Looking at the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense there are two statistics that stick out for not matching up with one another. Pittsburgh ranks fifth in the league in points allowed, allowing an average of 17 per game. However, the defense tells a different story when it comes to total yards allowed as the Steelers rank 25th in football, allowing nearly 325 yards a game.
Part of that is due to Pittsburgh’s run defense, which was porous earlier in the season but has shaped up in recent weeks. It also has to do with the number of explosive plays Pittsburgh was allowing through the air on a weekly basis to start the year, the likes of WRs Brandon Aiyuk, Nico Collins, and Davante Adams torching them through the first four weeks of the season.
However, much like the run defense, Pittsburgh’s secondary has played far better in recent weeks despite losing both S Minkah Fitzpatrick and Keanu Neal to injury, causing them to miss multiple games. CB Patrick Peterson was asked about the secondary and how it’s been able to hold up without Fitzpatrick the last four games. Peterson said that it was a group effort, everyone in the room coming together and meshing to form a cohesive unit.
“I believe we really started to hit our stride, man, week after week,” Peterson said to the media Friday on video via Steelers Live’s X page. “We got better and better with the communication and limiting the explosive plays. So, all it was is just continuity, just guys continue being with one another. You [have] guys [who] still have to think about it, like it’s a lot of first-year guys in this system. So, now you can really see us all start to come together to everyone. Now we really feel like we are in our stride right now. We are in our bag.”
The last two weeks, Pittsburgh has done a great job of limiting explosive plays against the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals. Both of those teams were without their starting quarterbacks, but Pittsburgh still kept both opponents below 200 passing yards for the game. Last Sunday, the Bengals’ biggest plays were a 39-yard reception, going to RB Joe Mixon coming on a dump off pass, and a 31-yard completion to WR Ja’Marr Chase coming on a pass batted up in the air and into his hands.
To start the season, the Steelers had plenty of new faces that they were trying to mix and match in the secondary including Peterson, CB Chandon Sullivan, and Neal. Rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. eventually took over a starting job on the outside and has done a good job limiting No. 1 receivers in the splash-play department. Throw in Fitzpatrick missing four games due to a hamstring injury and Neal getting placed on IR for a rib injury suffered against the Green Bay Packers and the Steelers’ secondary has faced its fair share of shuffling and adversity this season.
They now get Fitzpatrick back for the first time in over a month, a welcomed return to the lineup that will only bolster the play the defensive backs have been putting out there on the field the last couple of weeks. They’ll face QB Kyler Murray and a speedy receiver corps from the Arizona Cardinals this week, looking to make a few explosive plays against Pittsburgh’s defense. The Steelers look to be up to the task as the whole team, including the secondary, appears to be hitting their stride just at the right time with a playoff berth in sight.
