Defensively, the Pittsburgh Steelers were completely outmatched by the Los Angeles Chargers last week. This was due in large part because the defense missed three of its four best players. The absence of safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, cornerback Joe Haden and linebacker T.J. Watt made the defense a shell of its former self.
Having said all that, it did seem somewhat confusing how the coaching staff seemed to make no adjustments to the game plan with all these backups on the field. This was a detail not lost on head coach Mike Tomlin and when he addressed the media on Tuesday admitted this was a misstep by the coaching staff.
“We probably should have done some things differently, out of our personality,” Tomlin noted. The most notable thing that stood out to me was the lack of blitzing. It’s easy to just rush four when you have T.J. Watt out there but without him, the regular pass rush lacked punch.
