Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Outside of one play, the Pittsburgh Steelers had a fairly solid defensive performance in their Week 4 win over the Minnesota Vikings.
The Steelers allowed just 21 points, and while they did give up 372 yards to the Vikings, they also created two turnovers, and were just inches from two more, as Minnesota was fortunate to have Jordan Mason’s fumble and James Pierre’s interception both ruled out of bounds on replay review.
Really, any number of one plays tilted the other way could have turned the Steelers’ Croke Park nail-biter into laugher for the home team. But the one that stuck in the craw of the defense after the fact was an 81-yard pass from Carson Wentz to Jordan Addison that came against a busted coverage, giving Minnesota new life when the situation looked nearly hopeless.
Payton Wilson made an incredible play to run down Addison from behind and stave off a touchdown for four more snaps, ticking precious seconds off the clock in Minnesota’s desperation-mode comeback bid.
But for a defense that fancies itself as one of the best in the league, the damage had been done.
“We’ve got to keep our foot on their neck,” linebacker Patrick Queen said after the game.
“I wouldn’t say we relaxed, but the communication wasn’t the same. A few players get hurt, guys change positions. Things happen. It’s something that we can’t have happen. That’s when we’ve just got to keep echoing to each other and making sure we’re all on the same page, starting with me, so we don’t have that happen, but hell of a play by Payton.”
Queen wasn’t the only one to take the blame for the miscommunication that ended with Addison driving a dagger into the Pittsburgh secondary. Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said on Wednesday that he called too complicated of a defense, considering the personnel they had available at the time, and should have made a similar, easier-to-execute call.
For the play in question, cornerbacks Jalen Ramsey (hamstring injury) and Brandin Echols (cramps) were both off the field being attended to by trainers, leaving the Steelers with just two healthy cornerbacks in Darius Slay and James Pierre.
With the Vikings sending out three wide receivers, the only option for Austin was the Steelers’ three-safety Heavy Nickel package, which moves DeShon Elliott into the box and has Chuck Clark and Juan Thornhill behind him as deep safeties.
The Steelers made a call with a check in it, and Clark communicated the change. That communication never made it through to Elliott and Slay, who ended up in the same zone while Addison stormed past Clark for the big gain.
With Elliott playing in an unfamiliar position, and two backups in the game, Austin said he should have gone with something simpler.
“I’m gonna take that one,” he said. “We were struggling with who was in the game, and I probably made a call that probably wasn’t simple enough for everybody, and so that’s on me....
