No one can say coach Mike Tomlin hasn’t had the Steelers ready to play this season. The question is why can’t his team sustain its strong starts in the second half?
The Steelers have outscored their first four opponents, 56-26, in the first half, but as much as they jump on opponents in the first two quarters, they haven’t been able to duplicate their efforts in the other two, getting outscored, 73-41.
“We’re the best first-half team in the league,” safety Troy Polamalu said jokingly Monday afternoon.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, it also means they’re the worst second-half team. Or close to it.
Take away the one impressive second-half performance the team had this season at Carolina, and the three other opponents on the schedule drilled the Steelers, 57-13, after halftime. In its 27-24 comeback victory Sunday at Heinz Field, Tampa Bay did exactly what Cleveland and Baltimore were able to do against the Steelers in the third and fourth quarters. They held a decided edge against the offense and defense.
The Buccaneers outscored the Steelers, 17-7, in the second half. The Browns outscored the Steelers, 24-3, after halftime and lost only because the Steelers scored 27 points in the first half of that game and kicked a winning field goal as time expired. The Ravens outscored the Steelers, 16-3, after halftime en route to their 26-6 victory.
“I don’t know if there’s enough of a pattern there that I’ve looked hard core at it other than the fact that we don’t have enough hard-core consistency in our play over the course of 60 minutes to produce the type of football that’s going to allow us to win consistently,” Tomlin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.
Opposing coaches appear to be making some good in-game adjustments against the defense. Opponents have scored nearly three times as much against the Steelers after halftime as they have in the first half. Along with that have come many more yards.
The Browns gained 288 of their 389 yards in the second half; the Buccaneers gained 286 of their 350 after halftime.
Tampa Bay receiver Louis Murphy strongly suggested the Steelers were in a predictable defensive alignment that made the 41-yard pass play that set up the winning touchdown.
“We knew they were going to run cover-2 and knew that zone, that hole, was going to be open,” Murphy said.
After Murphy’s catch and run, quarterback Mike Glennon threw a 5-yard touchdown to Vincent Jackson with seven seconds left. Tomlin explained how the 41-yarder to Murphy materialized. He said it was a failure in execution, not in the defensive concept.
“We had a four-man rush,” Tomlin said. “The [stunt] was just a little slow. I think we just hit the quarterback as he got the ball out. We didn’t hold our zone very well from a depth standpoint. That created a void. Once the ball was thrown and caught, our angles in the hole weren’t very good to the ball and that created the run after.
“Usually when you fail in that manner, 41 yards, it’s a combination of failure at all three levels and really it was. The [stunt] was a little slow. The underneath defense didn’t have the proper depth, and we didn’t have the proper angle to the ball after the catch to minimize the yards after.”
The offense also has bogged down in the second half, although the difference has not been as sharp or clear as on defense. The offense has failed to score touchdowns in the second half in two of the first four games.
“We just have to continue to work to improve, and I believe everybody is committed to that,” Tomlin said. “The normal evolution of a football team or a unit needs to continue to take place. I acknowledge we’re a quarter of the way into the season.
“We have a lot of ball left, but I also acknowledge that we’ve played some ball and I want to see the makings of some consistent performance.
“Not only from our offense but from our team so that we’re not talking about a 2-2 quarter in the next quarter, because we know what a couple of those produce, and we’re not interested in that.”
First Published: October 1, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
