Teamwork makes the dream work, or in this case, it's the nightmare the Steelers' run defense has been for opponents in 2020.
The Steelers are coming off facing two of the NFL's top rushing offenses in the Browns, who ranked first in the NFL before the Steelers beat them 38-7 at Heinz Field, and the Titans who ranked fifth in the NFL before Sunday's 27-24 Steelers win at Nissan Stadium.
The Titans and Browns had a combined average of 78.5 yards per game against the Steelers, taking 45 rushes for only 157 yards. That's an average of less than 3.5 yards per attempt. Both teams average more than 140 rushing yards per game on the season, meaning the Steelers cut in half the bread and butter of two of the NFL's best rushing offenses.
The Steelers' allowed 68.8 rushing yards per game, second best in the NFL behind the Buccaneers' 66 yards per game, comes with them facing several high draft pick or big name running backs in Saquon Barkely, Melvin Gordon, Miles Sanders, David Johnson, Kareem Hunt, and now the NFL's leading rusher in Derrick Henry with 663 yards.
The key to the Steelers' success is how each player along their defensive front contributes with physical and detailed work. From stars like T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward to role players like Vince Williams and Tyson Alualu, this defense makes an offense earn every single yard on the ground with an attentive attack that accounts for every gap.
It starts with the defense consistently taking away the point of attack for most rushing plays. Here's a weak zone run by Henry where the Titans are trying to let him pick the hole to run on the backside of the defense. Watt destroys the entire play with a simple swim move to the inside gap of Dennis Kelly, stuffing Henry in the backfield:
One phrase you hear every defensive coach say from the NFL to peewee football is, "change the line of scrimmage." That's when a defensive line wins so many of its battles up front that the opposing offensive line is effectively pushed back, taking away space for the quarterback and running backs to work.
Those battles are won by the defensive line, where Stephon Tuitt and Cam Heyward usually dominate their spots. Even if the defensive line doesn't make the tackles themselves, those victories lead to the linebackers being clean of any offensive linemen so that they can make the tackles.
That system is firing on all cylinders for the Steelers as Watt and Williams each have twelve tackles for loss through six games. That means they are tied for the most in the NFL with the Eagles' Brandon Graham being the next closest with nine over seven games.
But don't forget about Tyson Alualu, the team's nose tackle that has 16 tackles despite only playing 170 snaps of the team's 365 over six games. That means he's only on the field 46.6 percent of the time the Steelers' defense is out there. His biggest contributions don't come on tackles, but when he changes the line of scrimmage to open up opportunities for others.
Watch how he drives center Ben Jones half the way back to Pittsburgh on this run play. Him being so far into the Titans' backfield forces Henry to dodge him, adjusting the run play and allowing Williams and rookie Alex Highsmith to collapse on him and stuff the play:
Not to be overlooked is how aggressive Highsmith's pursuit is on the back end of the run. Every time the Titans to ran to the left or the right, a Steelers edge rusher would fly from the opposite end and close down on the play.
Plenty of times that was Watt or Bud Dupree, but to see the rookie doing that in just his sixth game in the NFL means he's adjusting well to even the most menial of duties in a defensive scheme.
Good for Highsmith, great for the team.
That theme is reciprocated across all position groups on defense and down the depth chart. Even when teams scheme to neutralize the Steelers' best defenders, other players step up to fill in and still make a play against the run.
I slowed this next play down so you could see every millisecond of how the defense dissects this run. Notice who the Titans focus on blocking in this run play; there are three--and count them, three!--double teams on Heyward on the left, Tuitt in the middle and on Watt on the right.
That's four offensive linemen and two tight ends accounting for three Steelers defenders. That leaves Williams clean and free to charge through A-gap and bring down Henry for no gain:
But also go back and look at who was coming to help even if Williams somehow missed Henry in the hole. It's the secondary with Cameron Sutton blowing up receiver Adam Humphries in the hole, Joe Haden coming down to account for the edge and Minkah Fitzpatrick coming to help in C-gap even if the Titans somehow hold up blocking Watt.
Teamwork.
Even on the play where Robert Spillane delivered his massive hit on Henry in the hole on a 3rd and goal from the one, teamwork was involved to set that up.
Look at the right tackle in Kelly and how he falls to the ground at the start of the play. That's because he charged so hard at Tuitt and missed as Tuitt was even quicker off the ball, dodging Kelly and slapping his hands to the ground where his momentum follows.
That lets the team's backup linebacker, making his first NFL start, focus on stopping the NFL's leading rusher in the hole. And he does so with authority:
This Steelers team does so many things very well. The facts that it's eleventh in rushing offense, sixth in scoring, second in rushing defense, sixth in passing defense and seventh in scoring defense, all help balance this team to give them so many ways to pull out wins as maybe the most balanced team in the NFL.
That's why the Steelers are the last undefeated team in the league and sit on top of the AFC at 6-0.
But the most dominant part of the team is how stout this defense is against the run. Now they prepare to face the NFL's newly ranked top rushing offense in the league with the Ravens, who average 164.3 yards per game.
The Ravens style of running is very different from that of the Browns and the Titans. Particularly because of the reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, who leads the Ravens with 346 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 50 carries.
Plenty of those carries aren't by design, as Jackson doesn't hesitate to take off during a pass play if he sees an open lane. That requires a slightly different style of gap integrity from the Steelers, but one that they've used before, and been successful deploying against Jackson.
Jackson's only career start against the Steelers came last year when he ran for 70 yards on 14 carries while throwing for 161 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. The Steelers' defense contained Jackson most of the game to keep him from breaking open a big lead against Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges.
Part of that was the aggressive approach of the Steelers' defensive front. Here's a sack recorded by Williams in a setup that didn't even involve Bush. The Steelers use Heyward and Tuitt to stunt to the left and allow Williams to twist behind them. But notice how the group attacks the pocket by keeping their heads up. Every single player is accounting for a gap as Watt and Dupree keep Jackson from running outside either direction:
Pulling that off for an entire game would be a great display, and maybe even the greatest display we've seen this year from the Steelers, of teamwork. Jackson may not be on a statistical tear like he was last year, but he's still dangerous on any play if a gap isn't accounted for by even a single defender.
If the Steelers can prove to be the ultimate run defense against a speedy ground game like the Ravens with Jackson after dominating the power run games of the Browns and the Titans, it would be the ultimate sign to the NFL that nobody should plan on running against them for the rest of the season.
Buckle up for another five star matchup there.