While the Pittsburgh Steelers defense certainly still has some warts that need cleaning up, they did manage to hold a young and inexperienced Jacksonville Jaguars offense to only nine points Sunday at EverBank Field. That achievement was a result of them accomplishing several important things in the game.
First, the Steelers defense held the Jaguars to just 56 yards rushing. 14 of those yards were registered by Jaguars rookie quarterback Blake Bortles, who managed to get 11 of of those 14 on a first quarter scramble when the Steelers pass rush lost containment.
The Steelers tackling against the run was also above the line Sunday when making first contact as according to my stats, the Jaguars ball carriers only gained 19 yards after first contact.
The solid tackling also was evident in the Steelers pass defense as well Sunday against the Jaguars. Of the 22 passes that Bortles completed, only 73 yards were gained after the catch. 23 of those yards came after the third quarter dump-off pass to Jaguars running back Toby Gerhart.
On top of everything else, the Steelers defense only allowed a season-low two explosive plays of 20 yards or more and both of those were registered by Jaguars running backs and happened two plays apart from one another. One of those plays was the aforementioned dump-off pass to Gerhart.
In total, the Jaguars only registered 92 hidden yards of offense against the Steelers defense on the 52 plays that they ran Sunday. That’s the same kind of effort that this defense needs moving forward into the second quarter of the season.
Steelers Hidden Yardage Allowed By Game/Play
| Opponent | YAC | YCO | TOTAL | PLAYS | YPP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browns | 98 | 96 | 194 | 64 | 3.03 |
| Ravens | 103 | 68 | 171 | 65 | 2.63 |
| Panthers | 103 | 32 | 135 | 54 | 2.50 |
| Buccaneers | 82 | 38 | 120 | 64 | 1.88 |
| Jaguars | 73 | 19 | 92 | 52 | 1.77 |
