The Patriots exposed a huge weakness in the Steelers, and it could be a major problem going forward
In wake of the New England Patriots' 28-21 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on the NFL's opening night, much of the talk has been about the Steelers' headsets mysteriously going out, halting communication.
While the incident is noteworthy, given the allegations against the Patriots' tendency to not play fair, the bigger story in the Steelers' loss was their inability to cover Rob Gronkowski on defense.
Granted, no team has an easy time covering Gronkowski, a six-foot-six, 265-pound athletic "beast," as Julian Edelman later called him.
But in route to three touchdowns and 94 receiving yards, Gronkowski exposed a Steelers secondary that was already worrisome. Some of the coverage - or lack thereof - was baffling:
The Steelers' bold move of not covering Gronk didn't work:
After cutting the lead to just one touchdown, the Steelers again tried this strategy. It didn't work:
Not ideal:
As SI's Peter King wrote ahead of the game, the Steelers used the draft to try to improve a secondary that ranked 30th in pass defense in 2014, according to Football Outsiders. The Steelers used a second-round, fourth-round, and seventh-round pick in the draft to remake the secondary. One is out for the season with shoulder surgery and the other two were released. The Steelers traded for Eagles nickelback Brandon Boykin in the offseason, and he didn't even play defense Thursday night.
The Steelers will catch something of a break for awhile, though. Joe Flacco and Philip Rivers are probably the biggest passing threats they face until Week 12 against the Seahawks. The Steelers offense looked fine on Thursday, even without Le'Veon Bell or Martavis Bryant, so in some games they could just outscore their opponents.
However, down the line, the Steelers could be facing major problems on defense, particularly if there are this many breakdowns in communication and overall skill in the secondary.