The Other Stuff

I thought Terrell Edmunds had an excellent game, but he’s still not making splash plays in the secondary. He helped prevent Cardinals running back Kenyan Drake from turning the corner on multiple runs. He also did a good job wrapping up Kyler Murray in the open field. Edmunds was even in position to make an interception had T.J. Watt not been there. But his whiff on the Cardinals second touchdown was ugly. The Steelers were in cover 2 and David Johnson was the only Cardinal that entered Edmunds zone. Edmunds undercut Johnson’s route and was in the perfect position to make an interception, but he mistimed his jump and the pass sailed over his hands.

With all of the great play and new acquisitions on the Steelers defense, it’s easy to forget Edmunds is only in his second season. Hopefully, his ball skills improve. Devin Bush also had an underwhelming game. After finishing no worse than second in Steelers tackles in every game this season, Bush’s production has trailed off. In two of the last three weeks Bush wasn’t among the Steelers leading tacklers. He’s made some rookie mistakes in coverage, and against the Cardinals he was taking poor angles to the ball. Bush finished the game with only two tackles, a pretty low number for an inside linebacker in the Steelers defensive scheme. Hopefully, he’s not hitting the rookie wall.

Next, the Steelers play their final home game of the season when the 9-4 Buffalo Bills come to town. That game figures to play a huge role in deciding the AFC wildcard seeding and has been moved to primetime. If the season ended today the Bills would be the first AFC wildcard team and the Steelers would be the other. Winning against the Bills would move the Steelers from the sixth seed to the fifth seed in the wildcard race, but it’s just as important that the Steelers continue to beat AFC opponents. Record against the AFC is the first tiebreaker for teams that haven’t played head to head, and the Steelers 6-3 record against the AFC is currently giving them the tiebreaker against the Tennessee Titans in the wildcard race.