The Pittsburgh Steelers once again have an elite defense this year, but not everything has been perfect. In their most recent game against the New York Giants, their run defense was disgusting. It looked like they couldn’t stop a nosebleed. The Giants don’t have a good rushing attack, and yet, they gashed the Steelers for 157 yards. It wasn’t even close to their standard, and Steelers defensive line coach Karl Dunbar wants players to be upset about that.
“I’m annoyed, so they should be annoyed,” Dunbar said Wednesday via the team’s media relations department. “When daddy’s not happy, they shouldn’t be happy. We pride ourselves on stopping the run because I think you have to earn the right to rush the passer.
“When you can get people one-dimensional, we gave this team, I want to say 158 yards rushing, and they got 45 yards on one play. They got 17 on another one, 10 on another one. When they run the ball in between the tackles, that eats at me, so I’m gonna let my pet peeves be known to them so it should eat at them.”
Dunbar said it playfully, but he’s correct. The Steelers shouldn’t be happy with their run defense. They’re supposed to be one of the best defenses in the NFL, but they got outmuscled in Week 8. That should be embarrassing and frustrating for them.
It is confusing why that happened. Giants rookie running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. is the first player this year to rush for over 100 yards against the Steelers. They had been fairly stout defending the run, and it’s not like the Giants have an imposing offensive line. In fact, they were missing left tackle Andrew Thomas, their best offensive lineman.
However, the Steelers have had a few other lapses in their run defense this year. The Indianapolis Colts beat them on the ground, although they have an elite running back and offensive line. The Steelers also faltered against the Dallas Cowboys, who aren’t good at running the ball.
They didn’t have Alex Highsmith for either of those games, but against the Giants, they were healthy for the most part. It seemed like they were just getting dominated at the point of attack. Thankfully, they still managed to win the game, but Dunbar isn’t going to let them off the hook.
Through Week 8, according to FOX Sports, the Steelers have the ninth-best total defense, and the fourth-best run defense. Therefore, this game against the Giants stands as an outlier. After their bye week, it will be interesting to see if the Steelers continue to play the run poorly. Did the Giants expose something on film, or were the Steelers just having an off day?
Either way, they can’t let that happen again, especially with the division they play in. They’re on top of the AFC North right now, but the Baltimore Ravens are right behind. They have the NFL’s leading rusher in Derrick Henry and the standard for mobile quarterbacks in Lamar Jackson. If the Steelers play against them like they did against the Giants, those two might combine for a historic day rushing.
