and fastest player on the field Sunday night.
Scheme is an issue. For as much talent as he has to work with, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin has served up one of the worst defenses in the league over the last few weeks. But plays like the ones above show that the talent the Steelers added defensively this offseason might not have been as great as we thought.
The early signs were there. Pittsburgh allowed just seven points in the first half but was were bailed out by some offensive miscues by Green Bay...
