The Pittsburgh Steelers came out of their Thursday night preseason finale against the Carolina Panthers with a 19-10 win, but it came at a rather ugly cost.
Pittsburgh was incredibly sloppy right from the jump, struggling with penalties, turnovers and missed tackles. That sloppiness earned some harsh remarks from head coach Mike Tomlin after the game. Fortunately it came after a win, so now the Steelers have 16 days to clean things up before the season opener, especially their tackling.
Let’s check out the missed tackles report from the preseason finale.
TOAL MISSED TACKLES AT PANTHERS — 20
Kenny Willekes  — 3Â
Kyler McMichael – 2 (one on special teams)
Brandon Echols – 2Â
Keeanu Benton – 1Â
Yahya Black – 1Â
Logan Lee – 1Â
DeMarvin Leal – 1Â
Eku Leota – 1Â
Patrick Queen – 1Â
Miles Killebrew – 1Â
Chuck Clark – 1Â
Cole Holcomb – 1Â
Daniel Ekuale – 1Â
Malik Harrison – 1Â
Roman Wilson – 1 (special teams)
Daryl Porter Jr. – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH THREE WEEKS (THREE GAMES) — 42 (14.0 PER GAME)
Kyler McMichael – 4 (one on special teams)Â
Kenny Willekes — 3
Brandin Echols – 3
Beanie Bishop Jr. – 2Â
Quindell Johnson – 2
Mark Robinson – 2 (one on special teams)
Malik Harrison – 2 (one on special teams)
Yahya Black – 2
Nick Herbig — 1 (missed sack)
James Pierre – 1
Jack Sawyer – 1 (one on special teams)
Devin Harper – 1
Isaiahh Loudermilk – 1
Eku Leota – 2 (one on special teams)
Ke’Shawn Williams – 1 (one on special teams)
Derrick Harmon – 1Â
D’Shawn Jamison – 1Â
Carson Bruener – 1 (one on special teams)
Lew Nichols – 1 (one on special teams)
Keeanu Benton — 1Â
Logan Lee — 1Â
DeMarvin Leal — 1
Patrick Queen — 1
Cole Holcomb — 1
Chuck Clark — 1Â
Roman Wilson — 1 (special teams)
Daryl Porter Jr. — 1 (special teams)Â
Daniel Ekuale — 1Â
As you can see, that’s a very long list from the preseason finale. It was even worse than the 2024 preseason finale against the Detroit Lions when the Steelers missed 16 tackles.
Ugly showing from the Black and Gold in missing 20 tackles. It wasn’t just guys who aren’t making the roster, either.
Keeanu Benton was the first one to miss a tackle Thursday night for the Steelers, and it led to a 28-yard run from Carolina rookie running back Trevor Etienne.
Benton stays clean initially against the block, creating separation and defending both gaps. He ultimately has to work back across the block to get his hands on the running back and isn’t in the best position to make the stop, but in those types of situations you want to see Benton finish the play.
He doesn’t, and then the next thing you know Etienne is out the gate the other way for the 28-yard run. Chuck Clark doesn’t get a miss here because he’s blocked off the play just enough, and while it looks like Darius Slay misses here and Payton Wilson comes in to clean up, Slay is credited with the tackle.
Later on the drive, Patrick Queen misses his only tackle of the preseason.
Queen does a really good job of opening up his hips, changing direction and covering a ton of ground on the screen pass. But he doesn’t finish the play.
The veteran linebacker quickly gets to the tackle point, but he comes in out of control, ducks his head and doesn’t even attempt to wrap up. Going for a one-armed hit, he whiffs badly. Fortunately, Jack Sawyer is there to clean it up.
Same drive in the first quarter, Chuck Clark misses his tackle.
This should have been a relatively easy play to make for the physical safety. It’s a terrible throw from the quarterback to Hunter Renfrow, causing the wide receiver to fall down.
He scrambles to get up and should be an easy target for Clark, but Clark takes a bad angle and easily slides off of the tackle attempt. Fortunately, Jalen Ramsey is there to clean it up for just a 2-yard gain, but this is a play Clark has to make.
Finally, I wanted to highlight one of Brandin Echols’ missed tackles.
This is a broken play where the quarterback is scrambling around and throws back across the field. That can create chaos, but Echols has to be that stopper in space.
He reads the play well and gets into position, but he ends up diving and grasping at air, allowing the pass catcher to turn upfield and finish the gain of 13 yards. It was a bit concerning that Echols missed three tackles in the preseason, but hopefully that’s out of his system now.
Offensively, Pittsburgh had a very quiet night in the forced missed tackles department. The Steelers forced just five missed tackles, meaning they lost the tackles battle by a mark of -15. They finish the preseason 1-2 in the tackling department.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT PANTHERS — 5
Kaleb Johnson – 2 (one on special teams)
Lew Nichols – 1Â
Trey Sermon – 1
Ke’Shawn Williams – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH THREE WEEKS (THREE GAMES) — 29 (9.66 PER GAME)
Kaleb Johnson – 10 (three on special teams)
Lew Nichols – 7
Ke’Shawn Williams – 5 (three on special teams)
Evan Hull – 2
Trey Sermon – 2
Roc Taylor — 1
Kenneth Gainwell — 1
The best one I can highlight from the offense came in the third quarter on a 5-yard Lew Nichols run. Shortly after he had a nice 23-yard catch and run on a checkdown from quarterback Logan Woodside, Nichols got going in the run game.
It’s just a 5-yard gain, but he shows good feet in the hole to sidestep the defender. Of course, he gets hit from the other side as he makes his move, cutting him down, but Nichols making that linebacker miss in the hole was impressive.
His impressive preseason play might not have been enough to earn a spot on the Steelers’ 53-man roster, but it would be great to see him land on their practice squad and keep developing there.
