PITTSBURGH -- For the second week in a row, the league's highest-paid defense gave up more than 30 points, marking the first time since 2002 the Steelers have given up at least 30 points in each of their first two games of a season.
That defense, the one with six former first-round picks -- five active on Sunday -- allowed back-to-back 100-yard rushers, too.
And the league's highest paid non-quarterback -- at least until Micah Parsons inked his deal in Green Bay -- failed to record a sack in either game.
Unlike a week ago, the Steelers' offense couldn't keep pace, magnifying the persistent flaws in a once-vaunted defense as the Steelers fell to the Seattle Seahawks 31-17 in the home opener.
"It's upsetting," said Steelers linebacker Patrick Queen, one of those former first-rounders (No. 20 by the Baltimore Ravens in 2020). "... I don't like people just having their way, and we did that again today, let 'em have that way. So it's definitely aggravating, but I can't wait to get back to work. It's a long season. This season can turn around real quick for the good for us."
But for it to turn around, the Steelers have to stop the bleeding of a wound that has festered far too long for an organization that defines itself through defensive excellence.
"Clearly it's the same issues that are rearing their head from last week, and in the NFL you don't have time to go back after each and every game and make the adjustments," edge rusher T.J. Watt said. "You need to make the adjustments before they happen, and if they happen in-game, before they're allowed to continue to snowball like they did today, and like they did last week.
"I'm sure there's a multitude of different reasons why this is happening, but we're way too talented. We have way too good of schemes to allow this to continue to happen week after week."
Watt, of course, is one of the most talented members of this $162,758,678 defense, and the Steelers rewarded him handsomely in the offseason with a three-year, $123 million -- $108 guaranteed -- extension. But Watt hasn't recorded a sack in his past six games, including last year's playoff loss to Baltimore.
To keep teams from scheming Watt out of the game, the Steelers promised changes were coming to Watt's alignment, that the pass rusher would vary his pre-snap location. Through two weeks, that hasn't really come to fruition. Watt lined up on his usual left edge (offensive right) on 90.3% of snaps, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, and faced just four of the Seahawks' left-side rushing attempts. He had two quarterback hits and four quarterback pressures of Sam Darnold.
Watt, though, was far from the only pass rusher who failed to bring Darnold down. Only inside linebacker Payton Wilson and rookie edge rusher Jack Sawyer sacked Darnold on Sunday, each recording his first career sack.
As a result of the muted pass rush, the Steelers struggled to limit the chunk plays -- especially on third downs. The Seahawks converted 6 of 14 third-down attempts, and five of those conversions came via pass plays that gained at least 10 yards. The other third-down conversion was a 19-yard touchdown run by Kenneth Walker III on a third-and-goal.
The Seahawks also converted 1 of 2 fourth downs, including one after wide receiver Tory Horton picked up 11 yards on a pass over the middle on third-and-12.
All told, the Steelers defense gave up 14 plays of at least 10 yards.
"We weren't able to pressure the quarterbacks as much as we'd like," Watt said. "There was a good amount of max protection. We just need to be able to get home and help the guys in the back end to reduce those big plays. I mean, even third-and-long, some of those were runs, too. We need to do a better job of stopping those plays and not allowing them to have those fourth-and-1 and then be able to be much easier to convert."
Despite allowing Walker to rush for 100 yards, the Steelers' run defense showed improvement from a week ago when they gave up 182 rushing yards to the Jets. The Seahawks averaged 4 yards per carry, and a week earlier the Jets averaged 4.7. Walker was the Seahawks' standout back with four carries of at least 10 yards, and he averaged 8.1 yards per carry. But the Steelers' defense limited Zach Charbonnet to 10 yards on 15 carries and stuffed him eight times. Still, the run defense wasn't consistent enough.
"The first note of every single week is 'smash the run,' and you guys have heard me say for nine years, we're always trying to smash the run," Watt said. "And it's not a lack of trying, schematically, effort. I don't know. We'll have to look at the film, but we need to be better, and we need to look in the mirror. We need to turn over every stone that we possibly can because this can't continue to happen.
"Otherwise, you're just going to continue to see what we saw today -- not really able to pin your ears back. ... It's not fun football right now. We need to get back to doing what we do best, and that's stopping the run first and foremost to create those longer down and distances."
Despite the negatives, the Steelers' defense wasn't devoid of its own positive plays on Sunday. Safety Jalen Ramsey intercepted Darnold's deep, cross-field throw on the Seahawks' second drive after the Steelers gave up a methodical touchdown drive on the Seahawks' first possession. Edge rusher Nick Herbig, making a delayed season debut because of a lingering hamstring injury, grabbed an interception of his own off Cam Heyward's deflection on fourth-and-1 in the second quarter.
"I feel like we came out and we played better in the beginning and then kind of just fell apart for us towards the end there," Wilson said.
And, Steelers players unanimously said, the issues of this year's defense aren't the same ones that haunted them in last season's five-game season-ending slide.
"It's something different," Queen said. "I think when you got the stuff that we was getting last season, it was more of just schematic beaters that we were getting, and we weren't clean on our details. I think now it's just on us. We got all the details. I think we just got to go out there and execute them. It's really that simple."
Asked if the defensive problems stemmed from scheme, players being in the wrong spot or communication, Queen declined to give an answer.
And asked if there was a part of the game plan Queen thought the defense had figured out that didn't manifest Sunday, the linebacker also passed.
Through two weeks, there doesn't seem to be an easy solution, at least not one the Steelers would realistically implement. Fans can call for coaching changes all they want, but the organization with only three head coaches in the past 56 years has relieved a coordinator of his duties in season just once since 1941.
There could be some relief, though, if -- or when -- some key defensive players such as first round defensive lineman Derrick Harmon (MCL sprain), safety DeShon Elliott (knee) and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. (hamstring) get healthy and return to the field. The Steelers also dealt with injuries to other key defensive pieces early Sunday, too, when lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk and pass rusher Alex Highsmith exited with high ankle sprains in the first quarter, and Queen missed a series with an injury to his ribs.
Still, the cavalry can't fix the Steelers' defensive woes just by showing up. The problems seem to run deeper than personnel, and if the Steelers don't solve them, the results will be more of the same.
"We have some of the most talented guys to ever play their positions in here," Wilson said. "For it to happen to them, for me to miss an assignment, and some of these guys, they're the best in the world. You don't want that to happen. I think it's just frustrating. It's football. You just got to get back in there and get better and continue to push forward."