Steelers PATs: Oh, those achy, ancient corners

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New Orleans Saints v Pittsburgh Steelers

The Saints’ Marques Colston catches a 3-yard touchdown Sunday in front of Antwon Blake. — GETTY

DEJAN KOVACEVIC, DK ON PITTSBURGH SPORTS

One last look at the Steelers’ last game …

• Amazingly, the secondary is actually worse than it appears.

Ike Taylor and William Gay were the starters Sunday in the 35-32 loss to the Saints, and there’s no single-game critique to be levied for their playing all 57 defensive snaps. Plain and simple, Mike Tomlin and Dick LeBeau had no other options, with Cortez Allen out to injury, and Brice McCain going down early with a hamstring issue.

But oh, man, the results: Taylor’s assigned man was targeted four times by Drew Brees, all four were completions, two went for touchdowns, the total yardage allowed was 103, and his one chance to make a tackle was a charged miss. Gay was targeted seven times by Brees, five were completions, one was a touchdown, and the total yardage allowed was 96. Pro Football Focus didn’t credit either man with a pass defensed, but I had Gay with one from watching live.

Regardless, that’s some catastrophic corner play.

Taylor never once mentioned this in his general session with reporters, but he slipped on the 69-yard touchdown by Kenny Stills. When I had a chance alone with Taylor, I asked about that, and he shook his head: “I’m not going to use the field as an excuse. They made the play, and I didn’t. That’s the life of a corner. I’ll be back.”

Brees’ description of that play: “It was a double-move, and we caught a guy sitting at the sticks.”

Ouch.

It’s funny, but every year when the NFL draft rolls around, we’re sure that this is the year the Steelers will take corners. If not the first round, then the second. Or both. And they never do. This past year, they waited until the fifth for Shaq Richardson, who has done nothing to deserve even that designation to this point. It was the fifth last year, too, and Terry Hawthorne. Again, nothing. In fact, the only picks in the top four rounds over the past decade were Bryant McFadden (second round, 2005), Keenan Lewis (third, 2009), Curtis Brown (third, 2011) and Allen (fourth, 2011).

What exactly did Tomlin and Kevin Colbert think was going to happen?

• Brett Keisel going to IR was very much expected, and it was made official at 3:45 p.m. today. Torn triceps, the team confirmed. All the best wishes to a great player and man.

• Journeyman defensive end Clifton Geathers was signed, as part of the same team announcement. Don’t call him a replacement. That wouldn’t be fair.

• It’s positives that you seek?

Well, OK: Cam Heyward is really, really good. His 5.1 PFF grade was the highest of anyone from the Steelers on either side of the ball, thanks to his three tackles, QB hit, QB hurry and batted pass. Most impressive to me, numbers aside, was that when he drove into Brees — and he drove with the pedal to the floor — he found a way to avoid launching or spearing and risking a flag.

We talk about how these young guys aren’t true Steelers. Don’t ever include Heyward in that.

• All that, and he’s the real deal off the field. No one, not even Keisel’s veteran mates, took Keisel’s injury harder: “It hurts, man. He means everything to us, to me.” I won’t tell you what I thought I saw in his eyes. He’s way too tough to have that attached to him.

• Lowest-rated player: Mike Adams. He gave up New Orleans’ lone sack and was singularly charged with — get this — seven QB hurries. For perspective, that’s as many as Kelvin Beachum has allowed from the other tackle position all season!

That goes out to everyone who thought for a second Adams would represent an upgrade over Marcus Gilbert.

• Can’t imagine there are many in this town harder — while hopefully fair — in covering Tomlin than I am. But wow, sometimes the criticism is so over the top it’s got to be called out.

There actually was a fuss in some circles over Tomlin and a press conference exchange from an NFL Network reporter who will go unnamed here, and it’s just ridiculous.

It opened with another reporter asking a fair question, this from ESPN.com’s Scott Brown, about whether the coach would look into common threads for the Steelers’ record against losing teams. Tomlin answered it: “At the appropriate time, but right now we’re living in the moment. We’re trying to get ready for the games in the stadiums that we’re in. We’re singularly focused on this opportunity today. We’re going to get singularly focused on next week’s opportunity tomorrow.”

I asked basically the same question three weeks ago in New York and got a whole lot less. Nothing wrong with the answer. We ask the questions, he gives the answers. It isn’t Guantanamo.

So this NFL Network reporter came in next after Brown, and she asked a virtually identical question. That’s what known in this business as badgering. It’s grandstanding to be seen and heard for the camera. Fans who know nothing about journalism might soak that stuff up, especially after a tough loss, but it’s unprofessional. So Tomlin came back, in a calm tone: “How many ways do I need to tell you in terms of my interpretation of how the game has unfolded? It’s not going to change. I’d be happy to professionally answer any question you have, but I’m trying here.”

People don’t understand journalism, by and large, nor should they be expected to. I can’t make rocket ships, cure diseases or fix cars, nor should I be expected to.

But I’ve been doing this long enough to know who was out of line here, and it wasn’t the coach.

• What did bother me was seeing Tomlin fussing later in the locker room to try to make amends with the reporter. That, unfortunately, is standard practice. He loves the national media.

• Sean Payton, the Saints’ coach, hates the national media, by contrast. Great stuff in his postgame session.

• Back to football: Lawrence Timmons is by far the Steelers’ most level-headed player. Never too high, never too low. So, let’s offer him a a brief interlude for the panic that’s swirling all around:

Told you. LT will be ready in Cincinnati. He’s always ready.

• Martavis Bryant is making it increasingly obvious as to why Tomlin, Ben Roethlisberger and everyone else were so rough on him in Latrobe. He’s a project. Four targets and one catch aren’t going to get it done, especially when one of those targets clanks off his hands in the end zone.

• There remains no indication that Roethlisberger’s hand injury is serious.

• If I’m Ryan Shazier, I’d get back on the football field Sunday. I’ll leave that right there.

• Most coaches and athletes bristle at must-win questions, and there’s a reason for it. Roethlisberger said on his weekly radio show on 93.7 the Fan last week that the Saints game represented a must-win. Reminded of that, he finally came through with the bristle: “We have a four-game schedule. It was five, and we lost. You can say we’re 0-1 but have a four-game schedule. We have to take care of our business and play better in all three phases. On offense I need to play better. We’ll stick together and get this thing going.”

• Despite another valiant effort at bottoming out as the NFL’s worst defensive lineman, alas, Cam Thomas could only inch closer. His minus-20.0 grade for the season is 47th of the league’s ends in a 3-4 system, but the Chargers’ Kendall Reyes continued to hold down the rear at minus-20.2

• No way I’m typing all this and not revisiting Mike Mitchell one more time: Of the NFL’s 43 safeties to have played in at least 75 percent of their team’s snaps, he is now officially the only one who has yet to lay his hand on a football: Zero interceptions, zero passes defensed.