Steelers Now
Despite the historically bad start by the Pittsburgh Steelers defense, veteran cornerback Darius Slay is not worried. He was in a similar position with the Eagles last season, and Philadelphia went on to win the Super Bowl.
“I’ve been in this position before,” Slay said Wednesday. “I just came from that. The first four weeks we didn’t play as well as we needed to, the bye came up. We weren’t playing to the standard in Philly at the time. Right now, we’re not playing to our full potential yet, either. Next thing you know we ended up being the No. 1 defense and Super Bowl champs.”
The Steelers once again got gashed on the ground in Sunday’s 31-17 loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle rushed for 117 yards on 29 carries (4.0 average). Kenneth Walker III led the Seahawks with 105 yards rushing on 13 carries for a whopping 8.1 average and a touchdown.
It’s the second straight week that the Steelers have allowed over 100 yards rushing. The New York Jets racked up 182 yards (4.7 average) in Week 1.
Overall, the Steelers defense has left a lot to be desired in the first two weeks.
The Steelers have allowed 31+ points in the first two weeks of a season for the first time since 1989. Last year, the defense allowed 30 points twice all season.
The Steelers defense game in the season with high expectations. Head coach Mike Tomlin even said his unit had the potential to be historic.
“I have high hopes for this team as well,” Slay said. “Thankfully, it’s early, and we can all learn from our mistakes and continue to get better and keep building off each and every week and get better.
The Eagles started the season 2-2 last year before winning 10 straight. Slay said the bye in Week 5 turned the season around.
“We just had a good talk with each other as men, sat down and knew what our main goal was, and it was to win,” he said. “However they come, we had to win them. We know defense wins championships, and we wanted to make sure that’s what it was and that’s what we stand on.”
Slay believes the Steelers share the same mindset with the Eagles, and that’s winning in the trenches and dominating on defense.
“This way over here, it’s the same,” Slay said. “They believe in defense.”
Slay believes the Steelers have the pieces on defense to be elite.
“It’s more want than anything. Know your assignment, do the extra work after meetings, do what needs to be done,” he said. “All these guys in here are professionals. They know their role and how they want to handle the situation by helping themselves out. We’re doing the best job we can in the building. Guys want to continue to meet after work. We’ll do that and get better.”
Alan Saunders provided reporting from Pittsburgh.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: [Steelers Veteran CB Not...
