The Steelers defense has been excellent of late. They just need a little more more one particular area.
In terms of overall EPA (Expected Points Added), the Steelers defense went from 21st during the first eight weeks of the year to sixth from Week 9 on. For the year, Pittsburgh’s defense gives up just 4.0 yards per play -- fourth best in the league -- and just 3.8 yards per play allowed over their most recent three games.
The Steelers' defense leads the NFL in interceptions, yet is last in fumble recoveries. Since losing to Cincinnati, the Steelers have given up just 75 total points. Even with an improving offense that remains a work in progress, the Steelers should win a high percentage of their games when giving up just 15 points per game, as they have over their last five.
The Steelers' run defense had a very rough patch over six quarters though: The second half of the game in Atlanta, and pretty much start to finish against the Ravens, giving up 215 yards on the ground in that contest.
But since losing to Baltimore, the Steelers defense held a Panthers team that ran for 320 yards last week to a measly 21 yards on the ground in Week 15. The game before the Steelers faced Carolina, the Panthers racked up 223 rushing yards in Seattle. So Carolina has 564 rushing yards over the past three weeks, but only 21 of those came against the Steelers.
The Steelers also held the NFL’s leading rusher, Josh Jacobs, to just 2.9 per carry -- his lowest of the season. Las Vegas ran for 58 yards on Saturday night. The Raiders only had two plays of 15 or more yards and after their opening drive, averaged just 3.3 yards per play against the Steelers' defense.
That is all great news. And the stalwarts of this defense -- Cam Heyward, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Alex Highsmith -- have been tremendous as T.J. Watt continues to get back to speed. The cornerback play as a whole has improved, Damontae Kazee have stepped up in a big way, and here are my thoughts on Terrell Edmunds, who did miss last week’s game.
Here is an example of Heyward just dominating the Raiders interior offensive line -- as he did all night, disposing of his blocker very quickly and sacking Derek Carr. Heyward was the best player on the field on either side of the ball in this big win by the Steelers on Saturday night.
But what about the inside linebackers? Have the true off-the-ball ‘backers been an asset? Not to rain on the defensive parade, but the short answer is "No."
The trio of Myles Jack, Devin Bush and Robert Spillane have been fine overall. “Fine” might even be a little kind considering this is a position that is best set up to make splash plays. In a Steelers uniform, Jack has played 664 of a possible 948 snaps, missing two full games. Bush has played 649 defensive plays and Spillane is now up to 472 total plays after not missing a single snap over the past two weeks.
Jack has zero sacks, zero forced fumbles, zero fumble recoveries and zero interceptions. Bush’s stat line in these splash play categories is exactly the same as Jack’s. As for Spillane, his stat line is also identical with zeros across the board with the exception of one sack, which came all the way back in Week 1. Jack and Spillane each have three tackles for loss. Bush has two.
That’s not going to cut it.
Last week, Spillane played all 63 defensive snaps while Bush and Jack played 21 and 16 snaps, respectively. This is the second straight week that Spillane has played 100% of the defensive snaps and the third time during the 2022 season. He is the only player at this position to play 100% of the snaps more than once this year. On third and fourth downs, Jack never saw the field and Bush was used just 16.7% of those plays.
Spillane is taking over. And that is terrifying. Sure, Spillane plays hard. He plays downhill. He is considered an excellent communicator and has pretty much been the Steelers dime linebacker (when they have just one true linebacker on the field with six defensive backs) for the entire season. In the dime, Spillane most often hung in a short middle zone or blitzed. That was, well, fine.
But, Spillane is a liability overall. He is a very limited athlete and is a real problem in space. He doesn’t change directions well and lacks explosive physical traits. At training camp in Latrobe, if one of the Steelers quarterbacks needed an easy completion in practice, they just threw the ball Spillane’s way. Several of the Steelers opponents this year have taken the same approach, but it is shocking that Spillane isn’t targeted with even more regularity.
And yes, I do remember the big hit Spillane laid on Derrick Henry:
But, how many big plays has he made since?
When profiling Jack, a big concern going back to when he came out of UCLA was his knee condition. Is that a recent limiting factor for Jack’s playing time? It could be, but as his stats prove, Jack’s stint with the Steelers has been anything but overwhelming.
And while Bush has certainly improved from his putrid 2021 season, he is proving week after week that he isn’t an impact player against the run or pass. Jack and Bush have been, well, fine.
Mark Robinson is intriguing. There is no question about that. This guy is an explosive athlete and can fly around the football field. He has been active for one game this year but played just seven defensive snaps against Carolina. Those seven snaps were memorable, as was his preseason performance.
Robinson really shows up. However, he shows up negatively as much as he does in a positive manner. It wasn’t long ago that Robinson was a running back and that lack of linebacker experience shows up time and time again. Maybe he gets back on the field if and when the Steelers get eliminated, but Robinson is a player for next year. And maybe he can actually provide some splash.
On Tuesday, the Steelers did sign Tae Crowder off the Giants' practice squad and sent Marcus Allen to injured reserve. Maybe Crowder will get a little run and he has played some for New York, but he is jumping on a moving train at this point of the season and shouldn’t be counted on for the final two regular season games of the season.
The Steelers' defense is playing very well. They aren’t going to make big changes right now. But, let’s not credit this group of linebackers for that turnaround. And, there is a real chance that the answers on the second level of the defense are not currently on the roster.
