PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen has been rather quiet through five games. He has forced no turnovers, no sacks and has just one tackle for loss. The Steelers gave Queen the largest free-agent deal in franchise history by almost $5 million annually this offseason. On the surface, he’s not lived up to his contract.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin thinks Queen is playing just fine, however.
“I’m assuming he’s as good as we’re going to see, and he continues to get better as he gets more comfortable with what we do.
But I don’t — I’m not sure where that comes from because I like Patrick Queen,” Austin said when asked if he sees another role for Queen on defense. “I think he’s playing really good football for us. He is leading us out there. He is running and hitting. He’s doing all the things we thought he would do when we got him.”
When asked specifically about the lack of splash, Austin didn’t express any worry.
“Don’t worry about splash right now,” he said. “What I worry about is us getting lined up, us being in the right spots and making the
critical plays. That’s where he helps us in that regard right now.”
The lack of turnovers and splash plays from All-Pro free safety 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.
Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin thinks the turnovers will eventually come for Fitzpatrick, as well.
“Sometimes it’s not happening right now, but I got full confidence because I know what kind of player Minkah is and the more opportunities that he has and the more time he’s back there that those splash plays will come,” Austin said last week. “I don’t worry about that. I know how he leads our group in terms of the communication and everything working from back there, and it’s a lot smoother. So I think as a unit, we’ve operated really well, really smooth overall, and so the splash will come. I’m not going to get bent out of shape about that at this particular time.”
Dak Prescott led the Dallas Cowboys on two long fourth-quarter touchdown drives — a 16-play, 90-yard drive and a 15-play, 70-yard drive in Sunday night’s 20-17 win over the Steelers. 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.”
RELATED: Ryan Clark Blames Steelers Defense for Cowboys Loss: ‘Where’s Patrick Queen?’
Alan Saunders contributed reporting from Pittsburgh.