PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was one of the hottest teams in the AFC, the Dolphins had won four straight and were running all over teams. The Steelers had allowed 249 yards rushing the last game at home.
Monday was different.
Miami rushed for only 63 yards and a 3.9 average as the Steelers won 28-15.
“Everybody just playing confident, playing sound football,” said linebacker Patrick Queen, who finished with a team-high 11 tackles (9 solo). “Everybody trusting the man next to them to do their job and when the play comes to you, make the play.”
“You know, I thought our tackling was a lot better,” said captain Cam Heyward. “You know, one play I loved was PQ [Patrick Queen] on that third down late in the second half, you know, really shooting the gap. I just a lot of guys played downhill from there.”
Head coach Mike Tomlin noted they averaged 192 yards rushing a game over the last five weeks.
“We needed to stop the run, and certainly we needed to run the ball in the effort to flip that component, and I think that made the engineering of the victory more fluid,” Tomlin said.
They were able to do that without TJ Watt. It’s just the second win over for the Steelers during Watt’s career when he doesn’t play. Tomlin said he was not surprised crediting Nick Herbig and Jack Sawyer.
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“It's not a one -man team, a one-man defense,” Heyward said. “We all got to thrive. We all got to play our best ball in December. You know, the way I look at it is we just bought a week off for T.J. I don't know when he's coming back but his leg should be feeling good.”
Queen said it just came down to playing the way the way they wanted. Jalen Ramsey had six tackles and a 12-yard sack, Malik Harrison back from concussion protocol and had five tackles. Sacks for Heyward, Payton Wilson and Esezi Otomewo. And the Steelers had a solid defensive performance forcing only one turnover.
“Just be physical, be us, just be better than we were in the past,” Queen said. “Proved it tonight. Just trying to get better, trying to be us. Go out there dominate, play physical football, play Steelers football.”
They’ll be tested again Sunday in Detroit, but Monday night, the Steelers defense rose up.
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