We’ll have to see what the tape says, but it certainly appeared as though the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t use much of a rotation at the outside linebacker position during Sunday’s win over the Buffalo Bills. In fact, James Harrison and Bud Dupree played nearly all the snaps.
After the Steelers beat the Bills, head coach Mike Tomlin was asked during his post-game press conference what led to his decision to stick with Harrison and Dupree throughout the game.
“Guys, I’m tired of talking about this outside linebacker rotation, really,” Tomlin said. “We played who we chose to play because we thought they could be effective.”
On the surface, Tomlin’s decision to play Harrison and Dupree nearly exclusively appears to have been the right one. Not only did the Steelers defense hold the Bills league-leading rushing attack to 67 net yards on Sunday, Dupree also registered his first two sacks of the season.
While Harrison only recorded one total tackle against the Bills, he still seemed to hold the edge well on his side of the defense.
It will be interesting to see if Harrison and Dupree are asked to continue playing the bulk of the snaps moving forward. There’s still three regular season games left, however, and one would think the two outside linebackers will get relieved on occasion.
We’ll have the total snaps played by each player first thing Monday morning.
