Heading into Thursday night’s preseason finale on the road against the Atlanta Falcons, all healthy starters for the Pittsburgh Steelers were expected to play. Head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t hide that fact entering the matchup.
So when the Falcons and head coach Arthur Smith decided to bench their starters to preserve them for the regular season, it was a bit of a surprise overall and lent to discussions if Tomlin should do the same.
In the end he didn’t, and it led to total domination in all three phases from the Steelers as they got work in and got better.
That mentality from Tomlin of playing and not worrying what others are doing trickled down to his players, including veteran inside linebacker Elandon Roberts.
Roberts made quite an impact in the Steelers’ 24-0 win, recording a sack, a tackle for loss and three total tackles. He played with great physicality and energy, like it was a late-season game in December rather than a preseason finale. That’s because of the agenda that the Steelers defense had going into the game, regardless of who was out there for the Falcons.
“I don’t care who you got out there. If you wanna hold your starters out, that’s up to them. For us, like I said, we have an agenda” Roberts said to reporters following the win, according to video via the Steelers’ YouTube page. “Our agenda, that’s getting out there and being able to execute our calls, being able to communicate well as a defense. And when we felt like we was at a good beat with that, that’s when it’s up to Mike T and TA [Teryl Austin] to pull us. I felt like all the guys played real well tonight.”
Throughout the offseason and on into training camp and the preseason, communication and execution have been points of emphasis for the Steelers defensively, especially with a number of new faces.
While it wasn’t the Falcons’ starters out there on Thursday night in the preseason finale, it was an important time for the Steelers starters to get more work in together before things start to count. Communication in the preseason is the same as communication in the regular season. So, too, is execution.
The argument of the results not mattering in the preseason is certainly fair, but the players care and want to execute from an individual standpoint.
That showed again Thursday night. The Steelers played well defensively and accomplished what they wanted to do on that side of the football in the final tune-up before the regular season. A job well done.
