Steelers Now
PITTSBURGH — Sunday night wasn’t the first time DeShon Elliott had gone down this season. If the diagnosis is as ugly as the knee injury looked, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense will have to move forward without the veteran safety.
Losing him would mean being without a flexible talent and key communicator within the unit.
“We had other guys that (were) trying to play a lot of positions that they really haven’t had a lot of reps in practice. Because DeShon’s always out there, he’s working,” fellow Steelers safety Juan Thornhill said after their team’s 35-25 loss to the Green Bay Packers. “He goes down and it’s like, ‘Oh, so what are we gonna do now?'”
The defense wasn’t doing all that well even before Elliott was rolled up on, headed to the sideline with help and was carted off. The Steelers haven’t forced a turnover since they played the Minnesota Vikings in Ireland almost a month ago, and they didn’t have a sack against Jordan Love, either.
Jumping into a handful of roles with limited practice reps isn’t an easy thing for his understudies to do.
“It’s tough,” said Jabrill Peppers, who was brought in as reinforcement after Elliott injured his knee in Week 1. “Definitely not what I’m used to, but, in this profession, you’ve gotta be ready when your number’s called.”
Chuck Clark is another one of the guys that have to embrace the “next man up” mentality. The communication aspect of it all is what he feels is the most important part of practice reps. To replicate Elliott’s role would be to play down in the box and in the slot when needed.
“I’ve done that before,” Clark said. “I mean, that’s what I’ve done in my career a lot. This year, I haven’t been doing that as much, but I’ve done that before.”
And then you have to take into account the possible severity of the injury and how it affects the unit from an emotional standpoint.
“It hurt. DeShon is a one-of-a-kind player,” inside linebacker and green-dot player Patrick Queen said. “We know what he brings to this defense, but at the same time, I think the guys that we got are good players. They can step in and do the job. It definitely hurt. I got emotional about it, but I think at the end of the day, we get paid to play the sport. We’re good at the sport. We’re competitive. I think (there) shouldn’t be no fall-off.”
There was the last time, though.
While missing Elliott against the Seattle Seahawks and at the New England Patriots, the Steelers allowed 764 yards of total offense over two weeks. The only thing that kept them from dropping both contests was opportunistic takeaways against Mike Vrabel’s team. Both teams’ ground games went for nearly 120 yards.
Assuming Elliott is sidelined for the foreseeable future, the Steelers’ next test without him will come against the Indianapolis Colts and Jonathan Taylor, who’s scored three touchdowns in four...
