Steelers Offense 'Cleared the Air' During Bye Week Meetings
PITTSBURGH -- Entering the bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers sat at 2-6, seemingly destined for a top pick in next year's draft and an early end to the season. But the extra time off allowed the team to do some soul searching, take stock of where they are and draw a path for where they want to be.
With two weeks separating a 33-14 beatdown at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles and their next action against the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers decided to rethink how they review game film. According to starting guard Kevin Dotson, head coach Mike Tomlin thought the position groups inside the offense and defense were too separate, so he brought each side of the ball to come in to watch the film as a whole unit.
"Coaches did it," Dotson said. "Coach [Tomlin] was the main thing that opened the air up to everyone because he kind of felt like the rooms weren’t really too cohesive, so now we started meeting as a whole offensive unit to watch film. … We’ll watch it as an offensive team first and the defense will watch it as a team so we can kind of see where everybody is coming from."
These meetings were productive from an X's. and O's standpoint. In them, players were able to better understand how each player comes together to create a whole but there was still some frustration to release. So the offense in particular took the opportunity to do just that and the release helped them refocus on making the second half of the season more positive than the first.
"I don’t think there was any tension built up," tight end Pat Freiermuth said. "I just think everyone was just frustrated with losing and I think our job is to win. Whatever we can do to make that process of winning happen we’ll do, whether it’s extra meetings or whatever.”
These are practices the team needs to stick with moving forward, according to Dotson. These meetings encouraged accountability and honesty - two things the team needed if they wanted to make a midseason turnaround a reality.
“That’s one of the main things, is just we can’t be afraid to communicate," Dotson said. "You have to be able to say what’s on your mind, even if you don’t know, just to be able to get it out there and say it because somebody might have an answer for you. You can’t just sit there and not know.”
The Steelers took a step in the right direction this past week by beating the New Orleans Saints 20-10 in perhaps their most complete performance of the season. Now the task is to do it again. And again and again and eight more times in pursuit of a shot at the postseason.
"Our goal is to keep stacking these wins and obviously we’re in a situation now where we have to compete to be in the mix for the playoffs so it starts this week with Cincinnati," Freiermuth said. "It’s going to be a big week for us.”
Find great deals on Steelers tickets from SI Tickets HERE
Make sure you bookmark All Steelers for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!
Flavell's Five Thoughts: Kenny Pickett Mixed Bag with Flashes
T.J. Watt's Return Fueled By Intense Steelers Crowd
Kenny Pickett Not Worried About Ankle Injury Holding Him Back
Mike Tomlin Owns Wins Over All 31 NFL Teams
Steelers Kept Myles Jack Sidelined as Precaution
- Subscribe to the All Steelers YouTube Channel
- Follow All Steelers on Twitter: @si_steelers
- Like and Follow All Steelers on Facebook
