What we learned from Steelers season-saving win vs. the Titans

The Steelers defense seems to 'live on the edge' but comes up 'big' when we need them to come up 'big'

'Living on the edge' is tantamount to 'walking the tightrope'. Frankly, no matter how you phrase it, the Steelers defense is one big play away from giving a game away. Fortunately, that was the case against the Titans, but it easily could have been.

The defense surrendered three hundred and forty total yards but did hold the Titans to only three out of thirteen third-down conversion opportunities. In typical Steelers fashion, we were able to generate turnovers in the form of four sacks and one very timely INT authored by Kwon Alexander.

With the game on the line very late in the fourth quarter, Alexander picked off the Titans QB, fell back into the endzone, and sealed the victory for us, but, as I said, that could have easily resulted in a Titans game-winning touchdown.

What was really concerning to me was the fact that we gifted the Titans six first downs via penalties. That's unacceptable. If you get off the field on third down or at least you think you get off the field only to find out that the drive is going to continue because of a penalty, that is deflating, to say the least.

All I will say about the penalties is this: Patrick Peterson can not be on the field. He is a liability in coverage. I realize that he is a veteran and we all know how much Mike Tomlin values the veteran presence, but there comes a point when you have to trust what your eyes are seeing. Maybe Tomlin doesn't see what I am seeing. To be fair, Peterson did have a nice break up but he was credited with only one pass defended.

Let's see what else we learned.