Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers spent an offseason trying to fortify their rushing defense. During a 34-32 win over the New York Jets on Sunday, it appeared to be an effort wasted.
In true game action for the first time since giving up 299 yards in their playoff loss last season, the Steelers let the Jets go for 182 yards on the ground. Breece Hall rumbled for 107 and Justin Fields another 48 and two touchdowns. Only three teams gave up more rushing real estate during Week 1.
Veteran stalwart Cam Heyward stressed that it isn’t an overnight fix on Thursday.
“I don’t think it’s done just in one game, but we’ve gotta answer for that,” Heyward said. “Guys gotta get off blocks up front. If we get doubled, we still have to maintain our gaps. And everybody has an assignment. Run defense isn’t just an up-front job. From the back-end perspective, it all works together. We can’t make excuses for it.”
Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin chalked it up to being an outlier.
“It happened,” Austin said. “Every now and then, you have a stinker like that. You don’t like them. But it gives us an opportunity to get back to work and be better at it this week.”
Nonetheless, Austin blamed a lot of the same things as Heyward did.
“(We) gotta get them better calls, gotta get them where they need to be,” Austin said. “But it was a matter of, when you looked at the film, we have to do a better job of getting off blocks, tackling (and) being in the right spots.”
Heyward also emphasized anticipation and play awareness. Using your hands as a defender is “not talked about enough,” he said. There’s another pretty simple shortcoming.
“Physicality, we could be a lot better,” Heyward said. “I’m not shying away from that. I think just being accountable, too. If you have to be in the ‘B’ gap, you’ve gotta be in the ‘B’ gap. If you get a double, it doesn’t matter that you’re getting a double, but that means somebody else is free.
“When we’ve been at our best, it’s multiple guys either beating their blocks or just maintaining their gaps.”
The blueprint Heyward lays out is straightforward. As much as everyone wants to make plays, it’ll take each cog to turn things around.
“(It’s), ‘You maintain your gap and you set that line of scrimmage and you set an edge,'” Heyward said. “We’re a much better defense when you do that.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Can Cam Heyward, Teryl Austin Fix Steelers Run Defense?
