The Pittsburgh Steelers’ pass rush has been elite over the past two weeks, bringing down opposing quarterbacks 10 times over Weeks Two and Three. After a four-sack effort in the team’s 23-18 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday Night Football, both OLB Alex Highsmith and CB Levi Wallace talked about the performance of the team’s defensive line and pass rush.
“I think we’re relentless up front, coming off the edge, interior, I think we’re just relentless and we have that mindset and that attitude. So we just want to keep that up,” Highsmith, who had two QB hits on Sunday, said after the game via Steelers.com.
“You know who we got on the d-line. Those guys do a great job, I kept looking up and Jimmy [Garoppolo] was running out of there, getting sacked. We have two of the best of the league at edge and we got guys like Markus [Golden], who comes in, makes plays and just Nick [Herbig] too, even the interior did a great job today,” Wallace said, also via Steelers.com.
The performance of the defensive line and the pass rush can go hand-in-hand with the play of the secondary, as a good pass rush can force a quarterback to rush his decisions and make ill-advised throws. That happened on a few occasions on Sunday night, with the Steelers picking off Garoppolo three times, with two of those picks being absolute gifts from the Raiders quarterback thanks to good pressure from the pass rush.
The Steelers got a good performance out of a lot of guys when it came to getting after the quarterback. While Highsmith couldn’t get home for a sack, he was consistently bringing pressure. OLB T.J. Watt was a stud per usual with two sacks, and rookie DL Keeanu Benton got in on the action with his first career NFL sack.
There are a number of guys who can get after the passer, with Golden coming in and getting his first sack as a member of the Steelers as well on Sunday night. It’s a deep group and a talented group, and one that has the potential to terrorize opposing quarterbacks all year long.
With the secondary not being at its best to start the season, making quarterbacks rush decisions and throws can help that group get some confidence and elevate its level of play, something we saw a bit of on Sunday that can hopefully carry over throughout the rest of the season.
Sunday was a promising game for the Steelers, with their offense finally showing some signs of life and their defense imposing their will on Las Vegas for the majority of the game. Let’s hope for more of the same in Week Four against the Houston Texans.
