PITTSBURGH — Just two days before taking the field Sunday night against the Buffalo Bills, the Pittsburgh Steelers put on their pads and practiced.
Such a practice is a rarity for the Steelers — especially this late in the season. Most days, players take the practice field at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex wearing hoodies under their jerseys. Some days, they don’t even wear helmets. Health is a priority in the final weeks of the regular season. But after another performance that lacked physicality, a 23-17 loss to the Washington Football Team on Dec. 7, coach Mike Tomlin needed to give his team a jolt.
The padded practice, though, didn’t have the intended effect.
The Steelers (11-2) were pushed around in a 26-15 loss to the Bills and their coach ripped them for not being physical enough in every phase of the game.
“The bottom line is they were the more physical football team,” Tomlin said Tuesday after a second consecutive loss. “It can be highlighted in terms of their front and our inability to run the ball. But just in general, I thought in all elements of play, they were the more physical group. They’re a physical football team in general, so they are capable of that. For us, regardless of circumstance, we don’t want to make that common. … We have to be accountable to that, and we are. We have to make sure that we are not saying that moving forward.
“There haven’t been a lot of situations where we can say that, but definitively, I thought they were the more physical group not only in the box and in box play but in some of the perimeter play.”
In an organization with an identity built on dominating opponents through muscle and sheer will, not being the most physical team on any given field is rare — and it’s something the Steelers have to fix starting Monday against the Cincinnati Bengals (8:15 p.m. ESPN) to get back to the formula that helped them to an 11-0 start.
“It just comes down to inflicting your will on your opponent,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “These past two games, we haven’t been in a situation where we’ve been able to wear teams down on both sides of the ball. The Washington game, it came down to a couple last possessions, but we didn’t really get a chance to physically impose our will. And then this past game, they were able to run the ball, sustain drives on our defense. And then on the flip side, we weren’t able to sustain anything up front on offense.
“It’s a collective thing. We’ve got to get better in all facets of our game.”
The lack of physicality is especially evident in the rushing numbers — an NFL-worst 45.3 yards average in the past three games. But quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is quick to point out the Steelers’ problems extend beyond the line play.
“When you talk about physicality, that’s where everyone automatically looks,” he said. “Your eyes go to O-line, D-line because that’s every single play you have to be physical. I think it naturally falls in that area. I don’t think all the fingers should be pointed there by any means.
2:12
Stephen A. Smith sounds off on the Steelers’ lack of a running game, which results in them relying on Ben Roethlisberger to throw too much.
“When we talk about physicality, the line takes it personally because they want to be physical, but being physical doesn’t always just mean I’m going to blow him off the line of scrimmage or overpower him.”
To Roethlisberger, a team’s toughness can be measured in other ways: mental fortitude, a runner getting through a hole in the line even if an unblocked defender is waiting on the other side, a receiver staying in bounds and muscling a few extra yards — all things the Steelers did at points during the season, but haven’t done consistently in recent weeks.
Earlier in the season, the Steelers were able to wear their opponents down — on both sides of the ball. In the first half against the Tennessee Titans in Week 7, the Steelers orchestrated a 9-minute, 18-second scoring drive, followed by a 7:05 drive. They wore down the Titans’ defense early and kept running back Derrick Henry off the field in the process. In the past two weeks, the Steelers have lost the time-of-possession battle, culminating with the Steelers possessing the ball for 24:45 against the Bills — the second shortest time of the season by seven seconds.
The Steelers still have the NFL’s top scoring defense, allowing opponents 18.2 points per game, but those numbers have taken a hit in the past three games as the Steelers have given up 21 points per game. Sack percentages in the past three games are also worse than their 2020 average. The Steelers are second in the NFL with sacks on 9.05% of pass attempts. That number in the past three games dropped to 6.14%.
Even with the defense not playing to the same standard it maintained earlier in the season, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick believes there’s more to it than physicality — or lack thereof.
“I don’t think it’s a lack of physicality that led to the things that happened the last two games,” Fitzpatrick said. “Like I said, it’s late in the season and people are a little beat up. I don’t think a lack of physicality is a concern for this defense or team at all. We did practice in pads last week to work on being physical, shedding blocks and stuff like that.”
This week, the Steelers will get a chance to reclaim their identity against the 2-10-1 Cincinnati Bengals, who have their own issues with physicality, allowing 3.5 sacks per game — second worst in the NFL — and a similarly stagnant ground game.
“It’s not everybody,” Roethlisberger said, “but collectively, we all need to be more physical.”