Third down struggles: Coach Mike Tomlin didn't have a lot to say following the Steelers loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.
One thing he did say, though, was there needs to be improvement on third down offense.
The Steelers were two for 11 on third down conversions, just 18.2%, and didn't convert a third down until the fourth quarter.
"It was probably midway through the fourth quarter before we converted a third down," said Tomlin. "You're not going to win football games not converting third down and losing the turnover battle. We certainly were loose with the ball in several instances and didn't convert enough third downs, and so that's the end result.
"There's nothing mystical about it. We'll be back. We'll be better. We have to be. But we certainly weren't (Sunday night)."
Tomlin was asked specifically about the play of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but he made it clear it was the offense as a whole who need to play better.
"We as an offensive collective were off and certainly, he's a component of that," said Tomlin. "I'll let him speak for himself, but we certainly got to be better.
"Didn't feel like they did anything unanticipated, but certainly they outperformed us particularly in possession-down play."
Tomlin was asked what needs to be worked on from an offensive consistency standpoint and his answer was simple.
"Third down," said Tomlin.
While the plan is to always run the ball more, with the Steelers lack of success on third downs, the ground game never got going, with Jaylen Warren getting only 14 carries.
"(When) you're 0-for-nine-or-10 on third down, you're not going to have enough snaps," said Tomlin. "We've been over that discussion a lot.
"We stunk it up. We'll be back."
Needing to bounce back: The Steelers offense struggled against the Chargers on Sunday night, putting up just 73 yards on the ground and 161 in the air.
"A lot of stuff wasn't working," said quarterback Aaron Rodgers. "We were bad on third down. I was just a little bit off. I missed DK (Metcalf) early and could've been a big play. A little high to Jonnu (Smith). We didn't run the ball super effectively in the first half.
"I missed obviously some throws for sure and then we weren't getting guys open and putting it altogether. Times some guys were open I missed some throws I usually make.
"We didn't run the ball as well as we usually do, and we didn't get open, and I didn't play as well as I usually do.
"Our defense played really well, and offensively we were pretty bad. We've got to find a way to get open on third down. I've got to find a way to hit them because that was just some bad ball."
In the first half, Jaylen Warren had seven carries for 26 yards. He got it going in the second half, finishing the game with 14 carries for 70 yards, but the numbers still weren't where they wanted them to be in order to open up the passing game.
"We changed a couple of the runs but, Jaylen made some really nice plays," said Rodgers. "He's a talented guy and we've got to give him more touches."
Rodgers was asked if some of the miscues and penalties on offense were creating frustration.
"It's all frustrating. That stuff happens," said Rodgers. "The one play that I threw to Jaylen's feet, that was a run call. I was looking at the back side, and we had a hug cavity to throw it to DK, and they just for whatever reason, the guy dropped out right in the window, so we had nothing. You kind of live with those plays sometimes. Usually, they work for big gains."
Rodgers finished the game completing 16 of 31 passes for 161 yards, two interceptions, one touchdown and quarterback rating of 50.6. He also was sacked three times, one for a safety.
"I expect to play great every single week, and this was not my best performance," said Rodgers. "I got to play better than this for us to win. Whatever it takes, if it's better checks, if it's better throws, whatever it is, I got to play better. I will.
"We've got to bounce back. We have a division opponent next week. We're 5 and 4. We are ahead by a game in the division, and we've got to play better on offense for sure. This is part of the season. There are ebbs and flows. There's ups and downs. We can't ride the wave.
"It felt like our energy, and it starts with me, wasn't as great on offense. I feel like we were just kind of struggling a little bit, couldn't get a play to get going. We always say 'We just get a first down, we usually score on that drive.' We had so many three and outs and we hurt ourselves with a couple penalties.
"I didn't play very good at all. I have got to play better. We have four division games left to play. It's a long season and it's a good opponent and we just didn't play very good."
Not enough 'Steelers football': After a week when the defense created splash plays galore, the Steelers were unable to create any takeaways against the Los Angeles Chargers in a 25-10 loss on the road.
"Inconsistent as it could be," said linebacker T.J. Watt. "Too much up and down. Not enough Steelers football.
"We can't continue to live and die by the turnovers as a defense. We need to get off the field, and stop the run. Critical third downs, we need to do a better job.
"No excuse for it. We have to play better."
For a defense that started off strong in the turnover battle, as of late the numbers haven't been where they want them to be, with the Chargers game the third one without creating a takeaway this year.
"We're an advantageous group," said Watt. "We feel like we have the opportunity to get a turnover on every play. We're punching at the ball. We're doing everything we possibly can, but we just weren't able to get the ball out.
"On those days you're not able to get the ball, you need to bow up on those big-time third down situations and get off the field and we weren't able to do that."
The Chargers won the time of possession battle easily, 37:35 to 22:25. Part of that was due in part to the offense going 2-for-11 on third downs and not sustaining drives.
But Watt also knows the defense needs to get off the field.
"We need to get off the field," said Watt. "That's our job, to get on and off the field as quick as possible.
"Good defenses spend a lot of time on the bench, and we haven't been doing that enough in totality this whole year.
"I felt like we were stopping the run early, felt like we were creating some pressure, getting off the field, just weren't able to sustain it enough to make an impact."
Bringing you the action: For fans who don't want to miss any of the action, NFL+ is here, which means you can now watch the Steelers live and on the go! Watch live local and primetime regular season games on mobile, plus NFL RedZone, NFL Network, live audio and more - all in one place.
