PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It has happened before, but did again on Sunday. The Steelers had 12 players on defense, not on the field, but rather in the introduction before the game. That was Mike Tomlin’s way of paying respect to the job Nick Herbig has done.
That continued during the Browns game.
Herbig finished with two sacks, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hits and a pass defensed against the Browns in a 23-9 win.
“Herb is a baller, man,” said TJ Watt. “I think you guys are just getting hip to it, but we’ve known it for a long time. The kid does everything right. We have a hell of a rotation.”
Steelers finished with six sacks on the game, three from the outside linebackers and 16 quarterback hurries. Watt had a half a sack, which moved him past Aaron Donald and Randy White.
“I think it's just a collective, a group of guys in that room,” Herbig said. “We've got a tight-knit group. We have great coaches in Coach Dunbar, Coach Denzel Martin. Great leaders: TJ [Watt], Alex [Highsmith], and Cam [Heyward]. Like I said, man, it takes some time to mesh, come together, but I think that we're all starting to figure each other out and playing off each other and playing with a lot of energy out there together, and it's great to see all that come to fruition.”
Herbig has led with a lot of that, credited by his teammates for his improvement. He has sacks in each of his last three games, 4.5 in all. They ran a number of three outside linebacker sets because of him and he says he’s just honored to be a part of this.
“I just wear that with great pride and an honor because I know all the great legendary players that have come through these buildings and walked the same halls as me,” Herbig said. Just the fact that they have their belief in me, that respect for me to allow me to run out of the tunnel with all the guys, you know, I'm truly blessed.”
Quotes of the day
Here are some of the Steelers quotes of the day
“When we are a physical defense we can’t be stopped. Right now we aren’t a top five defense, but we will be by the end of the season.”
DB Jalen Ramsey
“It felt good. I’m not going to lie to you all. I’m not going to talk trash in the media. I know people really wanted me to talk crazy to Cleveland, but I’m not going to do that, but it felt amazing getting that win against your former team.”
DB Juan Thornhill
"If there was any question about the type of person that he (Jalen Ramsey) is -- take away the incredible player -- but the person and teammate, I think he just showed all of us the kind of guy that he is by going out there and playing today.”
QB Aaron Rodgers
The question is playing two AFC North rivals within a few days, could that be daunting physically as well as mentally?
“We wouldn't want it any other way.”
OLB Nick Herbig
“You always want to come out in your first division game and make a statement and I think we did that today. We didn’t play perfect, there are things we can get better at.”
OLB Alex Highsmith
“Yeah, he (Browns receiver Jerry Jeudy) got a lot of talking to do. I wasn’t really too worried about him. He got to handle that L.”
CB Joey Porter, Junior
“Bro, I don’t give an (F) about Baltimore. It’s still early in the season, we got to handle our games-one day at a time, one game at a time, literally. Last year, we were 8-2 at one point at time and we started (messing up) the bed. We got to keep stacking these wins.”
S DeShon Elliott