It's no secret one of the downfalls for the Steelers defense in 2018 was the fact they had just eight interceptions as a team and 15 turnovers overall.
That was just one more than the league's individual leaders -- the Falcons' Damontae Kazee, Bears' Kyle Fuller and Dolphins' Xavien Howard –– had last season. In fact, it was the fewest for the Steelers in the Super Bowl era.
Creating more turnovers has been a very visible point of emphasis in the first week of OTAs.
For example, Thursday, while the offense worked on red zone offense on one field, the defense was on the other working on a scramble drill.
What's a scramble drill? Seven defenders -- two or three linebackers and four or five defensive backs -- would drop into coverage as if defending an offense.
Then, assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach Marcel Pastoor -- who might have the best arm in the organization not named Ben Roethlisberger -- would fire a pass somewhere on the field. One of the defenders would intercept the pass and the entire unit would immediately head the other way, all the way to the opposite end zone.
"We've started doing that a lot. It’s about getting comfortable getting upfield after you make the interception," safety Terrell Edmunds told me. "People running through the ball. Not stopping and catching it. Because if there’s an offensive player there, you’ve got to run through them and get the ball."
Of course, you also have to do so without interfering with the offensive player. And therein lies the rub, especially with pass interference penalties now being something subject to replay review.
The catch is, however, nobody really knows for sure how the pass interference replay calls will be adjudicated. So the Steelers are working on getting to the ball quickly.
"It’s going to be tough, for sure. That’s another thing we’re putting an emphasis on, not grabbing, not touching," Edmunds said. "We’ve got to get that mentality that we’re playing with our feet, not our hands. We’ve got have our feet right."
The coaching staff can only hope things go as well this year as they did last with some of the coaching staff's points of emphasis. A year ago at this time, the staff was impressing on the defense that it needed to improve its communication, tackling and not allowing big plays.
The Steelers cut the big plays -- passes of 30 or more yards -- in half, from 14 to seven. Our Chris Carter had the team with 97 missed tackles in 2018, a marked improvement from the previous year. And once Artie Burns was out of the lineup, communication no longer seemed to be an issue.
Can you work on turnovers in the same fashion?
“I think you can work on it,” said Joe Haden, who led the team with two interceptions last season. “You can work on your catching ability. Some dudes are really good at creating turnovers in college, as far as ball searching, forcing fumbles and definitely creating picks. But once you get in the league, if you’re in position, as long as you have good hands and you can catch the ones that come to you, you can make it happen.”
That means extra time spent on drills such as the scramble drill the team worked on this week. And extra time catching balls before, after and during practice.
But you can only do so much. After all, Ike Taylor used to spend countless hours catching off the Jugs machine. It still only resulted in 14 career interceptions for the otherwise solid corner in his 12-year career with the Steelers.
If the Steelers want to improve their defense -- and on their nine-win season of a year ago -- getting more turnovers is a must.
The defense ranked sixth in the league in yards allowed in 2018 but was tied for 16th in points allowed, perhaps because of that lack of takeaways.
"Last year, we were top 10. This year, we want to be the best," Edmunds said. "We’re trying to make interceptions. Last year, we didn’t do what we wanted to, or what we were capable of. We want to come out here and catch more interceptions, have the ball in our hands. When the ball is on the ground, we’ve got to scoop it up. It’s going after the ball. We have to keep on having that mentality that we’ve got to have the ball when it is in the air."
DALE'S VIEW
The scramble drill is a good one because it develops a mentality. The defense turns to offense quickly.
Despite their overall lack of turnovers a year ago, the Steelers defense scored three times despite their lack of opportunities. That means they scored 20 percent of the time on their turnovers.
If they can improve their turnovers to, say, 20-plus this season, it will go a long way toward improving their win total.
There are certainly players who have the capability to take the ball away. New corner Steven Nelson had four interceptions for the Chiefs in 2018. Haden has 22 in his career. Free safety Sean Davis had three in 2017, while Edmunds picked off six passes in his final two seasons at Virginia Tech. And that's just the starters.