Now 11 games through the 2023 season, it’s fair to begin reaching conclusions about who teams are. While some more than others continue to evolve, at least on the defensive side of the ball, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ identity is pretty well established.
Sure, you can talk about their prioritizing smashing the run, getting after the quarterback, and creating takeaways. But trumping all of that is the most basic principle of all: keeping your opponent off the scoreboard. And since getting blown out by the Houston Texans in Week Four, nobody in the NFL has been better at that than the Steelers.
Between their games five and 11, the Steelers have allowed just 105 points, the fewest in the NFL. After allowing 25 points per game over the course of the first four weeks of the season, including a low of 18 points, the Steelers have allowed 15 points per game since then, and never more than 20. They have held three divisional opponents to fewer than 15 points and have allowed more than 17 points only twice.
The next-best scoring defense in that same span has been the San Francisco 49ers, who have only allowed 112 points, or just one more touchdown than Pittsburgh—one more point per game. Baltimore is next at 119 points, or, once again, one more touchdown, one more point per game, than San Francisco.
Only 10 teams are holding teams to under 20 points per game over the course of the past seven games, yet of those 10, the Steelers also have the third-lowest points differential at plus-15. The 49ers are plus-73, for comparison, while the Ravens are plus-86, yet San Francisco is 4-3 and Baltimore has the same record as Pittsburgh, 5-2.
The Steelers have allowed 205 total points through 11 games, averaging 18.4 points per game, which ranks fifth in the league. Their league-best turnover differential is a big part of that with 12 takeaways in that span to just four giveaways.
Granted, context is important, and the truth is that they haven’t played the greatest offenses in the league during that time. In fact, the two best offenses they’ve played, arguably, at least outside their own division, put up 30 points on them in the first month.
Baltimore is a very good offense but had a very bad day in Pittsburgh with an unconscionable number of unforced errors, including multiple drops in the end zone. They’ve also since played the Bengals, Browns, and Titans with backup quarterbacks.
The one time they gave up 20 points was to Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars—and they lost. Of course, they didn’t have their starting quarterback for the second half of that game, either. But they don’t get an asterisk for that just like their opponents playing backups get no bonus points for losing under adverse circumstances. You play the team your opponent puts on the field. That’s all you can do.
