Throughout the history of the Pittsburgh Steelers, the foundation of the franchise has built built on a punishing defense that takes the football away at a high rate and sacks quarterbacks with the best of them, along with a power rushing attack that wears teams down and imposes their will.
Look back through the history of the Steelers and you’ll see that time and time again.
The 2023 Steelers are doing that now, too. Yet, despite being 6-3 they are being criticized for the way they are winning in today’s NFL, zagging while everyone else is zigging, even with a below-average passing attack.
For former NFL head coach and current ESPN analyst Herm Edwards, the Steelers just need to stay the course, continue to play how they are playing and keep stacking wins, because that’s all that matters.
“If you say Pittsburgh Steelers and you close your eyes, you go historically, what are we? We play defense. That is our staple. We’re going to play defense. We’re going to run the football, and we’re running the ball much better now. That will help us in our passing game. Last time I checked, we are one game out of first. We are 6-3 and that’s all that matters,” Edwards said when asked what he would say to the Steelers today if he were the coach while appearing on ESPN’s Monday Blitz.
The Steelers are playing some good defense this season, though in a unique way. Pittsburgh is giving up a ton of yards so far this season. Coming out of the Week 10 win over the Green Bay Packers at Acrisure Stadium, the Steelers are allowing the fifth-most yards in the NFL (379.7), sit 26th in the NFL in passing yards allowed per game (248.4) and 25th in rushing yards allowed per game (131.2).
Yet, the Steelers are tied for 10th in points per game allowed at 20.2. They also are tied for first in takeaways on the season with 18.
Pittsburgh is deploying a serious bend-don’t-break defense this season. It’s working, too. The Steelers are giving up a lot of yardage, but they aren’t allowing those yards to turn into points, and they are holding teams to field goals rather than touchdowns when given the opportunity. That matters greatly.
Offensively, the last two weeks have shown exactly how the Steelers want to play on that side of the football. That includes a smash mouth rushing attack.
In Week Nine against the Titans the Steelers ran for 166 yards and a touchdown in a 20-16 win. Sunday, the Steelers ran for 205 yards and two touchdowns in a 23-19 win over the Packers. Slowly but surely, the run game is coming around. It’s starting to look like it did in the second half of last season when Pittsburgh went 7-2 down the stretch.
It might not be pretty and it might not match exactly how the game is largely played today across the NFL landscape, but you are what your record says you are. Pittsburgh’s record says they are 6-3. That’s all that matters.
