They weren’t on the field for very long Saturday night at Acrisure Stadium against the Buffalo Bills, but the first-team defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers — in the first full action of preseason — looked strong overall.
The first drive of the game for the Steelers defense, Pittsburgh forced Buffalo into a three-and-out, eventually leading to another quick score from Pittsburgh’s offense and an early 14-0 lead.
On the second series of the game, Buffalo had some success moving the football, but ultimately stalled after nine plays and 31 yards, punting the football away again. One final time on the night, the Steelers starting defense had a strong third series as well, forcing another three-and-out from Buffalo.
That strong start had star outside linebacker T.J. Watt rather pleased with what he saw Saturday night from the starting defense, stating that the group was flying around playing fast and confident.
“We kind of look like we were locked away for 28 days together (at camp), just how we were gelling out there defensively,” Watt told reporters in his post-game press conference, according to video via the Steelers YouTube page. “I feel like we’re flying around. We were having a lot of fun playing with swag. I’m sure there’s a lot of corrections to be made but we had fun, for sure.”
Fast, confident, free: that’s a lot of what you want to hear from football players. When there’s very little thinking involved and guys are confident in their role and abilities, that leads to great play overall. Playing fast removes any delays and confidence removes doubt.
That’s especially huge for a Steelers defense with a lot of new faces this season.
Names like Patrick Peterson, Keanu Neal, Cole Holcomb, Elandon Roberts, Kwon Alexander and even Markus Golden are new faces defensively, and yet they all look like seamless fits to this point. They’re playing fast, confident and with a lot of swag, which has helped the Steelers defense fly around early on, especially Saturday night against the Bills.
Throughout the offseason and training camp, communication defensively has been a huge point of emphasis. Avoiding those communication breakdowns defensively is key, and through one true showing against Buffalo’s starters, the Steelers’ defense looked pretty solid overall. That’s very encouraging overall.
Training camp seems to have helped the group hit the ground running together, gelling and coming together quickly. Though there are undoubtedly going to be some corrections needed coming out of the 27-15 win over Buffalo, there’s a ton to like. That’s very, very encouraging for Pittsburgh moving forward, especially on a star-studded defense looking to get back to among the league’s elite once again.
