The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Improved Steelers Win over Rams

The Bad: Steelers Rush Defense Is Close to Pathetic

It's haunting to imagine what Kyren Williams would have done to this defense. It's downright disrespectful to the lore of Pittsburgh Steelers football how awful this defense is against the run. They came into the game ranked 29th against the run and won't be improving that ranking after this performance.

Somehow drawing a team without its top two running backs and starting a back off the couch wasn't enough to give this team a better performance in this category.

Darrell Henderson, signed back to LA this week, and third-string back Royce Freeman both topped 60 yards and averaged a bit over four yards per carry collectively. That's unforgivable.

The Rams neither had the backs nor the offensive line to justify being stronger upfront than the Steelers' front seven, with or without Cam Heyward, who at this point cannot return soon enough.

It's frustrating to look at Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts, and Kwon Alexander individually playing near the bar but collectively struggling to fit their run gaps closer to the line of scrimmage. It's frustrating to see Montravious Adams have a solid game and Keanu Benton be a sound piece to the middle of the defensive line and neither making a true impact.

The middle of this defense is struggling, of that there is no doubt and the miscommunication excuse is no longer applicable. The bottom line, it has to get significantly better and fast.