Mike Tomlin addresses 3 points of concern for Steelers after win over Seattle

In the wake of the Steelers’ preseason-opening victory against the Seattle Seahawks, most of Pittsburgh seems enthused by the outcome because of how well all three quarterbacks played.

Mitch Trubisky, Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett combined for a 124.9 passer rating en route to the 32-25 win. They totaled 224 yards on 26-of-37 passing to go along with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

But the team was not without flaws. After all, Mike Tomlin’s club found itself tied at 25 against the Seahawks backups, and Seattle’s starters aren’t even supposed to be all that good in the first place.

After Monday’s practice at Saint Vincent College, Tomlin identified three specific areas that jumped off the tape at him where the Steelers need to improve.

He was spot on about all three of them.

• Two-minute execution: “I thought our two-minute was not where it needed to be offensively and defensively at the end of the half the other night,” Tomlin said Monday afternoon. “In team (drills) today, we plugged in another two-minute (practice) segment. I think that’s what you do during team development. You have a hardcore plan, but you also remain light on your feet for the unforeseen, for what the group might need in an effort to keep the train moving.”

Tomlin was referring to an ineffective drive led by Rudolph at the end of the second quarter. The Steelers had the ball at their 20-yard line with 2:44 remaining before halftime. Rudolph couldn’t connect on passes to Connor Heyward and Jaylen Warren. Then a nine-yard pass to Jace Sternberger came up short of the sticks. So the team had to punt. The Seahawks then marched 61 yards in 1:27 to score a touchdown just before halftime.

Things weren’t exactly crisp at times late in the second half either, even though the Steelers win was highlighted by Pickett’s touchdown drive in the waning seconds. It was a five-play march that began on the Seahawks’ 43-yard line with 70 seconds remaining and ended with a 24-yard scoring pass to Tyler Vaughns with just three seconds left.

However, the Steelers had the ball first-and-10 from the Seattle 46 when the two-minute warning hit. From there, the Steelers ended up giving the ball away on downs as the drive ended with Pickett taking an ill-advised fourth-down sack at his own 47-yard line. The offense only got the ball back to win the game because linebacker Mark Robinson forced a fumble on Seattle’s first snap after the change of possession.

• Run defense: This was a major issue last year as the Steelers managed to have the worst run defense in the NFL (146.1 rushing yards allowed per game). And according to Tomlin, there is still a long way to go before resolving the issue.

“We have to have better gap integrity. We talked about that after the game,” Tomlin said. “We won’t grade on the curve based on who’s available or who’s playing. The 11 on the field represent us, the standards that we live by. We weren’t strong enough, particularly against the run. We didn’t tee up our situational ball well enough because we were weak against the run at times in game.”

Seattle’s DeeJay Dallas had 73 yards on 10 carries against the Steelers Saturday night. Travis Homer had 41 yards on four carries. As a team, the Seahawks averaged 6.1 yards per rush.

As far as Tomlin’s point about avoiding grading “on a curve,” he was alluding to the fact that many veteran defensive linemen didn’t play, such as likely starters Cameron Heyward, Tyson Alualu and Larry Ogunjobi. Nor did starting outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith.

More Tim Benz:

• Tim Benz: All 3 Steelers QBs deserve praise. And Mason Rudolph deserves a break
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However, their backups need to get better in that regard. So do the three players atop the inside linebacker depth chart — Devin Bush, Myles Jack and Robert Spillane. They were all on the field Saturday.

Tomlin was also blunt when asked about Bush and Spillane in pass coverage. “I thought they could be a lot better, and that will be my expectation this week,” Tomlin said, referencing Saturday’s second preseason game in Jacksonville.

• Pass protection: “We gave up too many hits on the quarterback,” Tomlin said of his offensive line. “Some of it is cohesion, some of it is guys physically getting beat. I want a cleaner pocket for our quarterbacks than what I saw. I think that’s the standard. There were a lot of good things, but that’s something that we’re going to be uncompromising regarding. Our goal is to keep our quarterbacks as clean as possible. We could have done a better job, even for a first time out.”

Pickett was sacked twice. Trubisky barely escaped a sack on the first drive. Rudolph was stripped from behind on his first snap when Boye Mafe blew past tackle Dan Moore Jr.

Guard James Daniels blamed himself for the Trubisky play.

“I got sloppy at times, and when I got sloppy, Mitch got hit a couple of times,” Daniels said. “I just need to get focused on not being as sloppy.”

More Steelers:

• Mike Tomlin wants to curtail 'too many hits on the quarterback' that he saw in Steelers opener
• Devin Bush? Robert Spillane? Steelers might just say neither and deploy another DB instead
• Steelers inside the ropes: Mitch Trubisky, Kenny Pickett falter in live 2-minute drill

The Steelers gave up 38 sacks last year, right in the middle of the NFL. On one hand, you could say that was partially due to the fact that Ben Roethlisberger couldn’t elude the rush. On the other, you have to acknowledge that the entire premise of the Steelers offense was based around Roethlisberger getting rid of the ball as fast as possible so as not to expose him to the pressure leaking in from his offensive line.

This year, all three quarterbacks move better than Roethlisberger, and there will be more designed throws with the QBs on the move. But pass protection still needs to improve.

How much improvement we see in all three cases by Saturday in Jacksonville will be more of a point of interest than a point of panic or significant progress.

That will be determined far more in Cincinnati for the regular-season opener on Sept. 11.

Listen: Our latest Bella Construction “Letters from Camp” podcast features another training camp recap with Joe Rutter and Tim Benz. They talk about some fall out from the Steelers’ first preseason game involving the quarterbacks, offensive line, and inside linebackers.