{"id":208696,"date":"2025-01-07T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=208696"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:34:44","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:34:44","slug":"teryl-austin-should-be-coaching-for-his-job-in-postseason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2025\/01\/07\/teryl-austin-should-be-coaching-for-his-job-in-postseason\/","title":{"rendered":"Teryl Austin Should Be Coaching for His Job in Postseason"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers season isn’t over yet, but they are fighting an uphill battle to extend it another week. They are currently a 9.5-point underdogs in their wildcard game against the Baltimore Ravens<\/a> on Saturday night. Pittsburgh has had some recent success against Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, but this one feels different given the Steelers’ struggles throughout their four-game losing streak. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin will need to coach the game of his life for the Steelers to win. If he doesn’t, given their disappointing performance this year, Austin’s job status should be in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Teryl Austin Should Be Coaching for His Job in Playoffs<\/h2>\n

Underperforming With Superior Talent<\/h3>\n

There are several reasons why Teryl Austin should be on the hot seat ahead of the playoffs. The first, and most obvious, is the underwhelming performance of the Steelers’ defense given their talent. Pittsburgh hasn’t been bad on the defensive side of the ball; they were probably one of the NFL’s 10 best defenses this year. That is not good enough, though, considering the Steelers spent more money on their defense than any other team in the league. A top-paid unit with great talent at all three levels should be in the conversation for the league’s best defense, not on the fringe of the top 10.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh’s defense really went downhill when they played the Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>, Baltimore Ravens, and Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> in consecutive weeks. Watching those games, one would have thought the Steelers’ defense was closer to the NFL’s lowest-paid than the highest-paid. The Chiefs, who have not been their usual juggernaut selves on offense this year, were met with no resistance when they came to Pittsburgh on Christmas. Pittsburgh doesn’t have enough offensive firepower to beat those teams, but they have enough defensive talent to compete with them. Instead, they never had a chance, which is a direct indictment of Teryl Austin.<\/p>\n

Communication Has Been a Disaster<\/h3>\n

One aspect of the Steelers’ defense<\/a> that has really been bad in recent weeks is their communication. There have been far too many blown coverages; receivers have been left running wide-open while two defenders cover the same player. That exact situation played out against the likes of Travis Kelce and Mark Andrews, two players who should be impossible for a defense to forget about. But the Steelers’ defense found a way to do just that.<\/p>\n

There is a point where the players need to be blamed as much as coaching. Pre-snap communication does not typically fall into that category, though. Defensive players not being on the same page speaks to a direct lack of preparation. And when the same issues happen week after week, it suggests the team isn’t efficient at getting those types of problems ironed out in practice. Once again, that is a coaching problem, and Teryl Austin deserves the blame.<\/p>\n

Too Little, Too Late?<\/h3>\n

Given Pittsburgh’s unwillingness to move on from underperforming coaches, Teryl Austin’s job could be totally safe, regardless of what happens in Baltimore. It shouldn’t be, but it very well could be. And Austin has a chance to put together a great game plan to save his job. A strong showing shouldn’t erase his struggles this year, but a playoff victory over the Ravens would be a good way to get back in the good graces of Steelers management and fans. Especially considering the Ravens have a historically good offense, Austin has every chance to make a statement.<\/p>\n

Knowing the Steelers of recent years, though, the odds are low of Austin and the defense putting together a great performance. Pittsburgh’s defense has reliably fallen apart in the playoffs throughout their eight-year playoff win drought. They have given up a seemingly impossible 31, 42, 48, and 45 points in their last four playoff games<\/a>, good for an average of 41.5 points allowed per game. And considering the ease with which the Ravens offense<\/a> picked the Steelers defense apart three weeks ago, this year isn’t shaping up to be the year for a turnaround.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teryl Austin’s job should be on the line if the Steelers defense doesn’t reverse course against the Ravens on Saturday night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2781,"featured_media":208733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[970,7366,28425],"class_list":["post-208696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-steelers","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-news","tag-teryl-austin"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2781"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208696"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208734,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208696\/revisions\/208734"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}