MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- Mike Tomlin has seldom avoided opportunities to emphasize how important splash plays are on defense.
And in the Steelers' 16-10 loss to the Dolphins on Sunday night, they had plenty of opportunities to make those plays -- four to be exact, and any of them could have made all the difference in the outcome.
"They made the necessary plays to secure victory, man, and really we didn't, and oftentimes, particularly when's it's a defensive battle the way game developed into, it's about who catches the interception opportunities and who doesn't. That's just kind of the lens in which I see it," Tomlin said. "The Dolphins caught theirs and we didn't catch ours. That's probably the difference in the game. Sometimes when it's a one-score game and it's back and forth like that and the defenses are controlling it, defensive splash is ultimately the deciding factor."
Specifically regarding that defensive splash, Tomlin went on to be more specific: "We had some interception opportunities and we got to catch them."
Sunday night's performance was far from perfect on the defensive side of the ball. They allowed Raheem Mostert to run effectively. They left too many gaping holes in zone coverage that left Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle far too open far too often. They failed to apply pressure on Tua Tagovailoa as they were shut out in the sack column, and they only registered one quarterback hit.
The defense allowed a first-drive touchdown that looked to be a bad omen early on. Miami moved the ball without breaking a sweat and put the ball in the end zone easily on an 8-yard touchdown pass to Mostert.
However, that wad the only touchdown Miami would score. While the Dolphins still compiled 372 yards of offense and averaged 6.0 yards per play, the defense had another one of those "bend but don't break" performances. However, there were some golden opportunities where the defense could have done much more than keep the other team out of the end zone.
"Those first 15 plays are difficult," Wallace said of the Dolphins' fast start. "They've been pretty good against every team the first couple plays. We had to take the punch. We took it. Then we got into our game and played ball. We had a great second half."
The defense did have a great second half. In fact, they shut out the Dolphins during the final two quarters of the game.
But, here's the caveat...
"We didn't get enough turnovers," Wallace added. "That's on me. I've gotta catch the balls that come to me."
Of the aforementioned four opportunities to provide splash, Wallace was at the center of two of them. The first came when Miami led in the first quarter, 10-0, and were looking to pull ahead by three scores. Threatening just outside the red zone, Tagovailoa found Hill over the middle, but the throw sailed and Wallace had a prime opportunity to snag the tipped pass, but he failed to make the catch:
The defense eventually forced the Dolphins to settle for a field goal to make it 13-0, but that's three points that could have been negated with an interception.
Cam Sutton had the next opportunity to turn the tide in the game, and his might have been the biggest pill to swallow. After the offense finally started to get things going and made it a 13-10 game late in the first half, the Dolphins tried to drive down the field in their two-minute offense to salvage some points before Pittsburgh received the second half kickoff.
Miami was making their way into comfortable field goal range, then Tagovailoa floated a ball down the left sideline, but dangerously underthrew Hill. Sutton was in perfect position underneath to intercept the ball, but...
With Sutton missing that interception, Miami eventually added on a field goal just before the end of the half. That's six points the defense could have very realistically kept off the board.
But, it didn't stop there. While Terrell Edmunds had a very solid overall performance, including a critical pass breakup on a third down that gave the offense the ball back late in the fourth quarter, he knows an interception on this play in the third quarter would have given that same struggling offense a short field with some momentum to try and get things going much sooner:
"We definitely work on (taking the ball away). We've just gotta take advantage of our opportunities. It could have been a different outcome. You never know until somebody goes out there and makes that play," Edmunds told me after the game. "Overall, we've gotta take advantage of some of those opportunities that we had."
Wallace's second missed opportunity came after Kenny Pickett squandered the Steelers first chance to put together a fourth-quarter comeback with his second interception of the game. With Pittsburgh out of timeouts, Miami was looking to put the game on ice with a first down. After a play-action fake, Tagovailoa tried to hit Hill and Wallace made a great jump on the ball, but failed to haul in the pass:
Even though Miami punted the ball away on the next play, an interception there would have saved precious seconds and given the offense the ball just outside the 30-yard line instead of having to travel 87 yards from their own 13-yard line.
The members of the secondary were taking the loss pretty hard after the game. Any locker room is pretty somber after a loss, but that is amplified when it's a game that was very winnable. Sutton sat quietly, but sunk back in his locker with a towel over his head for nearly the entire duration of the media availability. Players such as Wallace knew intercepting even half of these throws could have had drastic effects and titled the scales much more in Pittsburgh's favor.
So, when he was asked if he thought he could have or should have intercepted either one of the throws that hit him in the hands, Wallace responded with a bit of an attitude.
"You watched the game, man," he said. "What do you think?"
When the reporter pushed for an actual answer, another member of the secondary sitting within earshot interjected, "That's a terrible question."
It's not a terrible question. That's just the secondary's way of acknowledging they blew at least four key opportunities, which really could have taken over the game.
To them, answering that question is stating the blatantly obvious.
"Yeah, we had chances. We got our hands on two or three good balls and we didn’t make the plays," Minkah Fitzpatrick said. "Those are game changing plays. We take points off the board, get the ball into our offense’s hands, and we didn’t do that today."
