Heading into Sunday’s matchup with the Denver Broncos, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense has been focusing all week on cleaning up their mistakes.
It won’t be easy against a Broncos team that plays relatively turnover-free football and possesses a good running back duo. Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater has surprised some people as well with his play this season. Bridgewater remained in concussion protocol throughout the week due to a hit suffered against the Baltimore Ravens last weekend.
TJ Watt talked with the media on how the defense prepares for the game, not fully knowing whether it’ll be Bridgewater or backup Drew Lock at quarterback.
”You prepare for both for sure, but I also think we have to focus on ourselves too a lot too,” Watt said Friday via audio provided by the team. “I think that’s not only because of where we’re at defensively, but also if you get too much into who’s playing quarterback and you don’t worry about yourself, then you can kind of get into a whole difference case of problems.”
The Broncos defense and running game along with their easy schedule deserve credit for their 3-1 record, but Bridgewater has done his part. On the season, he’s thrown for 892 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions. Bridgewater has a 72.1% completion rate and 110.6 QB rating.
With no interceptions as well as no fumbles, this will be a tough task for the Steelers. Turnovers has been a topic of conversation all week amongst the coaches and players, so the defense will certainly have to work for those takeaways if they want to turn things around. Watt had this to say on Bridgewater, who does seem likely to start Sunday:
”A super efficient quarterback. He gets the ball out relatively quickly. He doesn’t drive too deep, doesn’t drive too shallow and knows exactly what he needs to do.”
Watt’s comments were complimentary of the veteran quarterback and he also was quick to mention the weapons the Broncos offense possesses, despite being without sophomore wideouts KJ Hamler and Jerry Jeudy.
