Despite Two Daggers, Defense Holds Up

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ passing game might have looked ugly today as a whole—and that is an easy perception to have when you give up two 60-plus-yard touchdown passes—but on a per-play basis, they actually played pretty well.

Of course, you have to account for the big plays allowed, both of which are easily attributable to obvious mistakes. Artie Burns got caught peaking in the backfield with single-high coverage behind him, allowing Donte Moncrief to run past him. In the second half, after Joe Haden left the game, Chester Rogers got free on a blown coverage, and then two tacklers missed, leading to the disaster.

Those are ugly marks against them for sure, and worse still, they counted on…