Although the Pittsburgh Steelers put up more of a fight in Week 2, they still fell to another playoff-caliber team, losing 28-26 to the Seattle Seahawks. What’s next for them now that they are sitting at 0-2?
The Pittsburgh Steelers are used to having a rough time against Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots, but they were likely fuming after falling 33-3 in Week 1. Pittsburgh was totally outclassed at Gillette Stadium, helpless to stop Tom Brady or even muster anything on offense of their own.
In Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks, the Steelers somewhat bounced back, in spite of Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury. Mason Rudolph started the second half and kept the Steelers in it, but a leaky secondary and mediocre pass-catchers doomed them to a 28-26 loss. It was a last-gasp defeat, but it was a defeat nonetheless, dropping the team back to an 0-2 start.
The Steelers are not unfamiliar with bouncing back from 0-2 starts, so the even-keeled Mike Tomlin won’t be panicking. Even with Roethlisberger injured, there are still reasons for hope in Pittsburgh, including Rudolph’s two passing touchdowns against a relatively strong Seahawks pass defense.
That said, the Steelers do need to make some adjustments. The easiest would be to phase Donte Moncrief out of the offense. Moncrief has been laughably horrendous through his first two games with the Steelers, and while the odds are that he’ll bounce back after previously being a serviceable receiver with the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers have a better and younger wideout in James Washington who should get fed on more deep plays.
Doing a better job of generating plays with Washington will help ease the pressure on James Conner as a rusher, in addition to helping JuJu Smith-Schuster find some more room to operate as the Steelers top receiver in 2019. Rookie Diontae Johnson will take his lumps, but the Steelers have two other receiving options who are more low-risk in the depth of routes they run in Vance McDonald and slot hand Ryan Switzer.
The Steelers offense has disappointed and unmistakably poor through two weeks, but so has the pass defense. Just a week after being predictably sliced and diced by Tom Brady, the Steelers faced an even better quarterback in Russell Wilson and were torched badly.
Wilson completed 29-of-35 passes for 300 yards, three touchdowns, and no interceptions, even against a defense that managed to sack him four times. The Steelers have a strong pass rush that is buoyed by three legitimately elite players in Stephon Tuitt, Cameron Heyward, and TJ Watt, but the fact that Brady and Wilson have still piled up stats on the Steelers is an indication of how much further his secondary has to go.
Finding the solution to Pittsburgh’s problems in the secondary is even more difficult because it’s something this organization has grappled with over the last handful of years. Joe Haden, Mike Hilton, and Steven Nelson are decent corners, but the Steelers don’t have a true star at the position, nor do they have an ideal situation at safety.
The pass rush can only do so much; at some point, the defensive backs must step up. And if they don’t, that puts more pressure on Roethlisberger and his receivers to score points to match what the secondary gives up.
For the Steelers, there is no set solution, but there are a few areas of improvement. Given that they were still just two points away from matching a legitimate playoff team in the Seahawks, they may only have to make marginal improvements. Again, there’s no need for panic, but they do need players, including some of their stars like Smith-Schuster and Haden, to step up over the next few weeks. With the Baltimore Ravens rolling, every game counts that much more.