Last week, the Pittsburgh Steelers forced five turnovers in their Week 3 win over the New England Patriots. So did their Week 4 opponent, the Minnesota Vikings, in their win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The Vikings are led defensively by Brian Flores, who spent one season as an assistant with the Steelers in 2021. On Saturday’s episode of The Mike Tomlin Show, the Steelers’ head coach said that Flores learned the turnover culture he’s brought to Minnesota during his time with Pittsburgh.
“[Flores] learned that turnover culture here. The things that we do operationally day-to-day to create a turnover-like environment. He and I had a lot of conversations about it when he was here, and it’s good to see that he’s getting it done his tape. Certainly, don’t want him to get it done this upcoming weekend, but it’s cool to see some of the values and things that we talked about during his stay here showing up and showing up in a big way on the Vikings’ video,” Tomlin said via the team’s YouTube channel.
Turnovers have been a hallmark for the Steelers, especially the last few seasons. The team has found ways to win and make the playoffs despite subpar quarterback play, and a big reason is because of how they win the turnover battle. The last four years, the Steelers are +36 in turnover margin, with the next closest team coming in at +29.
At some point, it’s not a fluke and it’s just how the Steelers play. It’s something the team is very intentional about, and when Flores was with the Steelers, he was a part of it. Obviously, before his time in Pittsburgh, Flores was a longtime assistant with the New England Patriots and served as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. A lot of his success with the Vikings is his own doing, but Tomlin is clearly seeing things that him and Flores talked about show up with the Dolphins.
Last season, Flores’ defense forced Aaron Rodgers, then with the New York Jets, to throw three interceptions. Rodgers has had three interceptions in the last two weeks, and the Steelers won’t win if Rodgers struggles with turnovers against the Vikings. If that is the case, then it would be his learning from the Steelers’ own culture coming back to bite them
