It was going to be no small challenge for the Pittsburgh Steelers to take on the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. The coaching staff definitely had its hands full, especially on defense with multiple players missing stars. Head coach Mike Tomlin, the plan the coaches had wasn’t good enough considering who was available to play.
“We didn’t have a good enough plan enough with our current makeup and state,” Tomlin said.
The Steelers were minus two of its three best defensive players. Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was out on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and edge rusher T.J. Watt missed with a knee and hip injury.
But even beyond that, Pittsburgh is thin everywhere and it showed. In particular, the defensive line showed some serious cracks aside from Cam Heyward. Pittsburgh played two guys who were on the practice squad as well as a safety from the PS as well.
The main problem with the Steelers plan was to continue to play man coverage on the Chargers when Los Angeles continued to exploit it. Pittsburgh couldn’t get pressure on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert until late in the game and by giving up their backs to Herbert he could huge lanes to run in.
This game was definitely a coaching fail and it is tough to blame the players when you consider who was on the field and who wasn’t.
