Last season, the Steelers allowed opponents to carve them up on the ground to the tune of five yards per carry.
It was the biggest point of defensive emphasis during the offseason and preseason, and was finally put to the test Sunday during Pittsburgh’s 23-20 overtime win in Cincinnati.
The result? Progress.
Cincinnati ran for 133 yards, but it came on 34 carries. That’s an average of 3.9 yards per rush — a mark that would’ve been good enough for fourth best in the NFL last year.
“Still got a long way to go,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said Thursday. “We’re better, but we’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got to do better.”
The only real gashing run came on a fourth and 1, when Joe Mixon ripped a 31-yard jaunt off the right side of the line.
“We gave up the one big run on that 4th down play,” Austin said. “I’ve got to get them into a better situation and we’ve got to execute better.
“Our guys stood up on four plays and held them out of the end zone. That’s what we want. You build your team and those plays like that, situational football, it helps you grow as a team, it helps give you confidence as a team.”
From a player perspective, defensive end Heyward Cam Heyward seemed, perhaps, less encouraged than his coordinator.
“We didn’t give up a 100-yard rusher, but we still gave up over 100 yards,” he said.
Heyward highlighted Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s ability to escape the pocket and pick up yards on the ground — he ran for 47 yards — as well as Mixon’s long run.
“We clean that up and we’ll be moving in the right direction,” he added.
But, overall, the run defense did look improved. Take out the 31-yarder and Bengals' running backs had 27 carries for 55 yards.
And that came in the midst of a long, humid day in Cincinnati in which the Steelers’ defense was called on far too frequently, and had to rely on its defensive depth and rotations more than they might have a years ago.
“We had 104 plays,” said Heyward of the Steelers' defense, which was on the field over 17 minutes more than Cincinnati's. “Looking at the numbers, I thought we did a pretty good job with that, making sure everybody got reps and everybody was just available. I think I took the bulk of them, but you didn’t see (anyone with) 80-90 (snaps).”
“The ability to rotate, the linebackers, the defensive line, everybody played well and everyone was fresh,” defensive tackle Montravius Adams added.
The test now, for Pittsburgh, is a Patriots team that has been known to have success on the ground, but ran for just 78 yards in a 20-7 loss in Miami Sunday.
That said, Austin, Heyward and the rest of the defense feel that one performance — even an acceptable one — isn’t going to prove to anyone that last year’s deficiency is a thing of the past.
“Nobody gets patted on the back,” Austin said. “We’ll find out at the end of the year how good we are and if we’ve achieved our goal, which is to be way better than last year.”