T.J. Watt inadvertently blames Steelers fans for communication problems on defense

The Pittsburgh Steelers boast one of the most raucous crowds and boundless fanbases in all of professional sports.

So in a tight game on Sunday Night Football that was delayed by nearly 90 minutes, it's safe to say the crowd at Acrisure Stadium was fired up.

Well, that could have had something to with some of the blown coverages and communication issues on defense according to T.J. Watt:

Crowd to Loud for Steelers Defense?

"I'm sure we'll come up with a plan after we watch the film," said Watt when asked about fixing the communication issues on defense. "Obviously, when the home environment is as loud as it is, that always creates a challenge for defenses but we can't make excuses. We just need to move forward and put out a better product."

The whole idea of crowd noise is to limit the efficiency of offenses in the huddle and during the presnap process. It's safe to say the Steelers fans helped attribute to that, with Dallas recording multiple false starts and turning the ball over three times.

But for the Steelers defense, T.J. Watt knows better than anyone that their problems are much bigger than crowd noise, whether he meant it that way or not. Anytime the defense aligns in a shell that has two safeties opposed to one, it feels more like a bunch of independent contractors opposed to a team.

And when facing teams that have dominant WRs like the Dallas Cowboys do with CeeDee Lamb, going to single-high coverage is easier said then done as that leads to obvious 1v1 opportunities on the perimeter.

So you can see the conundrum that the Steelers face and it's only further emphasized by the struggles of UDFA Beanie Bishop, something Mike Tomlin got real about after Sunday's game .

Loud fans or not, Pittsburgh has a lot of work to do on both sides of the ball if they are going to reach their goals, and that's only been emphasized after back-to-back losses.

Related: Steelers HC Mike Tomlin reveals the hard truth regarding recent play of rookie UDFA