Carter's Classroom: Secondary wants 'respect' for its work taken at Heinz Field (Steelers)

Steelers' cornerback Joe Haden (21) records his first interception of the season. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

The Steelers' defense came into Sunday's matchup with the Bengals allowing the fewest passing yards at 153.5 per game. That average improved to just 147 yards after they yielded a net of only 108 passing yards to the Bengals in their 29-14 victory.

Which is remarkable considering that Cincinnati gained 106 of those yards in the first half.

Yes, your math is right if you just realized the Steelers only allowed 2 passing yards in a second half while they defended the lead the entire time.

We go into the film room to show you just how they put together another strong performance:

While cynics who struggle to come off as realistic will argue that the Steelers' opponent was Andy Dalton and that their performance wasn't that impressive, Dalton came out hot in the first half. He was making solid reads, throwing behind the blitz and threading the needle on tight passes into good coverage.

Probably the best example of how good Dalton was in the first half was his touchdown pass to Brandon LaFell. LaFell ran a stutter-step post pattern to the middle of the field. His stutter step froze both Ryan Shazier and Mike Mitchell just long enough for Dalton to throw the absolute perfect pass between Mitchell and Sean Davis:

Dalton's first half stats were impressive, as he had 11 completions on 18 attempts for 106 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions. He was taking the safe passes at the right times and throwing the perfect passes when he decided to test the Steelers' coverage.

But to be a good quarterback in the NFL you need more than just a good half, and that's what the Steelers' defense was going to force him to repeat in the second half. Dalton's issues have been that he can be good in one part of the game and then lack the consistency to keep up the solid play for every pass.

The Steelers' secondary had been playing spectacularly well all season. They framed extremely tight passing windows that forced quarterbacks to be perfect in where they threw the ball. Despite this, the secondary only had two interceptions all season.

That number doubled against the Bengals.

The first came from a pass Dalton tried to fire into A.J. Green on a quick slant. The pass was just a little too far for Green and that was all Joe Haden needed to capitalize on the mistake and intercept the ball:

The Steelers dropped back into a zone defense in which you can see T.J. Watt fake a blitz and drop back, which could've been a big reason why Dalton's throw went far out in front of Green. Those are the kind of problems Keith Butler's zone blitzing scheme, with solid athletes being in their spots, can create.

It forces quarterbacks like Dalton to be perfect for an entire game, which is difficult for any player, but puts more and more pressure on the shoulders of a player who hasn't risen above the ranks of the mediocre.

When I asked Haden about the difference in the defense's first and second half performances, he talked about communication breakdowns being the focus.

"The biggest thing in the first half was a couple of busted coverages," the eighth-year veteran stated.

"A couple of miscommunication problems, so that when we came into the second half we just talked about 'let's overcommunicate.' As long as we are all on the same page, even if it's the wrong play, we have to make sure we're all doing the same thing at the same time."

As was detailed in the Carter's Classroom preview for this week, the Steelers were going to have a solid chance to force some turnovers if they had a lead and were able to force the Bengals into more passing situations. That's exactly what happened in the second half as they nabbed their two interceptions.

The second of those came to William Gay, but only after Davis made a great play on the ball while reading Dalton's eyes as he targeted on a deep post pattern down the field. Davis was flying all over the field and making plays, but this was his best highlight:

The Steelers were again able to force Dalton to throw a tough pass into a zone scheme that created a tight passing window. Gay had solid coverage underneath the post pattern and Davis had overtop, but was also in position to break up a pass if Dalton tried to lead his target.

When Dalton did just that, the Steelers capitalized.

Being in position and communicating has been the crux of this defense's success. My initial reaction to looking at their turnaround, from allowing two touchdowns in the first to allowing just two passing yards in the second half, was that they had to have made some serious adjustments at halftime.

Mitchell dispelled that idea when I spoke with him in the locker room.

"Absolutely no adjustments, we just stopped kicking our own butt," Mitchell responded to my question about second-half adjustments.

"The three guys I'm playing with in the secondary are outstanding. I really think we're the best secondary in the league. We're doing a good job of covering and our front seven are doing a good job of rushing the quarterback. We're really just complementing each other, hand-in-hand, rush and coverage, playing in unison."

