The good, the bad and the ugly from the Steelers loss against the 49ers

The bad

A feckless run defense and a failure to capitalize on turnovers doomed the Steelers in the game against the 49ers.

The Steelers defense, through three weeks of the 2019 season, is ranked 29th in overall defense and 28th against the run. In other words, the Steelers defense is surrendering a total of 442 yards per game, of which 139 yards per game are coming in the form of the run.

Because of the feckless run defense, teams are just running and throwing the ball almost at will. I can not remember a time when the Steelers defense was so ineffectual in the stopping the run.  In the 49ers game, the defense gave up 168 yards on the ground and 268 yards through the air.  This is not a formula for success, stating the obvious, of course.

As I pointed out while discussing the good aspects of the game, the defense did generate five turnovers, which, under normal circumstances, would have translated into a victory; however, that was not the case.

Partially to blame is the fact that the offense scored a whopping 6 points off five turnovers. How do you force five turnovers, only score 6 points off said turnovers and lose the game!  We turned the ball over twice; however, the 49ers scored 14 points off those turnovers.

Quite simply, the Steelers offense was not able to possess the ball long enough to make something happen as evidenced by the fact that we only held the ball for 23 minutes and 43 seconds.

The reason we can’t seem to win the time of possession battle has to do with the fact that the run game has yet to do much of anything.  Through three weeks of the season, the vaunted Steelers rushing attack is averaging a lowly 64 yards per game.  Again, I can not remember a time when the run game was sputtering this much.

Is it scheme, is it the offensive line just not being able to open holes, is it our running backs just not hitting the holes quickly enough or it is something else entirely?  I don’t know; what I do know, however, is that the Steelers had better figure out how to jump-start the run game and had better figure it out expeditiously.

Let’s wrap this up by exploring the ugly facets of the game.