Five Thoughts: Steelers Defense Set for Dominant Season
Football is back and the world feels whole again. Ever since the Pittsburgh Steelers made Kenny Pickett their first-round draft choice in April, fans yearned to see their team back on the field in meaningful games.
Well, Steelers fans, you got your wish.
The game had the feel of a playoff game in September with the Steelers trying to knock off the defending AFC Champions and the Cincinnati Bengals trying to stave off all the pressure of newly-heightened expectations. The marathon game brought about drama from the opening whistle on.
From Minkah Fitzpatrick’s pick-six early, through to the Bengals’ heroic last-second, fourth quarter touchdown that preceded Fitzpatrick’s block to send the game to overtime, the game had it all. And that’s before all the chaos of the overtime even started.
I’m hard-pressed to remember a season opener that has so much to unpack for the Steelers as this one does. So without further ado, let’s get down to business.
Fitzpatrick Played a Legendary Game
I don’t like throwing the word “legendary” around lightly. That is reserved for when something happens that truly reaches those heights. But did you see Fitzpatrick out there on Sunday? I’m not quite sure I’ve seen such a dominant performance from a member of the Steelers secondary since Troy Polamalu roamed around back there.
The pick-six early was such an awesome play. He read the throw from Joe Burrow like a book and jumped it like the ball-hawking playmaker that he is. Fitzpatrick spent the entire game being in the right place at the right time and seemed to lay the wood on all 14 of the team-leading tackles he made. He was called for unnecessary roughness on a few occasions but it happened on plays where he actually looked to avoid the receiver instead of going for a kill shot.
Then, of course, Superman broke through the line and blocked the extra point that would’ve sealed the 14-point comeback for the Bengals. It was a heroic game for him.
With the Steelers being healthy heading into the game and more depth at linebacker, Fitzpatrick was able to actually play free safety against the Bengals instead of having to play a hybrid role. He is a talented, young player but he’s best utilized roaming the defensive backfield making plays on the ball and he surely showed why Sunday.
He’s going to play an even more important role with T.J. Watt likely to miss extended time and Fitzpatrick proved the Steelers right in making him one of the highest-paid safeties in the NFL.
Defense Got Burrow Off His Game Early
If you’re a Steelers fan, you’ve got to be encouraged with how they handled facing an elite offense in week one. We all knew the Steelers strength would be their defense heading into the season. The revamped Bengals offensive line vs the Steelers formidable defensive front would be the matchup of the day and the Steelers won that battle just as they did the game.
The first two plays of the season on defense were a sack by Cameron Heyward and then Fitzpatrick’s pick-six. Talk about setting an early tone. Alex Highsmith was able to get home on 3rd-and-10 on the next drive that forced Evan McPherson to kick a long 59-yard field goal.
The Steelers would force a fumble and two more interceptions before the first half came to an end. They ended the game with seven sacks, four interceptions, and a fumble recovery. If the team wasted that defensive effort, you’d have to wonder if the Steelers could even recover the rest of the season. It’s hard to imagine that they’ll get another performance as dominant and turnover-induced as this one.
Cincinnati eclipsed the 100-yard rushing mark but they didn’t do it very efficiently. Their 133 yards on 34 carries ended up averaging a shade under four yards per carry. 47 of those yards came from Burrow escaping the pocket and making plays with his feet, something you expect out of a quarterback like himself.
Burrow overcame it all and ended up tossing a cool 338 yards and two touchdowns and found a way to keep his team in the game despite his miscues. He is as elite a quarterback and throws as pretty a ball as any other quarterback in the league today. He showed that despite the Steelers throwing the kitchen sink at him. In most situations, another quarterback might crumble and if the Steelers perform like that against the Patriots next week, look out.
The Offense On The Other Hand…
Their play wasn’t nearly as pretty.
Pittsburgh had a short field on so many occasions and were only able to punch one offensive touchdown into the end zone. That drive started inside Bengals territory after Watt’s incredible interception.
The offensive line play was sub-par. They weren’t immeasurably bad but they certainly weren’t showing signs of a unit that could be on the upswing following last season’s disaster. Mitch Trubisky’s Steelers debut was much the same, but I’ll discuss that further here in a bit.
Matt Canada’s footprint on the offense was as evident Sunday as it’s ever been. There was a lot more pre-snap motion than the Steelers ran last season with Ben Roethlisberger at quarterback. Chase Claypool was the beneficiary of that seeing six carries for 36 yards and making solid gains on end-around and jet sweep plays. Najee Harris ended up getting hurt during the game but his ten carries amounted to a pedestrian 23 yards.
Pat Freiermuth led the team in yards largely because he caught the longest pass play the Steelers had Sunday afternoon but he was productive nonetheless. Diontae Johnson was held to one catch for as many yards in the first half but made some big catches down the stretch and led the team with seven catches.
Outside of that, there wasn’t much going positively for the Steelers’ offense. They left a lot of points on the field with their failure to move the ball in short-field situations and left a lot to be desired.
It was assumed they’d struggle early in the season with a new quarterback and a gelling offensive line and that they did Sunday. There is plenty of room for improvement on the offensive side.
Trubisky’s Debut Underwhelming But Not a Complete Dud
Kenny Pickett truthers were chomping at the bit to watch Trubisky fail in his first game under center in Pittsburgh. While he didn’t play great, he made some throws and showed the mobility that the Steelers need if the offensive line isn’t going to give him enough time in the pocket.
The 28-year-old former first-rounder finished 21-of-38 with 194 yards and a touchdown. He escaped without an interception but there were some dicey choices on his part throwing into coverage that could’ve made the game a lot uglier on his part.
He deserves time to figure things out. The Steelers defense looks stout and will obviously suffer without Watt. But the team feels that, at the current moment, Trubisky gives them the best opportunity to win. They signed him to be a starter and just so happened to luck into being able to select Pickett a few days later in the draft.
He’ll have a fairly long leash from the looks of things unless he has a miserable stretch of games here early in the season and the Steelers are out of things earlier than expected. He’ll face a Bill Belichick-led team next weekend and have a short turnaround for Thursday Night Football against the Browns following that.
Maybe we should reserve all judgments and make evaluations following those two games.
Highsmith Played Best Game of Career
The 25-year-old third-round selection in 2020 enters his third season in the NFL looking to take the leap that Bud Dupree took late in his rookie deal. Highsmith has been pretty good to this point of his career but he’d like to stay healthy and get home to the quarterback more with just eight sacks to his name entering year three.
He had nearly half that amount just in Wee 1.
Highsmith was able to get to Burrow three times and hit him a fourth and finished the game with nine tackles. He played like the explosive EDGE rusher that the Steelers thought he could be despite coming out of a small school in Charlotte.
The hope was that he and Watt could form the scariest outside duo in the league. Sunday’s game proved that the potential for that to happen is there…then Watt got hurt.
The weight will now fall onto Highsmith’s shoulders to pick up some of that slack and try to push Malik Reed and Jamir Jones to elevated heights with Watt now expected to miss a large chunk of time this year.
A breakout season for Highsmith is no longer just a hope, it might be a necessity at this point for the defense to continue to thrive at such a high level. More pressure on the quarterback leads to more mistakes and more turnovers for guys in the secondary.
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Mike Tomlin is Hiding Something
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