Bad tackling day vs. Eagles was just a ‘one-off’ — but Steelers know they can’t repeat it

Everyone from the head coach to the best players on the unit acknowledges what was readily apparent to anyone who watched Sunday’s game.

The Pittsburgh Steelers did not have their best tackling performance.

Coordinator Teryl Austin, though, does not foresee it portending a trend.

“I would think, based on the amount of reps and the way we played so far, that we’re hoping that’s a one-off,” Austin said Wednesday of his unit’s tackling during Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. “We have been a pretty good tackling team all year, and I think our guys will bounce back from that and make a concerted effort to be better tacklers this week.”

Based off at least one analytics outlet’s opinion, Austin is correct: The Steelers are a good tackling team, and the game in Philadelphia was an outlier.

Pro Football Focus had docked the Steelers for a total of 83 missed tackles over the first 13 games of the season, an average of 6.4. Against the Eagles, PFF had the Steelers with a season-high 17 missed tackles.

For basis of comparison, the Steelers had only six missed tackles during the prior game Dec. 8 against the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers remain a top-five NFL tackling unit.

“We just (have to) get better at the fundamentals,” inside linebacker Patrick Queen said. “There’s too many tackles I could have made that I wish I could have back, but we’ve got to be better in that aspect.”

By Week 16, the time for NFL teams to refine their tackling is generally long past. And even if coach Mike Tomlin might have considered donning the pads and tackling in mid-December, that the Steelers are working during the first of two consecutive short weeks hinders that even more.

The Steelers are in the midst of an unprecedented stretch for them of three games in 11 days.

“Really, the biggest thing when you have a short week is you just allocate your time to the things you think are important for that week,” Austin said. “If it happens to be tackling, it might be tackling. If it happens to be play structure or some things we do, that’s what we do. It would just depend on what we feel is really important for us this week.”

After a game in which the defense allowed 401 total yards — including 65 yards after receptions and 105 rushing yards after contact (or more combined than the Steelers had total yards) — tackling might be what is most important this week.