BALTIMORE — The Pittsburgh Steelers got gashed on defense for the second consecutive week, allowing 418 yards of offense in Saturday’s 34-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The Philadelphia Eagles did most of their damage through the air last week, while the Ravens steamrolled the Steelers on the ground for a whopping 220 yards (5.8 yards per carry).
All-Pro running back Derrick Henry had a banner day, rushing for 162 yards on 24 carries, averaging 6.8 yards per carry. Henry’s 162 yards rushing are the most by a Ravens player against the Steelers in Ravens history.
“We never controlled the run game,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said after the game. “And when you’re not controlling the run game, you’re not going to have a sense of comfort in terms of the flow of it. And that was the case.
“We just didn’t do a good enough job. Gap integrity. Tackling. Fundamental things. They outperformed us in that area.”
Just like in Philadelphia, tackling was a major issue for the Steelers on Saturday.
Heyward acknowledged that the tackling has been well below the standard in the last two weeks.
“Talk about it, coach it up, practice it,” Heyward said about fixing the tackling issues. “There’s not a lot of time to practice. We have to own it. That’s the only way you get better. It starts up front. I think the d-line, we didn’t get our job done today.”
Outside linebacker Alex Highsmith was flat-out embarrassed by how the Steelers defended the run against Baltimore.
“We didn’t do a good job controlling the line of scrimmage today. Embarrassing to say the least. How they ran, the way they ran the ball against us,” Highsmith said.
Fixing the tackling problems will be a point of emphasis for the Steelers on their short week leading up to Wednesday’s meeting with the 14-1 Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s concerning, certainly. We got to be better,” Tomlin said on the missed tackles being an issue for the second consecutive week.
When asked how to fix that issue at this point of the season, Tomlin replied, “Back in the lab.”