Steelers vs Chargers: Winners and losers from Pittsburgh’s Week 11 loss
By Andrew Falce
Steelers loser: The run defense
The Steelers struggled mightily against the Lions to counter the rushing offense of the Lions despite Detroit using a sixth offensive lineman regularly. Even with the injuries that the team suffered on the defense, one would have had to think that this defense would have been ready to counter another rushing attack.
Instead, Austin Ekeler ran with relative ease en route to his impressive day. Worse yet was Justin Herbert. The young quarterback is athletic, sure, but he isn’t a well-known scrambler. Yet he did more than enough damage as he rushed for over 100 yards. The team had no answer for this, and worse yet, they never adjusted to this issue.
It has been a fall from grace for the Steelers rush defense this season. While regression from last season was expected, the recent falloff has been nothing short of detrimental for the team. It was D’Andre Swift and the Lions backups last week, and this week was all Ekeler and Herbert. This run defense has been pathetic so far and needs to shape up as the team faces off against some of the better rushing offenses coming up.