PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – There have been some big successes this year, holding Saquon Barkley to 6 yards on 15 carries, David Johnson to 23 yards on 13 carries, Derrick Henry to 75 yards, but recently the Steelers ability to stop the run has come into question.
After allowing 265 yards to Baltimore, albeit a great rushing team, but 265 yards. Then 144 yards to Dallas a team where their All-Pro tailback barely played due to injury.
“We’ve been fortunate to win the two ballgames that you are talking about,” said defensive coordinator Keith Butler. “Normally that is very difficult to do.”
“We got to hold them all in check. We can’t just give them the ball and let them run up and down the field on us. We can’t live like that and still be successful.”
“I think it is inevitable because we play against pro football players,” said defensive line coach Karl Dunbar. “You play against Baltimore and those running backs and their quarterback, you are going to give up some yards. You play against Zeke Elliott and we played against a quarterback that broke the pocket a couple of times on us.”
“Guys just have to be in their gaps, simple as that,” said defensive captain Cam Heyward. “We rely on everybody being in their gaps and having gap integrity. When we don’t do that, it puts us at risk.”
Some of that is youth, according to Butler. Young players trying to make plays and not being responsible. Butler preaches that players need to learn everyone’s position to fully understand their own responsibilities.
It’s not that the young players aren’t talented.
“Thank God for Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert,” Dunbar said. “They did a great job of getting us guys here. I think the guys we have in that room along with [Isaiah] Buggs and [Henry] Mondeaux and [Carlos] Davis, they are coming around. They have been here in the offseason during training camp. I think those guys understand what we want and they tried to go out there and play to a standard and I think that is the great thing about having them young guys.”
“We knew what we had when we had them here in training camp. You
guys didn’t get a chance to see them because of no preseason games, but it’s kind of funny just getting them out there. Like Danny Smith said, you have to hold on to his pants the first time he sends a rookie down there on kickoff or kickoff return because you didn’t get a chance to see it. First chance you get is
against live bullets, and I think our guys are stepping up and doing a great job.”
Butler believes potentially getting defensive lineman Tyson Alualu, who has graded out as one of the top in the NFL this year and defensive back Mike Hilton should help against Cincinnati on Sunday.
“We got to be better, their ain’t no doubt about it,” Butler said. “We haven’t played as well as we want to play. We have to be more secure inside. Do we have to play better, no doubt about it. We got to play better, we got to coach better, we got to shut stuff down.”
As Mike Tomlin has said, it’s better to work on problems after a win, but warns if we don’t correct those issues, we’ll all be talking after a ‘L’.”