The Pittsburgh Steelers let another one get away from them on Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers. Pittsburgh held a lead going into halftime before being outscored 28-9 in the second half.
Pittsburgh has now suffered three losses on the season, pushing the team closer to .500, with the only saving grace being that two of those losses came to NFC franchises. Nonetheless, many of the same issues that were prevalent in Week 1 are still carrying over in Week 8.
Head coach Mike Tomlin has long been lauded for his apparent ability to get the most out of his teams regardless of their talent level, forging winning seasons out of spare parts and rusty nails. But Omar Khan moved a lot of pieces around for Tomlin this past offseason to have a stronger roster with winning, veteran experience across the board, but the results are feeling too familiar to the past three struggling seasons without Ben Roethlisberger.
Mike Tomlin echoes a frustrated Pittsburgh Steelers fan base tired of the same issues
With so much veteran experience permeating the roster in problem areas, particularly on defense and in the secondary, Steelers fans are exhausted from arguing whether it's a problem with Tomlin’s schemes or if it’s the players’ execution of the calls that are given. After the loss to Green Bay, Tomlin suggested that it’s a bit of column A and a bit of column B.
“We all have to own it,” Tomlin said. “Certainly, you start with the schematics, man, because that’s the leadership component of it. Certainly, we’ll be looking at everything that we’re doing, man, because some of these problems are somewhat repetitive and we’re not getting better fast enough.”
Tomlin’s answer can be framed to point the blame in both directions, but he’s right to admit that it starts with the schematics. When T.J. Watt is struggling to get pressures, when Jalen Ramsey is struggling to make an impact, when teams are running for easy yards, it all starts with the scheme.
It’s become increasingly apparent that the Steelers’ coaching staff isn’t putting players in a position to be successful. Watt continues to anchor one side of the line of scrimmage. Defenders continue to play soft coverage. Pass catchers aren’t schemed into the game offensively with designed opportunities.
READ MORE:A special losers-only edition from the Steelers' embarrassing loss to the Packers
The most frustrating aspect to Steelers fans is that the team should have a death-grip on the AFC North with Baltimore floundering early while Lamar Jackson was on the shelf. Now, Pittsburgh is halfway through the season and is still answering the same questions about its ceiling on the NFL totem poll.
Next week, Pittsburgh faces one of the most buttoned-up teams in the NFL when it comes to scheme and the execution thereof in the Indianapolis Colts. When Tomlin and his staff go to the drawing board this week to look at their own, hopefully, they find answers that put their best players in a position to compete competently against the top team in the AFC.