3 things we learned from Pittsburgh Steelers loss against the Raiders

The Steelers defense is not the same without key starters

The Steelers ‘D’ did not have a good afternoon, to put it mildly.  After losing Tyson Alualu and then losing T.J. Watt to injuries, the defense was just not the same defense we saw against the Buffalo Bills.  We gave up three-hundred and seventy-three yards passing.  That is not a winning formula.

Part of the reason we gave up that many yards through the air is that we could generate a consistent pass rush.  Yes, we were able to generate two sacks, but that honestly was not enough since those two sacks resulted in a loss of nine yards.

Since rush and coverage go hand-in-hand, the lack of a consistent pass rush exposed the coverage.  We were already without Joe Haden, who was ruled out prior to the game.  His absence was felt, make no mistake about it.

What I don’t understand is this:  It looked to me like we were calling plays on defense like all of our front-line starters were playing.  I could be wrong, but that’s what it looked like to me.  If I am right, what made us think that we could call normal defensive plays if our starting CB, one of our starting OLBs, and our starting DE were out?

Let’s see what else we learned.