The Steelers have become a team synonymous with the blitz, so much so, in fact, the defenses of the '90s were known as Blitzburgh.
Mike Tomlin and his coaching staff have continued that pressure package, utilizing the blitz as much as, if not more than, most teams from year to year.
But the Steelers have taken that to another level in their first two games of the 2020 season.
While the Steelers sent at least one additional defender than the usual four quite often in previous seasons, they have blitzed 25 percent more thus far this season than they did in 2019, when they ranked seventh in the NFL in blitz percentage at 36.9 percent.
This season, that blitz percentage is at 61.7 percent, by far the highest in the NFL. The Dolphins are second at 47.5 percent, while the Ravens are third at 47.1.
The Steelers have taken their blitzing to another level in 2020. But don't read too much into that, according to Tomlin.
"A two-game body of work is not reflective of personality or intentions," Tomlin said Tuesday as the Steelers began preparations to host the Texans (0-2) at Heinz Field Sunday. "I think that will be revealed over time in terms of our personality, especially in terms of last year. It's just not a large enough sample size. We've done what we've needed to do in the last two games to secure a victory. We'll continue with that and, over time, our personality for 2020 will be revealed."
It would be tough to blame Tomlin if he didn't back off the throttle a little on the team's blitzing.
Through two games, the Steelers have 10 sacks and four takeaways. They lead the NFL in quarterback hits with 27, pressures with 40 and tackles for a loss with 22.
This coming after a season in which they led the NFL in sacks for a third consecutive year with 54 -- the first time in NFL history a team has had three consecutive seasons with 50 or more sacks -- and quarterback hits with 118.
They're on pace this year to blow all their pass rushing numbers away.
"We love to blitz. Week in, week out, year in, year out, we blitz," said T.J. Watt, who led the Steelers with 2.5 sacks against the Broncos, giving him 37 in 49 career games.
They certainly have the players with which to do so. Watt is among the best players in the league at his position, as is defensive tackle Cam Heyward, who has been voted All-Pro in two of the past three seasons. Add in outside linebacker Bud Dupree and defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt and a resurgent Tyson Alualu, and it might be the NFL's most dangerous front.
But the Steelers also have no qualms about bringing people other than those players, regardless of the situation. Nickel corner Mike Hilton has two sacks in the first two games. Strong safety Terrell Edmunds made a game-saving sack on a fourth-down blitz against the Broncos.
"We're capable of really bringing anybody except the field corner," Tomlin said after the win over the Broncos. "That's kind of our philosophical approach. We're a blitz group. It's tough to bring the field corner because of the distance he plays from, but anybody else is capable of coming and that's just the code we live by."
The aggressiveness can come, however, with a price. The Steelers have given up a big play in the passing game in each of the first two weeks. And they lead the league with five pass interference penalties -- including four against the Broncos -- after having just 15 all of last season. Tomlin said he'll bring officials back to practices -- something he's typically done, but got away from this year because of the pandemic -- to help quell that.
This week's opponent, the Texans, should provide more opportunities to add to their sack totals.
Talented quarterback Deshaun Watson has been sacked four times in each of Houston's first two games -- losses to the Chiefs and Ravens -- and leads the NFL in sacks against with eight. That's nothing new for Watson, however. In 2018, he was sacked a league-high 62 times. Watson, who likes to scramble around behind the line of scrimmage looking to throw, has been sacked 133 times in 40 career games.
The Steelers had 7-sack game by the Steelers against in a 34-6 win over the Texans on Christmas Day in 2017 in Houston, the last time the two teams met. Hilton had three of those sacks against on blitzes.
Watson has more experience now, and certainly more experience than the three quarterbacks the Steelers have faced in their first two games -- the Giants' Daniel Jones and the Broncos' Drew Lock and Jeff Driskel -- but that might not mean the Steelers start to slow down their blitzing.
Or will it?
"Watson himself is going to be a ridiculous challenge, not only in terms of his quarterbacking abilities and his arm talent, but his ability to improvise and extend plays, his leadership skills," Tomlin said. "He's battle tested. We're facing a group that's a little bit different from the first two teams we've faced from a quarterbacking standpoint, not only in terms of what he's capable of, but his experience but what they expect from him. That's dramatically different from our first two games."
