Welcome to the Terrible Take, a daily segment telling Steelers Nation what's on our mind.

I'm Ross McCorkle.

Mike Tomlin said he thoughtfully put the historic defense line out there as a way to challenge his defense.

The defense said bet challenge accepted, but perhaps the instructions were a little unclear.

When he said historic, he met historically good and not historically bad.

Unfortunately, they may have taken the latter.

I only joke there, but the results are serious at this point in time.

Pittsburgh's defense is on pace to be among the worst

defenses in franchise history, a franchise that is known for amazing defenses. And this one being

the most expensive version they have ever fielded is on pace to be literally the worst in

franchise history.

They're in a competition with 1988 to be the worst defense in franchise history.

They are currently 30th in total defense, which is yards allowed, and 22nd in points allowed.

The total defense mark of 30th, they've never achieved that.

The worst they've ever had was 28.

And the last time that they were 22nd was 1991,

the last year of Chuck Knoll's tenure with the Steelers.

So after a brief couple weeks, both in Ireland against the Vikings and then

against the Browns, where the Steelers' defense looked good and turned the corner from their

early season struggles, that has completely evaporated. The Steelers have had a historically bad

two games in a row against both the Green Bay Packers and the Joe Flacco-led Cincinnati Bengals.

Almost approaching the halfway point of the season and the trade deadline, it's too late for

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