The Pittsburgh Steelers may have a 2-0 record for the first time since 2010, but there’s an aspect of their game that’s severely lacking: the Steelers have just one sack of an opposing quarterback thus far.
While they had some good chances in their games against Washington and the Cincinnati Bengals — Washington QB Kirk Cousins was sacked twice against the Dallas Cowboys and Bengals QB Andy Dalton was sacked seven times against the New York Jets — the pressure from Pittsburgh’s defensive line just wasn’t there.
Now, against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday afternoon, the Steelers (and D-line starters Cam Heyward, Javon Hargrave and Stephon Tuit) are hungry for their first pass rush sacks against rookie quarterback Carson Wentz.
The Eagles have a history of problems with their offensive line. The O-line’s issues were a large part of the reason why former Philadelphia quarterbacks Kevin Kolb and Michael Vick, the latter of whom played for the Steelers last season, had so many injury issues during their time in the Eagles uniform.
Thus far this season, Wentz has been brought to the ground four times — two times against both the Cleveland Browns and the Chicago Bears. (Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has been brought down twice.)
The Steelers have always been known for their defense — especially because of the legendary Steel Curtain defense (many say Pittsburgh’s 1976 defense is the best all-time) — but Pittsburgh’s offense has stolen the show in recent years.
So if the Pittsburgh defense wants to make a name for it this season, it needs to step up the pressure. That might start with defensive coordinator Keith Butler calling more blitzes — he hasn’t drawn many up to start the season. Here’s what he said about that in a recent press conference:
“Sometimes when you’re ahead, you try to keep them from having big plays on you, and you don’t blitz as much. … And we haven’t blitzed as much this year as we have in times past. Sometimes we drop eight to try to cover up some deficiencies in certain zones that we run.”
He added: “We’re here to win games. … We’d like to have the numbers that the hierarchy of the defense of the league has, but it’s worth more to me to win ball games.”
Against a rookie quarterback in Wentz, the Steelers might just get their first crack at getting a sack this season. After all, linebacker James Harrison, in particular, has a thing for scaring brand-new quarterbacks in the league.
Image credit: Aaron Doster/USA TODAY Sports
