Did Steelers get exposed in the win against the Titans?

The Steelers escaped with a win against the Titans and we were fortunate to do so

Again, we got the ‘W’ against the Titans and that’s all that matters, but we could have easily taken the ‘L’ had it not been for the inner fortitude exhibited by both our player and our coaches.  I think the game against the Titans exposed us to a degree.

On the offensive side of the ball, the exposure came in the form of playing too conservatively when we had a big lead.  Frankly, we have seemingly always played that way.  We make games that should be ‘blowouts’ into close games for really no reason.

I understand that once you have a lead, you don’t want to take unnecessary risks that might result in negative plays, thus allowing your opponent to get back into the game, but playing not to lose is different from playing to win.

I am not suggesting the Steelers have ever gone into a game with the mindset that we were going to blow a lead and play not to win the game.  That’s just silly, but what is not silly is this predilection to play conservatively with a lead.  That has to change and has to change immediately.

On the defensive side of the ball, this deployment of ‘Cover 1’, i.e. ‘single-high safety’ is too much of a ‘risk, reward’ defense in my opinion.  This defense is effective against the run but is way too susceptible to the ‘big play’ in the passing game.

If we truly desire to be a Super Bowl contending team, which I know we do, we have to be objective and realize that when we have an opponent down by 20 points, that 20 point deficit must grow, not dwindle.  We can accomplish that by keeping our ‘foot on the gas’ on offense and by playing a safer style of defense when the circumstance dictates.