The Pittsburgh Steelers overcame a 17-point deficit Sunday afternoon to beat the Denver Broncos 34-27 at Heinz Field. The game was a tale of two halves defensively for the Steelers as they managed to shutout the Broncos in the second half.
After the win, head coach Mike Tomlin said there wasn’t any real adjustments made on defense in the second half.
“We didn’t change much, to be honest with you,” said Tomlin. “We just executed it better. Maybe a third down call, or two, or wrinkle, but we just played markedly better in the second half from a detail standpoint. That allowed us to win those possession downs and get off the field and obviously our offense did what they do.”
Tomlin was quickly pressed to talk more about the second half play of his defense and even still he refused to say that unit’s success was a result of any scheme adjustments.
“We stopped kicking our own butt probably is the No. 1 adjustment,” said Tomlin. “So much of that was things that were self-inflicted wounds. Things that we were doing to ourselves we settled down and that had a lot to do with it.”
We’ll see what the tape ultimately says when it comes to halftime adjustments but the main thing that led to the great second half performance by the defense was the fact that the Broncos only converted one third down during the final 30 minutes of play after going 8 for 8 in the first half.
The Steelers are now the No. 6 seed in the AFC thanks to Sunday’s win and they’ll now start getting ready to play the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday.
