The Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense was solid throughout the team’s 16-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, and one reason for that is the unit was on the field for just 41 snaps.
“I think we took 21, 22 snaps in the first half as a defense. That’s huge,” outside linebacker T.J. Watt said in his postgame press conference via Steelers.com. Offense was controlling time of possession, defense we were able to get off the field. Obviously didn’t like that early drive that ended in a score, but being able to smash the run helps a lot, trying to get them one-dimensional. Spent a lot of time on the bench today. That was awesome as a defense.”
For reference, last week against the Cleveland Browns the defense was on the field for 75 snaps, and the defense was on the field for 65 snaps against the Green Bay Packers in Week 10. It’s huge for the defense to not have to continually be on the field and making plays with Pittsburgh’s offense going three-and-out, something that happened far too often through the team’s first 11 games. The offense ran 68 plays and sustained drives today, and as a result, the defense was able to stay fresh and play as good as it has all season.
Watt in particular had a good day, getting to Bengals quarterback Jake Browning twice for sacks and continually putting pressure on the young signal caller. The Steelers’ defense also benefitted from an interception by safety Trenton Thompson in his second career start, and the offense being able to stay on the field and put up 421 yards was obviously a huge positive, as well.
With the season now getting into the back half, keeping the defense as fresh as possible is going to be important for the Steelers to be able to make some noise. Keeping the defense healthy and refreshed will help the Steelers in December and should help them make the playoffs and ideally win in the postseason. The offense needs to be able to play the way it did today consistently, and if it can, the defense will be better off, as well.
With a game next week against the Arizona Cardinals followed by a short week with a Thursday Night Football matchup with the New England Patriots in Week 14, the Pittsburgh defense is going to need to stay off the field and be ready to play on short rest. We’ll see if the offense can help keep the defense off the field against the Cardinals.
