The Pittsburgh Steelers’ pass rush is usually their greatest strength. That’s been true in recent years, with T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, and Alex Highsmith headlining that group. This year, it looked like their defense would once again be among the NFL’s best. While it got off to a bad start, the Steelers’ defense has picked things up recently. That includes their pass rush, which has been red-hot. Mike Tomlin recently gave his reasoning for why that’s been happening.
“For us, it’s about opportunity,” Tomlin said Wednesday on the team’s YouTube channel. “We get ahead in football games, you’re gonna feel it from us. We’ve been ahead in some football games in the last couple of weeks, and so, you feel it. Some of it has nothing to do with the defense whatsoever, or the offense that we face.
“It just might be as simple as our offense scoring touchdowns instead of field goals, our offense converting third downs or not converting third downs. That’s just the nature of it… I think, each and every week, we have the type of rush that’s capable of really taking over a football game. But the circumstances have to be there.”
In their first two games this year, the Steelers only recorded three sacks. Their pass rush was disappointing. However, it’s been much better in their last three games, posting 17 sacks. That’s closer to the Steelers’ standard.
It’s been a group effort, too. Nick Herbig leads them with 4.5 sacks, T.J. Watt has 3.5, and Derrick Harmon and Jalen Ramsey both have two. Several other players have gotten after the quarterback as well.
Tomlin is correct in pointing to the circumstances of the Steelers’ recent games as to why they’ve been able to get after the quarterback more effectively. In Week 6 against the Cleveland Browns, the Steelers claimed the lead in the first quarter and never surrendered it, allowing them to tee off on rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel.
Similar things happened against the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots. Once the Steelers capture a lead and force opponents to pass the ball more, their pass rushers go to work.
When the Steelers’ offense does well, that helps out their defense. It’s complementary football. The Steelers’ pass rush started the season off slowly, but it has a lot of talent. This is the brand of football that the Steelers want to play. Hopefully, they continue to play well on both sides of the ball, and opposing offenses feel the Steelers’ pass rush.
