The Steelers offense is taking a lot of heat for the team's 1-3 start but the defense isn't exactly holding up its end, either, especially when it comes to the all-important splash plays that Mike Tomlin loves so much.
After leading the league with 56 sacks 2020 - 3.5 per game – this year's Pittsburgh D has been neither big nor nasty this year. With 8 sacks in 4 games, that's slightly more than half of last season's pace. TJ Watt, who has missed one game altogether and most of another, has 5 of them.
That means all other defenders combined have 3 in 4 games
Turnovers are even worse. After tying for the league lead with 18 interceptions a year ago, they've picked off just one pass through four games. 27 totals turnovers in 2020, tied for second in the NFL. So far, just 3 in 2021.
Defensive coordinator Keith Butler knows that's how a team starts 1-3. "You look at the win ratio (and) compare to the turnover/takeaway/ ratio and it tells you a lot," he said Thursday morning.
The question is what can Butler and his players do about it? "We've got to get (the opposition) in a position where we can get after them a little bit," Butler answered, "so we gotta make sure we win first and second down."
Of course, they actually did that to some degree in Green Bay only to let the Packers convert 9 of 16 third downs, which invoked the obligatory "daggum" from Butler, since most of them were third-and-5 or less.
More takeaways would help alleviate that problem and Butler says it's not for a lack of trying. "We are conscious of trying to strip the ball," he said. "We drill it all the time because that's what we want to do is get turnovers."
The good news is – the Steelers did plenty of that against this week's opponent last season. They sacked Broncos quarterbacks 7 times - Drew Lock (6) and Jeff Driskel (1) and they also had a pair of takeaways.
The bad news is that three of the players who caused much of mayhem will not play Sunday. Mike Hilton had one of the sacks, plus a fumble recovery, Bud Dupree forced that fumble and had a sack, while the injured Tyson Alualu also contributed a sack.
Watt did have 2.5 sacks, sharing one with Cam Heyward, Terrell Edmonds had the other sack and Joe Haden picked off a pass and they will all be in the line-up this weekend.
The other X-factor is Denver's quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater would presumably make life more difficult for Pittsburgh defenders if he cleared to play. Either way, the Steelers coaches and players know it's on them to start making life more difficult for the opposition.
