Cam Heyward's next sack will give him eight for the season, setting a new career high. It also could mean the passing of the torch, so to speak.
Leading the Steelers in sacks used to be a pretty exclusive club, typically populated by outside linebackers. But with seven sacks through the first 11 games, Heyward has nearly as many by himself as the team's two starting outside linebackers, Bud Dupree and T.J.Watt.
And Heyward isn't alone. Bolstered by his total, the defensive line has outproduced the outside linebackers as a group, recording 14 of the team's 34 sacks. The outside linebackers have 12.
The line has become the key to this defense.
“Their defensive front, I have been impressed with," said Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy, whose team faces the Steelers Sunday night at Heinz Field. "And their secondary, they’re all productive. They're playing a lot of players. Their production statistics, the way they're spread out throughout their defense, is really the way you want to play. They are really in sync. They are going to challenge protection schemes, your run support. That's what you have to be ready for. I think they do a great job of pre-snap diagnosis and reacting. They are fast reactors. They are doing a good job flying to the ball.”
The key for the line is that they don't have to fly quite as far. They can get immediate pressure in the quarterback's face, something critical in today's NFL, where so many teams use three-step drops to combat outside pressure.
"Quarterbacks are not stepping back as far," Stephon Tuitt said. "Quarterbacks now are getting the ball out of there. Back in the old days, they used to go all the way back. Now it’s literally one or two steps and they throw. The interior pressure, pushing those guards back, you cause the quarterback to make a mistake or hold the ball a little bit longer and you take them down. It’s quicker for the defensive linemen to get to them."
Keith Butler has allowed his line more flexibility to get to the quarterback, and the results have been good. The Steelers haven't completely stopped blitzing, but they do it a lot less.
"If you blitz all the time, they're going to pick it up and hurt you," Butler said. "You've got to have a good enough four-man rush to change it up and make it effective. It makes your blitzing more effective because they're not sure when it's coming."
You also have to have athletic outside linebackers capable of dropping into coverage. Watt and Dupree fit the bill there. The linemen rush the passer and stop the run. The linebackers still get their pass rush opportunities, but they're asked to do more coverage, as well.
“The ability to have a 3-4 defense as your base defense and take your outside linebackers and make them defensive ends in that four-man front gives you the ability to do a lot of different things,” Butler said. “Whether it’s a five-man rush, a four-man rush, playing zone behind it or man behind it. There's a lot more stuff you can do being versatile, and that helps us out quite a bit.”
As versatile as the linebackers need to be, the defensive linemen had better be good pass rushers, as well as solid run stoppers. They also have to be disciplined.
"You can still be the player that you are, but you have to do it within the defense," Tuitt said. "To do that, you have to study. If you don’t do that, even if you still think you’re making the splash plays, there can be a huge hole in the defense that you’re supposed to fit in. This is the NFL, they’ll expose that."
That was happening earlier in the season when the Steelers allowed more than 200 yards rushing in losses to Chicago and Jacksonville. But it's been solid since with an average of 58 over the past five games, all wins.
"I think we always knew we were capable of that," Javon Hargrave told me. "We’re just being put in the right position to be able to make some of those plays and capitalize on them."
Heyward is the linchpin, the veteran who led the Steelers in sacks in two of the previous three seasons and is playing at a Pro Bowl level this season. Management also felt good enough about the future of the 24-year-old Tuitt that they gave him a five-year, $60 million extension at the end of training camp. Heyward and Tuitt planned to have a sack competition this year, but Tuitt's arm injury two plays into the season opener at Cleveland ended any thoughts of that being close.
Still, Tuitt, who has both of his sacks in the past two games, isn't conceding, even if he knows Heyward will be tough to catch.
"Cam does the little things. He focuses on the little things," Tuitt said. "And that’s how he has become the performer that he is. You can see him really knowing what type of player he is. He knows what move he's going to make right away. He’s pushing the offensive player back, and they can’t do anything about it."
That quick pressure up the middle could be critical to the Steelers' defensive efforts moving forward. In fact, it could be critical in a certain game coming up Dec. 17. New England quarterback Tom Brady is legendary for his ability to pick a defense apart if it just plays zone or man and doesn't mix things up.
"All you’ve got to do is have the edge rushers force (the quarterback) to step up and me and Cam literally push that pocket with everything we have and continue to have a rotation of guys to do that," Tuitt said.
The Steelers haven't had a defensive end reach double digits in sacks since Keith Willis had 12 in 1986. Heyward could accomplish that. If he does, it would go a long way toward the Steelers finally figuring out a way to continue to win and, oh by the way, beat the Patriots.
"He knows when it’s time to joke and when it’s time to be serious," Hargrave said. "Any little thing, he knows. He tells me. He’s able to identify plays and what they’re trying to do to us. It’s always good because you know he really knows football. To have somebody that’s been around like that is big."