After an embarrassing loss in the opening game vs the Patriots, the Steelers must quickly regroup and correct their mistakes in the home opener vs the Seahawks. We will look at what has to be done to avoid their second 0-2 start this decade.
I don’t know about you, but I had a bad, bad week last week. My week only got worse after watching the Steelers fall to Tom Brady and the Patriots in Foxboro.
It wasn’t even the loss that bothered me—it was how they lost. Everything that needed to happen to beat the Patriots simply did not happen.
The opening drive for the defense looked relatively promising. However, as I stated last week, if the Steelers offense did not establish the ground game and create a balanced attack they would not have a good evening. That is exactly what happened.
The defense got worn down and gashed overall. The Steelers got stuck being one dimensional and it enabled the Patriots to play a more soft zone—a similar strategy in the AFC Championship 2 years ago.
It was all downhill from there as the Patriots defeated the Steelers 33-3. The Steelers now have a tough test coming into town. The Steelers have a big opportunity to bounce back this week.
The Seahawks come in after holding the Bengals off in a 21-20 victory. Seattle has a couple of things against them history-wise: they have never scored a point in Heinz Field, leading to no victories in Heinz as well.
However, these Seahawks aren’t led by Matt Hasselbeck and Tarvaris Jackson. The last time they played again Russell Wilson, the Steelers allowed a season-high 39 points in 2015. To be fair, the Steelers secondary consisted of William Gay and Valentino Blake on the outside.
The Steelers will have to do quite a few things offensively and defensively to avoid their second 0-2 start under Mike Tomlin. The last time they started 0-2, the missed the playoffs. Let’s start with the biggest area of improvement…