Defense Playing w/ 10.5 players.......

[Sugar]

The Steelers D kept one of the most weapons-rich O's in the NFL to only 20 points. They are not the problem.

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

The Steelers D kept one of the most weapons-rich O's in the NFL to only 20 points. They are not the problem.

Offense was terrible & turned it over twice. They should shoulder most of the blame. Giving up over 400 yards of offense, zero sacks, & creating 0 turnovers isn't a good game for the defense. They gave up 127 yards of rushing. That chewed up the clock and gave them the ball 10 minutes longer. Giving up 7 of 17 (41%) on 3rd down isn't what we expect. Last year they were 4th in the league at 35%. That 41% put them at about 28th in the league last year. Wasn't a good game by the defense but they did enough for the Steelers to win it IMO.

[Slapstick]

Offense was terrible & turned it over twice. They should shoulder most of the blame. Giving up over 400 yards of offense, zero sacks, & creating 0 turnovers isn't a good game for the defense. They gave up 127 yards of rushing. That chewed up the clock and gave them the ball 10 minutes longer. Giving up 7 of 17 (41%) on 3rd down isn't what we expect. Last year they were 4th in the league at 35%. That 41% put them at about 28th in the league last year. Wasn't a good game by the defense but they did enough for the Steelers to win it IMO.

When your offense can't gain even one first down in an entire quarter, that's an issue for the D

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

When your offense can't gain even one first down in an entire quarter, that's an issue for the D

Well of course it is. Who's saying the offense was effective?

[Sugar]

Offense was terrible & turned it over twice. They should shoulder most of the blame. Giving up over 400 yards of offense, zero sacks, & creating 0 turnovers isn't a good game for the defense. They gave up 127 yards of rushing. That chewed up the clock and gave them the ball 10 minutes longer. Giving up 7 of 17 (41%) on 3rd down isn't what we expect. Last year they were 4th in the league at 35%. That 41% put them at about 28th in the league last year. Wasn't a good game by the defense but they did enough for the Steelers to win it IMO.

That's nice and all, but at the end of the day the #1 job of a Defense is to keep the other side from scoring. We had a couple guys on the D in their first starts last night, so I'm thinking they will probably get better. Add to that, they faced a team with a lot of weapons to deal with, so I'll take it that they did their jobs and kept the Bengals from lighting it up.

[JUST-PLAIN-NASTY]

That's nice and all, but at the end of the day the #1 job of a Defense is to keep the other side from scoring. We had a couple guys on the D in their first starts last night, so I'm thinking they will probably get better. Add to that, they faced a team with a lot of weapons to deal with, so I'll take it that they did their jobs and kept the Bengals from lighting it up.

They should get better. Like I said, the D did enough to win the game. I wouldn't say they "did their jobs" and there wasn't anyone in that locker room happy with the D's performance. The Steelers offense was so stagnant that the stink is coming from their side of the room. The only aspect of the game that may have been a positive was the STs and that is a scary thought given the preseason.

[bowldog]

Anybody who doesn't think the OFFENSE is the problem is delusional!!!!
Forget TRYING to run the ball. Do whatever it takes to put points on the board. We are wasting possessions trying to do something we haven't done consistently for at least 5 years. Get the ball down the field (soften them up with the pass) then you run the ball. We should not try to run first (we gave up the first posession of the game TRYING to run)