The Sports Xchange

PITTSBURGH — The Steelers’ defense seems to be in disarray as it prepares for its first home game on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

The Steelers could not stop New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in the opener and admitted to having communications problems much of the game. But then, many defenses have those problems when facing Brady in Foxborough.

The real question is, what happened to the dynamic offense that has a goal of scoring 30 points per game?

It produced just 21 points against the Patriots, and seven of those came with two seconds left in the game. The Steelers would have won had they reached their goal of 30 against an average New England defense at best.

They had the stats. Deangelo Williams ran for 127 yards, third-best in the NFL in Week 1. Ben Roethlisberger threw for 351 yards, fourth-best in the openers. And Antonio Brown caught nine passes for 133 yards, third-most of all receivers.

But the Steelers’ lack of scoring punch inside the red zone and near the goal-line came back to haunt them again, plus Josh Scobee missed two field goals. They’ll have to do better against the 49ers Sunday.

“We finished too many drives with field goals or field-goal attempts,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “You just can’t do that when you are playing good people.”

The Steelers are missing three key pieces form their offense – All-Pros running back Le’Veon Bell and center Maurkice Pouncey, and No. 3 wide receiver Martavis Bryant. But they still should have enough firepower to score more often than they did in New England.

Pittsburgh will have to contend with 49ers coordinator Eric Mangini’s defense that slammed Minnesota with five sacks and an interception and choked off the Vikings ground game, holding them to 71 yards rushing.

Said Tomlin, “Coach Mangini, who we are familiar with from his past experiences, he’s done a nice job putting together some sub-package defenses and spinning the dial with pressure, bogus pressure and coverage. They mix up their third downs well.”

Pittsburgh did not lose two straight last season and needs a win here before playing a good Rams team in St. Louis next week. Otherwise, the Steelers could be staring at an 0-3 start with the toughest schedule in the league.

INJURY NOTES: S Will Allen was cleared to practice and did so on Wednesday. He left the Thursday opener with a possible concussion. … CB Cortez Allen did not practice Wednesday because of a knee injury and