Defense is at its best again
PITTSBURGH – The defense was burned by the Carolina Panthers for nearly three times as many yards as the Pittsburgh Steelers had allowed the previous week. Afterwards, it was the players doing the slow burn. “The defense was frustrated that they got over 100 yards,” said linebacker Joey Porter. But Porter couldn’t hold back the smile any longer.
“Hey, when you’re mad that a team gets 100 yards of offense, that’s a pretty high standard.”
The Steelers could keep their collective tongues in cheek after holding the Panthers to 131 yards a week after allowing only 47 to the expansion Houston Texans. The Steelers have allowed only 178 yards in the last two games.
“We have been playing well,” Coach Bill Cowher said of the defense. “And a lot of people will look at the teams you are playing. You can’t control that, but at the same time we are playing with a lot of confidence.”
Or swagger. The same swagger the Steelers used to lead the league in total defense last season.
Is that swagger back?
“Definitely,” said Porter. “I don’t want to say our swagger left, but we weren’t playing up to our capabilities. Now that we’ve been playing like we know how to play, they definitely know we’re coming when we step on the field.”
The Steelers held the Panthers without a yard in the first half and to 50 yards after three quarters. The Panthers gained 66 yards in the game’s final 4:12.
“The 100 yards they got in the fourth quarter, you cannot put that on the defense,” said end Kimo von Oelhoffen. “That’s situational football.”
But what about the level of competition? The Texans are an expansion team and the 5-9 Panthers were led into Heinz Field by 36-year-old veteran Rodney Peete.
“Man,” von Oelhoffen said, “this is the NFL.”
And on any given day, of course, a team can score 24 points with only 47 yards. But what makes the Steelers believe their defense is fixed? The unit came into the recent two-game homestand ranked 16th.
“We have seen everything that everybody can throw at us,” von Oelhoffen said. “What has worked against us does not work anymore. Everybody is trying to do it. Eventually, we are going to catch on.”
New England and Oakland showed the rest of the league that by spreading the Steelers out, their blitzes are easier to identify. Carolina didn’t have Oakland’s weaponry, but the Panthers still tried to spread the Steelers out.
“Yeah they did,” said defensive coordinator Tim Lewis. “They ran spread almost all day. We just played it better.”
Jason Gildon got the defense rolling with a couple of early sacks on his way to a 2.5-sack day. Aaron Smith also played well. The end led the team with 7 tackles, all solos, and sniffed out two screen passes for losses, fell on a fumble and batted a pass down at the line of scrimmage. He was almost Superman.
“I don’t know about Superman. I was just trying to do my job,” Smith said. “We wanted to be a little more aggressive today. We wanted to try to get some penetration and stop a lot of their play-action passes. They ran so much play-action and a lot of counters so we had to try to get penetration and stop the ball carrier in the backfield.”
Kendrell Bell also helped. He had a sack in his third consecutive game. Safety Brent Alexander’s interception stopped a five-game dry spell. Nose tackle Casey Hampton also had a sack in the fourth quarter, one of six Steelers sacks.
“We got challenged the last couple weeks,” explained von Oelhoffen. “I’m not going to say by who, but we got challenged the last couple weeks and we responded.”
Any ideas on the challenger?
“Yeah, it’s all coaching,” Lewis said with a laugh. “No, the fact of the matter is these guys have a tremendous amount of pride. When we get together with them through the week and talk about the what-ifs and the game plan, we challenge them to execute the game plan. There had been some talk earlier in the year that it’s different. Yeah it’s different because New England and Oakland made it different. So Joey Porter came to me and said, ‘You call it, we’ll haul it.’ And that’s what they’re doing, and they’re doing it full speed with no questions asked.”
Has the defense recaptured its dominating ways?
“Well, you’re only as good as your next opponent, so we’ll see how Tampa rolls and I’ll answer you when we get to San Diego,” Lewis said. “I’ve got an excellent feeling. I’ve got a feeling the guys understand what we’re trying to get done.”