If the Steelers intend to compete for a Super Bowl, it’s not just the offensive side that needs addressing. While their defense started off the season well, they wound up among the bottom-feeders. In their last five games, they allowed 27.4 points per game and 397.2 yards. The Steelers knew their defense would need to shoulder the load, but it buckled when needed most.
And the Steelers needed their defense to step up against Ravens RB Derrick Henry, who dominated them twice in a month. While they handled him reasonably well in their first meeting, he put the hurt on them in two critical games. And that’s the whole problem personified, Gerry Dulac told Rich Eisen on Thursday.
“The [Steelers] defense has been a terrible disappointment in this stretch. You allow 299 yards to the Ravens in the postseason?” Dulac said. “I hark back to the days of James Farrior and Casey Hampton and Brett Keisel. If Derrick Henry ran for 162 two yards against those guys, three weeks later he’d be lucky to get 30.”
Dulac refers to the Steelers defenses under former DC Dick LeBeau, whose units routinely ranked among the league leaders. That was a different era, of course, but they still had Derrick Henry-type running backs. Perhaps not always with a Lamar Jackson, though Chris Johnson had Vince Young.
‘Their purpose would be ‘He ain’t gonna do that to us again,'” Dulac said of the Steelers’ mentality of old after a performance like Derrick Henry had in Week 16. “What does he do? He comes back with 186. To me, that’s unconscionable. I don’t know how that happens. But I think that’s kind of symptomatic and emblematic of what’s happened with the defense here in the second half of the season. Their inability to stop the run.”
The Steelers ranked first in yards allowed numerous times under LeBeau, with run defense often being the driving force. Thanks to players like Hampton, even the elite backs like Derrick Henry of today would have struggled to move the ball.
From 2004 through 2012, the Steelers posted three of the 10 lowest rushing yardage totals allowed in the NFL. Their 1,004 yards allowed in 2010 was second only to the Vikings’ 2006 total of 985. That was the only year Mike Tomlin served as the Vikings’ defensive coordinator, earning the Steelers’ head coaching job a year later.
In that span, the Steelers gave up the fewest rushing yards, just 12,298 over a nine-year period. The next closest was the Baltimore Ravens, who now have Derrick Henry, allowing 13,498 yards. Only five teams allowed under 15,000 yards in that span.
This year, granted with a 17-game schedule, the Steelers allowed 1,678 yards on the ground. That still ranked as the sixth best in the league, but they also faced the sixth fewest rushing attempts. Of course, Derrick Henry accounted for a good chunk himself. Including the postseason, he rushed for 413 yards against the Steelers in 2024.