Madden Monday on Steelers: 'I can’t call that an elite defense anymore. I’m through pretending that it is.'
In this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, 105.9 The X radio host and TribLIVE columnist Mark Madden is fed up with the Steelers defense.
And I can’t blame him.
The Steelers defense was outperformed three weeks in a row by the offenses of the Raiders, Bengals and Packers.
A week ago, it nearly blew a 24-6 lead to a nondescript Denver Broncos attack led by Teddy Bridgewater. Then on Sunday night, coordinator Keith Butler’s unit nearly gave away a 14-point halftime lead to a Seattle Seahawks team that trotted out Geno Smith at quarterback instead of Russell Wilson.
The Steelers still managed to win 23-20 in overtime. But it was a game that never needed to be that close.
“I can’t call that an elite defense anymore. I’m through pretending that it is anything remotely resembling,” Madden said. “That’s not a good defense. It simply is not.”
Madden said that, aside from linebacker T.J. Watt and defensive lineman Cameron Heyward, the unit is devoid of true playmakers.
“T.J. Watt is an elite defensive player. Cam Heyward is an elite defensive player. Other than that, the Steelers defense is not very good,” Madden said.
Tackling was the biggest problem during the Steelers’ narrow victory. And Madden said one of the defense’s stars was most to blame.
“Minkah Fitzpatrick missed a ton of tackles tonight. Their entire defensive platoon missed a ton of tackles. And they allowed four scores in the second half and got Seattle back in the game. And that’s not with Russell Wilson at quarterback. That’s with Geno Smith at quarterback,” Madden said.
Madden didn’t spare the offense either, especially when critiquing its propensity to throw the ball short of the first down marker on third down in hopes of catching the ball short to run long.
“It’s scared football. It’s chicken scratch football,” Madden said. “But the offense is as advertised. The offense is roughly what it was supposed to be. For better or worse. Oftentimes worse. But the defense is extremely disappointing.”
Also in this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast, Mark and I discuss the crazy sequence at the end of the game involving that ill-advised referee review. We get into a successful start for the Penguins following their first week of games. And we talk about Pitt’s big upcoming ACC showdown against Clemson.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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