The Steelers could find no answers on defense to stop the Patriots offense.
In what has been a recurring and unfortunate theme, the Steelers defense, yet again, could not seem to find an answer to stop the opposing offense. The Patriots passed for 366 yards and added 99 yards rushing. Oh and we gave up 33 points. Not only is all of this alarming, but it is also embarrassing.
As with the offensive game plan, we, as fans, have no idea what the game plan was on defense. Whatever it was, it didn’t work. Conversely, if the game plan was to give up big plays that resulted in TDs, the plan worked.
Here’s all we need to know about how poorly the defense played. Already down by 10 points, the Patriots receiver runs past Mike Hilton en route to a TD. I don’t completely blame Hilton, as it looked to me like he was expecting safety help from Terrell Edmunds; it never came and the Patriots went up by 17 points.
Here it is if you want to look at it and judge for yourself: Patriots make it 0-17.
What bothered me more than anything else about the defensive game plan was that it appeared the Steelers were committed to running a man-to-man scheme with safety help either underneath or over the top. With Kameron Kelly, who was making his first start for the Steelers at FS and a second-year SS in Edmunds, is that really the type of coverage we should have deployed?
Again, if that was the plan going into the game, it was a bad plan as evidenced by the fact that the Patriots amassed 366 yards through the air. What also struck me as odd is that the Steelers seemingly made no adjustments at halftime as we came out in the same defense in the second half.
Let’s wrap up with a look at the ugly aspects of the game.