Column: This defense embarrasses Steelers

I'll lead off with pathetic, atrocious, horrible and worst ever.

This team has no identity, they are all over the place from series to series, on both side of the ball. Often on the same set of downs

Holiday weekend after a bye, not an excuse, just sayin hope they show up against Cincy

I hate being emotionally invested in this group of losers. So predictable. 4 and 7 team = a loss at home. This game was not as close as the the score. Haley stubbornly insisted on yet another bubble screen that should have been a pick six. New Orleans kept us in the game by dropping footballs on offense and defense for the entire first quarter. This should have been 50 whatever to 20 whatever. 7 may be the first guy in NFL history to throw for 400 yards while playing one of the 5 worst games of his life.

Thank God Ike was back. For those awaiting his return, perhaps it was forgotten how horrid he was before he broke his arm. Well, this sure served as a reminder.

I have had enough of these signature Mike Tomlin performances against sub 500 teams.

I wouldn't say the whole defense just a few of the "stars".. I'm convinced Allen threw on his Ike Taylor jersey and got into the game and lets not forget the offense not showing up the 1st half and Ben's 2 interceptions so I think this loss was a team effort

LeBeau's defense's has not been good since being "Tebowed" in that playoff game in Denver 3 years ago, but he, along with other Steelers personnel, continue to get a free pass because of what they accomplished several years ago. Live in the present, and stop living in the past, Rooneys!!!

This team is no where near the equal of a championship team so it should not be a surprise when it does not perform at that level. All the crying in the world isn't going to change the fact this team doesn't have 11 future hall of famers and other strong players on it like the 1974 team that was honored today. Some people expect to win the Indianapolis 500 with a garden tractor.

This was one of the worst-played games I've seen in recent memory. Including the 8-turnover game against an inept Cleveland team a few years ago. The defense had zero bright spots. Without Bell, we lose this by 25+, easy.

It will be interesting to see how they fix this defense. They may have to take a page out of the Pirates playbook and go after some reclamation projects. This secondary is worse than anything Harvey "toast" Clayton was part of. Also, thank goodness Sean Spence is now playing. He was worth the wait! He defended a pass today. Baby steps!

Nailed it, DK. This is a team that could be successful with a mediocre defense. Mediocre seems like a lofty goal at this point. I'm just thankful I have DVD's of 6 Super Bowls I can watch to remind me of what a Steeler defense used to be.

Kudos to DK for regularly mentioning Kevin Colbert in dissecting the Steelers' woes. It's understood that it would be unfair to exclusively blame Colbert for personnel decisions, because it appears many of those are organizational decisions, to include not only Colbert, but Tomlin and the ownership as well.

It also doesn't help that the Steelers' long-standing philosophy of building through the draft and only sprinkling in free agency signings comes back to bite them directly in the buttocks when the aforementioned draft picks have been absolutely horrendous for the most part in the last several years. Then combine that with similarly horrendous free agent signings (Mitchell, Thomas, DHB) and re-signing (Allen), and voila, you've got yourself a mediocre football team.

But just reviewing the Steelers' draft picks just in the first three rounds since 2009 is laughable:

2009 - 1) Ziggy Hood - BUST, 2) Kraig Urbik - BUST
2010 - None
2011 - 2) Marcus Gilbert - Borderline BUST, 3) Curtis Brown - BUST
2012 - 2) Mike Adams - BUST
2013 - 1) Jarvis Jones - Not a bust just yet, but he'd better improve a helluva lot and soon
2014 - 3) Dri Archer - BUST (Should've never been drafted that high to begin with)

And finally, Colbert and the entire leadership needs to finally invest in a HIGH draft pick for a CB, preferably in the 1st round. With the exception of Curtis Brown in '11, the Steelers have completely ignored CB in the first three rounds of the last five drafts.

The question becomes do the Rooney's see it and will they answer it or stay the course? 5 free agent signings, 5 complete busts. An extension to Cortez Allen. A 3rd round pick on a sprinter who does not deserve a helmet. A 4th rd pick on a QB who does not belong in Arena League after letting Hoyer go, who would be a great back up. Too many mistakes for nothing to be done. There are two constants, Colbert and Tomlin. They need to feel accountable. Unless the Rooney's enjoy empty seats.

MItchell must be reading your site DK, he clearly has no love for you. What he does have is $5million a year and what he delivers for that price is a whole lot of space between himself and the nearest receiver.

As bad as Ryan Clark was last year, I'd have thought that it would have been difficult to replace him with somebody worse...and yet....somehow the Steelers did.

Keisel out, Cam Thomas useless, meanwhile Josh Mauro plays in Arizona. Bad personnel decisions continue!!

Can't argue with anything you wrote. We knew defense would be weak, but I never suspected this poor......offense, hard for me to get worked up over 1 sideways play call that Ben should have seen the DB jump and not thrown, or 1 play to Archer.....would the ball game have been different if up 14-0 instead of 6-0?! No doubt defense was poor, but #7 didn't do much to help them out either

Mitchell is clueless ... On and off the field. Obviously

The scary thing is that the defense might be worse, much worse, next year. The D will lose Harrison, Keisel, Ike, and (probably) Polamalu and (possibly) Worilds. And while none of them will be making the Pro Bowl this year, there aren't replacements ready to step in. Jarvis Jones and Ryan Shazier haven't played enough to show whether they can be adequate, let alone good. Stephon Tuitt can't beat out Cam Thomas. The big signings in the secondary (Cortez and Mitchell) are competing for the Worst Free Agent Signing title. The cupboard is bare.

And it isn't like the Steelers can draft 8 new guys and plug them in. As we know it takes time to acclimate to LeBeau's defense, so next year...next year might be pretty awful.

To paraphrase the old story "Lady, you knew I was a snake." If the Steelers don't know by now that they're going to get bit by their defense then it's time to clean house. The offense needs to carry this team. They need to posses the ball and score touchdowns. Can't turn it over and give opposing offenses a short field.
Still don't see how the blame for this loss doesn't fall squarely on the offense and the man behind center who didn't really get it going until playing against prevent.

The defense has been doing this for the past 3 years. It has just gotten worse and worse due to the fact that none of their draft choices have panned out. They are no closer to finding a pass rush, any safety help or their biggest problem for years, cornerbacks.

This doesn't even touch on their lack of turnovers. Which is more of a shock then anything when it happens.

If they didn't have such a soft schedule, this team would win about 5-7 games. Maybe.

Mike Mitchell is not a Pittsburgh Steeler ............. PERIOD!

The word "TALENT" ... or lack thereof is absolutely on Tomlin and Colbert. Look at the draft classes in the last 5-6 years under Tomlin. With the exception of about 4-5 players, it's horrific! Get this .... There's not a single player from the 2008 and 2009 draft class even on our current roster. NOT A SINGLE ONE! --- NONE!

2010 - 2 players remain (Pouncey/Worilds)
2011 - 2 players remain (Heyward/Gilbert)

The amount of overall "misses" is unacceptable as are the "reach" players. Who in the hell thought it was a good idea to draft Archer in the 3rd round? The guy wouldn't make most arena league teams!

Tomlin and Colbert have to go. There needs to be a house cleaning similar to what the Penguins just did.