I still can’t believe this week’s ESPN defensive power rankings. I looked at the list every day to make sure it really is true, that the Steelers defense is No. 5 in the NFL. Five!
That can’t be right, can it?
Oh, it’s right.
I’m betting it’s been a long time since a unit on this or any other pro football team has improved as much as the Steelers defense. In the first four games this season, when the team went 1-2-1, the defense gave up an average of 115.75 rushing yards, 304.75 passing yards and 420.5 total yards. In the past five games, all wins, that same defense allowed averages of 70.8 rushing yards, 198.4 passing yards and 269.2 total yards. That is astonishing improvement.
Maybe it’s time to give a little credit to Keith Butler and Mike Tomlin. There certainly were enough critics who wanted them fired after Baltimore’s Joe Flacco threw for 363 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-14 Ravens win Sept. 30. “I really just felt we could have 28, 30, 35 points up out there at halftime,” Flacco crowed afterward. “It’s not like today was the toughest Pittsburgh Steelers game I’ve ever played.”
Maybe it’s also time to give a little credit to the players, especially the ones who were ridiculed earlier in the season. Jon Bostic. Coty Sensabaugh. Bud Dupree. Sean Davis. Morgan Burnett. Javon Hargrave. Even Stephon Tuitt.
- Bostic was considered a journeyman – four teams in his first five NFL seasons – when the Steelers signed him as a free agent in March, but he has done a respectable job trying to replace irreplaceable Ryan Shazier, teaming up nicely at inside linebacker with Vince Williams.
- Sensabaugh has taken over at cornerback in place of Artie Burns and hardly has been noticeable, which is a good thing for a player at his position.
- Dupree has been bringing consistent quarterback pressure with 4½ sacks and 10 hurries and a forced safety against Cleveland by drawing a holding call in the end zone.
- Davis struggled early after moving from strong safety to free safety but has emerged as the leading tackler in the secondary.
- Burnett, who signed in March and quickly was labeled a free-agent bust, has started to settle in after missing most of the exhibition season and the first six games with a leg injuries.
- Hargrave has taken his job back from Daniel McCullers and been disruptive again, finishing with six tackles in the win against Carolina.
- Tuitt was nearly invisible early but has been a force worthy of his $60 million contract with sacks in three of the past four games.
Throw in the stars – Cam Heyward, T.J. Watt, Joe Haden and Mike Hilton – and you have a strong defense, one that suddenly appears ready to do its share of heavy lifting to help Ben Roethlisberger’s offense get to Super Bowl LIII.
“Usually, a defense gets better over the season because [the players] are used to playing with each other,” Butler said Thursday after practice. “Talking to each other and communicating with each other is big. Sometimes, it doesn’t start to pan out until mid-year and later.”
It helps that the Steelers have played mostly from ahead during the past five games, unlike earlier in the season when they trailed Kansas City 21-0, Tampa Bay 7-0, and Baltimore 14-0. That’s made it easier to stop the run. Only Carolina finished with more than 74 rushing yards during the winning streak. It’s also made it easier to get pressure on the opposing quarterback. The Steelers had 18 sacks and 35 hurries during the streak.
“[Having a lead], to me, is monumental in terms of how we play,” Butler said.
It also helps that Roethlisberger and his offense are playing so well.
“I think good defenses are on the sideline watching their offense run the football,” Butler said. “We haven’t been on the field as much. There’s a big difference. …
“I think our guys have done a good job on play action on first and second down and got [opponents] in third-down situations. It makes it a little bit tougher for them to convert. When they start getting those third-and-3s and third-and-4s, it makes it a little bit easier to sustain drives. We’ve got to try to keep them in second-and-long and third-and-long if we can.”
Sounds like a plan for Sunday in Jacksonville.
It didn’t exactly work out that way for the Steelers defense in two games against the Jaguars last season at Heinz Field.
The defense, even with Shazier, couldn’t keep running back Leonard Fournette from rushing for 181 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-9 win in October. The defense had no chance without Shazier in January when Jacksonville won, 45-42. It made Blake Bortles look like a star and gave up touchdown drives of 66, 75, 61 and 75 yards. It again couldn’t contain Fournette, who ran for 109 yards and three touchdowns.
The Steelers are expecting the best Sunday from Fournette, who is expected to start for the second consecutive week after missing October with a hamstring injury.
“I don’t want to say he’s got our number, but he’s played well against us,” Butler said. “They ran the ball when they had to. They did a good job of controlling the football. They were more physical than we were.”
The Steelers say they won’t take Bortles for granted, either, even though he was so bad earlier in the season that he was benched against Houston and replaced by Cody Kessler. Bortles threw for 214 yards and a touchdown in the playoff win last season and hurt the Steelers with runs of 9, 11 and 16 yards.
Butler still sees that game in his nightmares. The Steelers wasted a 13-3 record, a bye week and a home playoff game.
“Them beating the stew out of us, no, I don’t think you get over that,” Butler said.
All you can do is try to get different results in the next game.
I like the Steelers defense this time.
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter@RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: November 16, 2018, 4:50 p.m.