PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Coming off giving up the most rushing yards in the history of Acrisure Stadium/Heinz Field Sunday, you would like to think it will be different this week. However, the last time the Steelers played in Baltimore, the defense was worse against the run.
The Ravens piled up 299 yards and it wasn’t only the yardage, but the way Baltimore pushed the Steelers around. It was an all-timer when coming to worst attempts at stopping the run and getting bullied by a rival.
“It fuels us for this game because we had two disappointing performances there last year,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “We know that this is a big rivalry. We know it is going to be a physical and intense game. That just fuels us because we know we are a lot better team than when we went there the last couple of times.”
It’s such a broken record, TJ Watt acknowledges it’s the same questions seemingly every matchup with this defense.
“Stuff I talk about every week in here, nothing mystical to it,” Watt said. “Every man in their gap, coming down making plays, getting hats to the football, raking at the football. Standard defensive things.”
Linebacker Payton Wilson speaks to a larger issue, one that shouldn’t occur on a defense with so much experience.
“Just once one thing happens, guys start to lose a little bit of trust and then guys are trying to do other people's jobs and once you have that, especially with the running backs that are in this league, they find those little bits of creases that you leave open and yeah so I think a lot a lot of that plays into it,” Wilson said. “We just have to remember that everybody's here for a reason. Everybody's gonna do their job.”
Sage advise from a linebacker only in his second year in the NFL.
Watt brought up after the game that the Bills kept running the same plays and the Steelers couldn’t stop it. Defensive coordinator Teryl Austin says Baltimore will do that same thing and probably a very similar play.
“It was good to watch the film but it pissed us all off and just excited to get back to this week,” Austin said. “Obviously, not only dealing with one of the best runners ever, but one of the best running quarterbacks of all time. So it just goes back to being assignment sound and fundamentally sound.”
“When you look at Derrick Henry, when he gets started, he has a lot of success,” said Steelers captain Cam Heyward. “It’s about getting multiple guys to the ball, staying in our gaps and staying patient. A couple of times, you look at the game last year, we weren’t patient enough. Let the ball come straight to you.”
“At the end of the day, run-stopping is all about a mindset,” Highsmith said. “It’s about you and the man in front of you and getting off the block and making a tackle. We know we got a good run team this week with Baltimore. Obviously, we had a bad performance last year in the playoffs than when we went there last time. We just got to play a lot better than what we did and it starts with the mindset of being physical and getting off blocks.”
“I think it’s being consistent,” Heyward said. “It’s been up and down play, but you have to focus on those good plays and you got to learn from those bad plays. Hopefully our group is doing that right now and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
‘Hopefully’ isn’t the most encouraging word to use there. With all that has gone wrong and all of the ups-and-downs this season, the Steelers can leave the field Sunday in first place. But they have get back to what the Steelers built their franchise on.
“The most physical team is going to win,” Highsmith said.
Can they still be that team?