For only the second time this season and the third time in the past two years, the Pittsburgh Steelers offense put up at least 30 points. They have done so now in consecutive weeks with QB Mason Rudolph under center. And it’s finally let the defense breathe, DL Cameron Heyward admits, for the first time in a while, saying, “we haven’t had that margin for error for a long time”.
“You look at these last two weeks and you’ve got to say, 30 points, that gets the job done anywhere you go”, he told reporters after the game, via the team’s Twitter account. “You’re begging for 30 points. We need that formula to keep taking place”.
Things weren’t going so poorly for the Seattle Seahawks early on. They matched the Steelers’ first touchdown with one of their own and held a 14-10 lead by the two-minute warning of halftime. They were tied at 17 five minutes into the third quarter, even, but the Steelers began pulling away to some degree after that, changing how Seattle called the game.
“They were running the ball with success but because the game was getting out of reach and they needed points bad, it gives us more chances to take as a defense”, Heyward said. “You can try some different things. But we haven’t had that margin for error for a long time”.
He started out noting that keeping the pressure on the opposing offense by putting up points of your own lets them know they can’t nickel-and-dime you and be comfortable. To that point, the Seahawks finished the game with just 15 rushing attempts despite having success. Kenneth Walker III ran for 53 yards and a touchdown on his 10 attempts. QB Geno Smith had 33 yards on three scrambles, including a 25-yarder.
With the Steelers offense playing good possession football, however, Seattle didn’t even have a ton of plays. Smith only attempted 33 passes, the Seahawks held to under 50 total offensive plays, yet averaging a very healthy 7.5 yards per attempt.
But they simply found themselves constantly playing catchup for most of the evening. That allowed the defense to play more freely, with greater leeway for taking chances and trying to mitigate weak spots. Given their injuries at inside linebacker and safety, that certainly was beneficial.
Today’s game was the first win by the Steelers in regulation in which the defense gave up 20-plus points since they defeated the Chicago Bears 29-27 on Nov. 8, 2021. In other words, it’s been a long time. They’ve had a couple of overtime wins over the past three years as well, including one over Seattle that same year.
The point is, though, that the defense isn’t used to being able to play with a lead while having already given up a significant number of points. The Steelers had only won one other game this year in which they allowed 20-plus points, but it took two defensive touchdowns to do it. Talk about a sigh of relief.
