3 things we learned from Steelers loss to Los Angeles Chargers

The Steelers defense was porous and disjointed against the Chargers

Look, I realize that we were playing without several key starters, but to give up five-hundred and thirty-three yards and forty-one points is disgraceful.  The defense and the offense are supposed to be complementary.  That was not the case against the Chargers.

Yes, the defense made some plays and got some stops when we absolutely need said plays and stops, but working against a mobile QB, you would think someone, either a coach or a player, would have stressed repeatedly to our backups to maintain rush integrity so as not to allow the opposing QB to rush for ninety yards.  Are you kidding me?

Would the outcome had been different if we were not forced to play backups and practice squad players?  Yes, no doubt about it.  We would be talking about an impressive road win right now.  No disrespect intended to our backups or to our practice squad players, but if ‘the standard is the standard’ as Mike Tomlin says, that standard was not upheld against the Chargers.

Too many missed assignments, too many missed tackles and too many bad calls lead to our demise.  Tomlin always says it is the job of the coaches to put players in positions to be successful.  Without the benefit of knowing what was called on each play, it looked to me like we were calling plays akin to what we would call had all of our frontline starters been playing.

Let’s see what else we learned.