{"id":812474,"date":"2024-12-17T21:14:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T03:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/17\/poor-communication-and-tackling-steelers-players-share-why-defense-struggled-against-eagles\/"},"modified":"2024-12-17T21:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-18T03:14:19","slug":"poor-communication-and-tackling-steelers-players-share-why-defense-struggled-against-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2024\/12\/17\/poor-communication-and-tackling-steelers-players-share-why-defense-struggled-against-eagles\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor Communication And Tackling: Steelers Players Share Why Defense Struggled Against Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Blocking and tackling. Those are football\u2019s core elements. The Steelers did little of either in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, a host of Steelers\u2019 defensive players offered the same rationale for their defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of beat ourselves,\u201d CB Beanie Bishop Jr. said via the team website Tuesday.<\/a> \u201cWe can\u2019t go out there and play less physical than guys. We missed a lot of tackles and things like that. We got guys to the ball but weren\u2019t making the tackles. Communication is key. We weren\u2019t communicating as well as we have been in past weeks. They kind of gave us a little bit of tempo and hurry-up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Per our Josh Carney, Pittsburgh missed 20 tackles against Philadelphia.<\/a> Linebackers Patrick Queen, Payton Wilson, and Nick Herbig \u201cled\u201d the way with three misses apiece. The secondary had their fair share, too. A pair from CB Donte Jackson and CB Joey Porter Jr., while three others missed once.<\/p>\n

It allowed the Eagles to extend drives and control the clock en route to nearly possessing the ball for 40 minutes. Twice, RB Kenneth Gainwell escaped tacklers to convert on third down while QB Jalen Hurts broke a tackle on a long 23-yard designed run up the middle.<\/p>\n

Communication breakdowns are more complicated to quantify but just as evident on tape. WR Devonta Smith got open on a crosser for a big gain, with Bishop possibly having a breakdown in coverage. Gainwell also got free underneath and nearly scored. The Steelers consistently played a step behind the Eagles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just comes down to execution and communication,\u201d rookie LB Payton Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s very simple. Stuff that we thought that we fixed from the beginning of the season kind of showed back up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh had breakdowns early in the season, most notably in a loss to the Indianapolis Colts in Week 4. The Steelers played buttoned-up for the past several weeks, and the results followed. Entering Week 15, they had a top-five scoring defense that took a ding after allowing 27 to the Eagles. Had the clock not run out, they would\u2019ve given up more.<\/p>\n

From rookies to veterans, the answers were the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome mistakes on our end,\u201d DT Cam Heyward told reporters. \u201cPoor tackling. Communication-wise and our execution was just not up to par.\u201d<\/p>\n

The margin of error will be slim against the Baltimore Ravens, a team capable of winning in a similar fashion to Philadelphia. Pittsburgh does have quarterback Lamar Jackson\u2019s number, but that doesn\u2019t mean he can\u2019t have a big game or make a matchup-altering play.<\/p>\n

The Ravens will have the benefit of being at home, while the Steelers\u2019 defense has been leakier on the road. At Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh is allowing just 16.8 points per game. On the road, that number spikes to 21.5. The Steelers need to be below that number on Saturday. Blocking, tackling, and communicating will go a long way toward achieving that.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read More<\/a> Alex Kozora<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blocking and tackling. Those are football\u2019s core elements. The Steelers did little of either in Sunday\u2019s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, a host of Steelers\u2019 defensive players offered the same rationale for their defeat. \u201cWe kind of beat ourselves,\u201d CB Beanie Bishop Jr. said via the team website Tuesday. \u201cWe can\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":812475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27927,3790,42790],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-812474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-communication","8":"category-football","9":"category-tackling"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}