INDIANAPOLIS — Pittsburgh Steelers strong safety DeShon Elliott attributed the team’s practice habits for the sluggish performance in Sunday’s 27-24 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
“We need to work harder in practice,” Elliott said. “I felt like we could be better. If we want to be a great defense, it starts in practice.”
To be clear, the Steelers did not take the Colts lightly. The attention to detail just needs to be improved significantly.
“Not because they were feeling themselves at 3-0 or anything, but he just didn’t think they had a great week as far as attention to detail,” Elliott said.
This isn’t the first time that a Steelers player questioned the team’s practice habits. T.J. Watt basically echoed what Elliot said in a conversation with Rich Eisen last year, which ironically was after the Steelers’ 30-13 loss to the Colts.
“He used that word, he [said it was] wild that some of them don’t want to practice is what he said. Or want to practice in a way that everyone is supposed to practice, “Eisen recalled. “He [Watt] said that this past week, everyone did do that. And then you saw the result. Now you can sit there and say that Tomlin has gotta change his way. T.J. Watt also said that the younger generation takes criticism personally. He didn’t call it a problem, I just inferred it was. And then you see guys on the field like George Pickens turning down contact on a running play.”
The Steelers spotted the Colts 17 points in the loss. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is not overly concerned about the slow start, however.
“I thought [the Colts] really brought it, particularly at the beginning of the game,” Tomlin said after the game. “But the beginning of games doesn’t really kind of define games. It’s just the beginning.”
Overall, Tomlin thought it was a sloppy performance from his squad. He said coaching was not up to par, either.
“The real, tangible reasons why we lost this game is it’s on us,” Tomlin said. “We were sloppy in a lot of ways. You don’t win football games versus motivated groups in their venue playing the way that we played today in certain instances.
“I appreciate his fight, but he and we were a little bit sloppy at times. Too sloppy to secure victory,” Tomlin added when asked about Justin Fields’ performance.
