[Hammock Parties]

Good luck fixing this in four days

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/202412200138

Queen and Minkah Fitzpatrick did not communicate properly when Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely was left uncovered and scored an easy touchdown on Saturday. Later in the game, Damontae Kazee and Cam Sutton had a similar issue when tight end Mark Andrews was left alone in the back of the end zone for another touchdown.

“I don’t want to get into details on that,” Queen said. “Guys just have to do their job. It’s that simple.”

Queen is the hub of communication in the middle of the Steelers defense. He receives the play calls in his helmet from the coaches, then he disperses the calls to all levels of the defense.

All it takes is one player not receiving the call for the offense to hit on a big play. Queen believes if the communication errors are eliminated, the defense will excel again.

“We just have to do our job,” Queen said. “We have the guys to be great. We have playmakers all over the field. If we communicate, we should be fine.”

The Steelers don’t have much practice time to work on their issues, but defensive coordinator Teryl Austin is making sure his players are all on the same page for the Chiefs game. The Steelers had some similar communications issues earlier in the season against the Colts and the Cowboys.

The problem has surfaced again, and Austin said reinforcing it this week will be a priority.

“We’ve got to get it fixed,” Austin said. “You solve a lot of problems with really good communication. The way we’ll try to solve it is with the walkthroughs. Even though they won’t be high intensity, we should really hear what’s going on. We should be really demonstrative in how we communicate and what we say and what we do, be really intentional in that regard to make it stick. That has to be our focus.”