Ryan Clark Blames Steelers Defense for Cowboys Loss: ‘Where’s Patrick Queen?’

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense was on a historic pace after three games, but the unit has been humbled in the last two games, both of which were losses.

The defense has allowed 47 points and 803 yards in the last two games. They’ve also been a dreadful 17 of 30 on third down. They can’t get off the field.

Dak Prescott led the Cowboys on two long fourth-quarter touchdown drives — a 16-play, 90-yard drive and a 15-play, 70-yard drive. The defense forced three turnovers, albeit the two interceptions were poor decisions by Prescott. They allowed a whopping 445 yards of offense, four completions of 25 yards or more and surrendered nine conversions on 15 third down attempts. That’s well below the standard.

Former Steelers free safety Ryan Clark called out the defense on Monday for not living up to expectations.

“I wanna talk about my disappointment with the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Clark said on ESPN’s NFL Live. “Where’s Patrick Queen stepping up and making plays? And Elandon Roberts making plays. And then no matter what you think about the offensive performance of Justin Fields and the lack of run game against the Dallas Cowboys who couldn’t stop it, you have the lead 17-13, late in that game in your stadium. And you’re supposed to be the vaunted Pittsburgh Steelers defense. Makes a stop, find a way to get a hand on a football. Find a way to get a turnover. Find a way to get get to Dak Prescott. We saw Dak Prescott recover that fumble, but also DeShon Elliott, you know you have the crosser. That’s your guy. Beat him over the top, if he reverses back out to the other side. So bet it, sometimes you lose.”

“I feel like the Steelers lost this game more than the Dallas Cowboys won it. And the Steelers aren’t good enough to allow some of these games to slip away.”

.@Realrclark25 didn't hold back on the Steelers after Sunday's loss to Dallas 😳 pic.twitter.com/RDVqxgtARv

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 7, 2024

The Steelers gave Queen the largest free-agent deal in franchise history by almost $5 million annually this offseason. So far he’s not lived up to his contract. He’s made very little impact through five games.

The lack of turnovers and splash plays from Minkah Fitzpatrick are also concerning. He has zero turnovers, zero forced fumbles, zero fumble recoveries and zero sacks in the last 17 games dating back to last year.

The Steelers have the most expensive defense in the NFL ($136.6 million), according to Over The Cap. Outside of T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward, they’re not getting enough from their top tier players right now.