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The Steelers are who we thought they were

Ray Fittipaldo 8 years ago

“I’m not as concerned as you might imagine.”

Those were the words of Mike Tomlin’s last week when he was asked about his defense that had struggled mightily during the preseason. As it turns out, everything we witnessed about this defense during the seven weeks of training camp turned out to be true in the first game of the season.

The safety play was bad. The cornerback play might have been worse. And on top of it all, they couldn’t get lined up correctly on more than one occasion, blew coverages that led to big plays and tackled poorly in the 28-21 loss to the Patriots.

I liked it better when Tomlin said he was alarmed after the preseason debacle in Buffalo. At least then we knew he was telling the truth. Tomlin’ s assertion that he was unconcerned was about as believable as his insistence during the week that his depth chart was valid.

Not that it mattered.

Any hope that Tomlin and new defensive coordinator Keith Butler were holding back and saving some wrinkles for the regular season quickly dissipated. 

Antwon Blake started and struggled all night, especially against Patriots slot receiver Julian Edelman. Blake started in place of Cortez Allen, the $25 million dollar backup. When the coaches inserted Allen into the game he showed why he’s been unable to hold down a starting job. He was twice called for penalties and fared no better than Blake in coverage.

Tom Brady was 25 for 32 for 288 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions. It’s actually kind of baffling that the Patriots only scored 28 points.

Brandon Boykin, reputed to be a strong slot corner, didn’t get off the bench. The Steelers traded a conditional fifth-round pick for him in the first week of training camp because they didn’t believe their cornerback group was strong enough. It would have been hard for Boykin to play any worse than the other corners that played in front of him Thursday night.

The safeties disappointed too. New defensive coordinator Keith Butler expressed concern during training camp that his safeties were not getting enough snaps together, and he was right to be worried about their communication and chemistry. At times Thursday night, it seemed like there was no communication at all.

The secondary counts on the safeties to get everyone else aligned in the proper manner, and the Steelers were running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Rob Gronkowski was uncovered when he scored the first of his three touchdowns. He’s the best tight end in the game. But that wasn’t even the biggest gaffe the Steelers had in coverage of the All-Pro tight end. They left him uncovered again in the fourth quarter. This one went for 52 yards on the first play from scrimmage after the Steelers cut the lead to seven.

“In disarray” doesn’t begin to describe the secondary.

When the safeties got the defense aligned correctly they didn’t do a very good job of covering. Brady found Gronkowski in the back of the end zone on a play-action pass when Mike Mitchell failed to recover after biting on the fake. On the same play, Will Allen failed to disrupt Gronkowski of the line of scrimmage, giving him an unimpeded route to the end zone.

The Steelers tried the same play-action pass when they were on the goal line, but the Patriots were disciplined and did not allow Heath Miller to catch the pass in the back of the end zone. Ben Roethlisberger had to throw it away.

It’s not like there is any help on the way either. For all the injuries and suspensions the Steelers have their secondary is fairly unscathed. Unless the Steelers play Boykin, or the recently signed Ross Cockrell, there are no other options.

Second-round pick Senquez Golson is on the injured reserve and out for the season with a shoulder injury. Fourth-round pick Doran Grant is on the practice squad after passing through waivers after the Steelers cut him. That ought to tell you all you need to know about his readiness to play.

Not only is the short-term future bleak; the long-term outlook is dreadful. Allen and Mitchell are signed to bad contracts. Third-year player Shamarko Thomas, the heir apparent to Troy Polamalu, wasn’t good enough to play in the dime defense Thursday night. That assignment went to special teams captain Robert Golden, whose snaps as an NFL defender could be counted on two hands before Thursday night.

The good news for the Steelers is they won’t have to face Brady again during the regular season. The bad news is quarterbacks such as Mike Glennon and Brian Hoyer torched the Steelers last season.

At this point, there’s not much reason to believe the likes to Colin Kaepernick and Nick Foles, the next two quarterbacks on the schedule, won’t do the same thing.