The Steelers spent their offseason dreaming up ways to become a better defense. And who could blame them after the way the 2024 season ended with five consecutive losses and a defense that was no longer effective?

The plan was to play more man-to-man coverage, so the Steelers spent $30 million on defensive backs Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay to make that happen. For a variety of reasons, the plan failed to materialize.

Maybe Ramsey and Slay lost a step. Maybe Joey Porter Jr. will never develop into a player who can excel in that type of defense. Maybe the newness of it all complicated everything.

Whatever the reasons, the Steelers went into Sunday’s game against the Colts with the NFL’s worst pass defense and one of the worst defenses overall in the NFL. They exited the game with a perfo

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