If ever there was one play that encapsulates all that is wrong with the Pittsburgh Steelers over the last few seasons it was the following play.

This play speaks for itself.  This team is immature, undisciplined, unprepared, and at times down right dumb.  How in the world do you decide to celebrate a pedestrian tackle eleven yards down the field, down by 11 points, at home, to the Jacksonville Jaguars? Particularly when your defense has been manhandled all day long.  Mike Mitchell is a good football player.  He is also all that is wrong with this team right now.  Too often playing on emotion, and not at all disciplined enough to win football games.  The alarming part is, he is one of the veterans the others look to for an example.  The Achilles heel for this team has been distractions, penalties, turnovers, and undisciplined play.  In other words the Steelers are by far their own worst enemy.  Nobody embodies this better than Mitchell.  He’s a talented veteran safety who should be a real asset to this secondary.  unfortunately, he’s as guilty as anyone of losing focus during a game.  There are countless examples of Mitchell going for a big hit, rather than simply wrapping up resulting in the typical missed tackle.

If this continues, Pittsburgh may have to look at brining in different veteran leadership in the future.  It may not stop there.  New coaching may be in order as well.  Young players like Artie Burns and Sean Davis have seemingly taken steps backward so far this season.  Can this be attributed to the lack of leadership?   It certainly appears that way.  It’s a bad situation that will get much worse if the losing continues.  It’s not out of the realm of possibility that this team could implode on itself.  The hope is that the talent wins out over the mistakes and undisciplined play.  Mike Tomlin is facing his biggest challenge reining in a group that seems to get more distracted by the week.  In the end his emotional style of coaching may be his undoing with this group of players.