Mike Tomlin takes blame for Steelers' defensive deficiencies in loss to Chargers

Mike Tomlin admitted the Pittsburgh Steelers got caught in a numbers game on defense Sunday night.

And it led to the Los Angeles Chargers putting some inflated ones on the scoreboard and the stat sheet when they handed the Steelers a 41-37 defeat at SoFi Stadium.

The points allowed were the most by a Steelers opponent since the Kansas City Chiefs scored 42 in the second game of the 2018 season. The 533 yards amassed by the Chargers were the most since November 2013 when the New England Patriots put up 610, the most ever allowed by the Steelers in a game.

Two days after a defeat that dropped the Steelers to 5-4-1, Tomlin acknowledged at his weekly news conference that his defensive gameplan was spent “drawing inside the lines” when some outside-the-box thinking was required.

“I take responsibility for that,” he said.

With his defense playing without three starters — five if you count two others that are on injured reserve — Tomlin had the Steelers rush four defenders and keep seven in coverage against second-year quarterback Justin Herbert.

All Herbert did, of course, was become the first player in NFL history to record 350 yards passing and 90 yards rushing in a game. Herbert completed 30 of 41 attempts for 382 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. He carried nine times for 90 yards, reaching 93 on scrambles before he kneeled three times to close the game.

“We needed to play Canadian football,” Tomlin said, forcing a laugh. “We needed 12 (players). Seven in coverage plus a five-man rush, but you don’t get that south of the border.”

The defensive line, already minus Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu, played without rookie Isaiah Loudermilk, prompting the Steelers to elevate Daniel Archibong from the practice squad and rely on Isaiah Buggs and Henry Mondeaux.

T.J. Watt’s absence at outside linebacker put Taco Charlton in a starting role. The backups were Derek Tuszka and Delontae Scott, another practice-squad call-up.

Without Joe Haden at cornerback and Minkah Fitzpatrick at free safety, the Steelers had rookie Tre Norwood play all 76 defensive snaps. James Pierre replaced Haden, and the Steelers used a combination of Arthur Maulet, Ahkello Witherspoon and Karl Joseph to play in subpackages.

Alex Highsmith accounted for 1.5 of the Steelers’ two sacks, but they hit Herbert on just three other occasions. And with the Steelers dropping seven players into coverage, Herbert exploited the soft underbelly of the defense with his legs. He had scrambles of 36, 18, 18 and 13 yards.

“We weren’t good enough to keep him in the pocket with a four-man rush,” Tomlin said. “In most instances we are, but we weren’t last Sunday. It’s my job to recognize that and make alternate plans. The issues were we had young, inexperienced guys in the secondary. If you rush them with more than four, you are exposing them. With how well balanced their attack was, it made it difficult for us.”

When Herbert wasn’t running or finding open receivers short (Keenan Allen: nine catches, 112 yards) or deep (Mike Williams: five catches, 97 yards), he was putting the ball in the hands of running back Austin Ekeler. He totaled 115 scrimmage yards and scored four touchdowns — two rushing, two receiving.

When Williams broke free for the go-ahead 53-yard touchdown catch and run with 2 minutes, 9 seconds remaining, it cemented to Tomlin that he needed to crunch a different set of numbers on defense.

“With the configuration of people that we had available to us on defense, we probably should have done some things differently more out of our personality,” he said. “Drawing inside the lines when you’ve got significant people missing at every level, we weren’t able to be as good as we desired to win those moments versus a well-balanced group like that.”

The Steelers face a similar problem this week in the Cincinnati Bengals. Running back Joe Mixon is fourth in the NFL with 759 yards rushing, including 90 in the Bengals’ 24-10 victory at Heinz Field in Week 3. Joe Burrow is ninth in passing yards and tied for fifth with 21 touchdown passes. He had three against the Steelers in that September matchup.

Tomlin hopes to counter with a defense that isn’t so depleted. Fitzpatrick is expected to be activated from the reserve/covid list, and Watt (hip/knee) and Haden (foot) could be healed enough to play Sunday.

“Obviously,” Tomlin said, “we could utilize the assistance of those guys.”