When I told Mitchell they only allowed two yards through the air in the second half, it emboldened his point.

"Come on man, our work speaks for itself. At some point they got to start giving us our respect."

 

But it wasn't just the secondary that got into action during the second half, as the pass rush kicked into an extra gear in the fourth quarter when they recorded all four of their sacks.

What's even worse for the Bengals is those sacks were coming from situations in which the defense only rushed four players. Normally when an offense gets into the later part of the game, they take advantage of a tired defense and begin to overpower them to gain an advantage.

The exact opposite happened and the Steelers overwhelmed the Bengals' protection group. For example, the Bengals had seven players initially trying to block the Steelers' four rushers, but Bud Dupree rushed around the edge and won his matchup with Joe Mixon to hit Dalton and throw him off enough for Tyson Alualu to finish the job:

We talked about how last week you could see the product of the Steelers' backs-on-backers drill when Vince Williams destroyed Kareem Hunt for two sacks in the Steelers' victory over the Chiefs, and you see it again here with Dupree.

Even with the Bengals outnumbering the Steelers' rushers 7-to-4, there's still going to be at least one rusher who gets a one-on-one matchup. It just so happened that one rusher was Dupree and he dominated Dalton enough for the reinforcements to arrive.

The Steelers did a solid job of both pressuring Dalton and taking away his ability to extend plays with his feet. Only on a few occasions did he get outside of containment, and even when he did, the Steelers were there for the most part.

Containing Dalton was one of the things the Steelers wanted to do in the game, and Shazier explained as much in the locker room.

"Honestly, we were just allowing the four-man rush to get after him and they did a great job," said Shazier of the Steelers' pass rush plans.

"We just put them in tough predicaments, longer down and distance situations in third downs. That really helped us out a lot. When he did scramble for longer distances, it's harder to scramble for nine yards when you have people coming."

It also helps when the Steelers are able to collapse the pocket on Dalton so fast that he can't do anything but hold the ball and forfeit the sack. That's what he had to do when Watt used an inside rip move on the Bengals' left tackle, Cedric Ogbuehi, and shut down the Bengals for another sack:

Being able to win those one-on-one matchups up front makes the job of the secondary that much easier, but even without that, the secondary has been great this season.

Which is funny when you consider how just last season the Steelers' secondary was on its fifth year of being scolded for how bad it was by the national media and fans. Now, two top picks in Artie Burns and Davis are working alongside veterans Mitchell and Haden.

As a unit this defense allowed only 108 yards passing, which, as we said earlier, will lower their per game average of 153.5. How they continue to be this good is rooted in their communication and preparedness each week as they face various opponents.

This week they faced Green, who Mitchell described as the best receiver he has to face who's not named Brown.

"I can't say it enough, I've said it for the last three or four years; that dude is the best receiver I play against outside of Antonio Brown," Mitchell said of Green.

"He's a long, tall and dangerous weapon for them and it's an exciting challenge when we go up against him because I know we're going up against the world's best."

Excitement is the general feeling I get when I'm around this team in the locker room. Because not only are they recognizing why they're succeeding week in and week out, they're hungry to do more.

But how much better can this defense get? They haven't allowed an NFL offense to score 20 points in regulation all season and will be the NFL's top defense against the pass for a third straight week going into their matchup with the Lions.

They recorded four more sacks to make their season total 24, which will keep them tied for second place in the NFL in that category with the Rams.

They also have yet to surrender a second-half lead this season, as each of the Steelers' victories have come from their offense jumping ahead and the defense not once faltering.

What should be clear about this defense is that when I called them elite in my midweek Carter's Classroom after their win over the Chiefs, I wasn't exaggerating. They may not be the flashiest defense with the most interceptions at this point, but they're well-coached and almost always in position.

Even in their mistakes, the breakdowns seem to be made by a single player making a mental mistake and not a complete flop by an entire unit of the defense. The fact that they're playing this well and still developing their young stars like Burns, Davis, Watt and others, should be everything that Butler and Mike Tomlin have been looking to see.

MATT SUNDAY GALLERY

Steelers vs. Bengals, Heinz Field, Oct. 22, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

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