3 things learned from Steelers Wild Card loss to Cleveland Browns

The Steelers defense looked like a shell of their former selves

The fact that we scored 37 points and lost the game to the Browns is disturbing to me.  Of the 48 points the Browns scored, 41 were surrendered by the defense.  I realize we were not at a full complement of starters, but I don’t think that’s an excuse for us to have played the way we played on defense.

For all the accomplishments the Steelers defense enjoyed during the regular season, the playoff game was decided on one fact and one fact alone, in my opinion.  The defense was not able to force any turnovers.  Putting aside the unfortunate statistic that the ‘D’ was not able to generate a single sack, the inability to cause a turnover was the difference in the game.

Had the defense been able to get even one turnover to set up the offense in favorable field position, it may have swung the pendulum our way.  If you look at the stat line, the ‘D’ played pretty well, except where it mattered which was the scoring defense. Again, I realize we were playing with a lot of backups at key positions, but it seemed to me that the Steelers coaches did not alter the game plan on defense.

Clearly, we should have adjusted the game plan.  The Browns ran for 127 yards seemingly at will, yet we were in Nickel ‘2-4-5’ quite a bit.  Yes, we played our base 3-4 as well, but that did not seem to make a difference either.  So was it the scheme, was it the personnel we had on the field? Does it really matter?

The Steelers defense looked lost at times and simply did not play well and that’s unfortunate because the ‘D’ should be lauded for what we were able to do in the regular season.  It’s just a shame to be remembered for what we didn’t do in the playoffs.

Let’s take a look at the third thing we learned.