Wins are always important (Captain Obvious statement).

Especially wins against AFC teams.

More important than that, wins are extra important when the rest of the teams in your division lose. (Plus, Monday’s are always better after a Steelers win.)

The Steelers were, yet again, without defensive play caller Ryan Shazier, and Robert Golden, but that didn’t stop the defense from holding the Jets offense to only 13 points.

Yeah, okay, they did play a Jets offense led by Ryan Fitzpatrick, but the Steelers D have lost to worse quarterbacks before, with worse receivers.

Now let’s go ahead and take a look at what made the Steelers defense successful on Sunday.

The Steelers have given Ross Cockrell the duty of shadowing the top receivers in the NFL, and that didn’t stop this week. Cockrell had the duty of shadowing Brandon Marshall, which is no easy task. Although Marshall had eight receptions for 114 yards and one TD, Cockrell didn’t play too bad against him.

He had a bad pass interference play, but if you watched the game early on, Cockrell, as well as S Mike Mitchell, were petitioning the referees for push-offs by Marshall. On this play, Marshall sticks his hand in to push off again, and Cockrell gets nabbed with a pass interference call as a result.

That was a really bad break for Cockrell. Not only was he defending the push-off, he got trapped into the penalty… which wasn’t accepted, because the Jets declined in favor of the “catch” (which if you saw the replay on TV, wasn’t a catch).

Another “oops!” that I’d like to point out (and I’m sure everyone else saw this as well) was in the 2nd quarter. Cockrell was covering Marshall in the end zone. Cockrell had great coverage and seemed that he was going to intercept the pass intended for Marshall, but it bounced off his hands and fell into Marshall’s lap.

Touchdown.

Those are the breaks.

To counter a negative play with a positive play: in the first quarter, Cockrell had a real nice pass breakup on Marshall. It was one of 3 PBU’s he had in the game.

PFF didn’t like Ross’ play this week; say what you will, but I thought Cockrell held his own in this game.

There are a few more Steelers defenders that are having quietly great seasons.

One of them is Vince Williams.

The man filling in for the injured Ryan Shazier, racked up nine total tackles (eight solo, one assisted) and one sack. It speaks volumes that this Steelers defense are playing this well without some key starters. Vince Williams is just the beginning of it.

Keith Butler threw many different looks at the Jets offense, which had some positive and negative effects.

Williams comes off the edge in this play, while Javon Hargrave runs a stunt around Arthur Moats. The pressure forced a poor pass by Fitzpatrick, resulting in the defense getting off the field on 3rd and 2.

On another play which opened the 2nd quarter, Sean Davis was at the line of scrimmage. The Jets overloaded their right side of the offensive line with blockers, while Fitzpatrick handed it off to Matt Forte, and a gigantic hole opened up. This led to a 28 yard gain for Forte.

Now, I’m not placing the blame on Davis, I’m just communicating that there were quite a few defenders on the Jets left side. Credit to the Jets blockers for opening such a big hole.

It may be too early to tell, but it seems that Davis might be the type of safety that doesn’t play in the box very often, or at all, and that’s okay. Some safeties can play great in the box, others can’t.

Davis made a pretty quiet, but notable play in the third quarter. The Jets ran a shotgun draw play with Bilal Powell and Forte in the backfield. Powell took the hand off for a seven yard gain, but it easily could’ve been 10 or 12: Davis came in and limited the run to seven.

On the next play, Forte took a hand off, but didn’t go anywhere. Vince Williams and Jordan Dangerfield made an excellent play to hold Forte to no gain. Yet again, the ‘next man up’ mentality is being undertaken by this Steelers team. Dangerfield was a guy that many people didn’t think would even make the practice squad, but he did that and has been doing more. I feel a lot better about our depth in key areas than I did last year.

Another quiet surprise has been Anthony Chickillo, who forced a strip sack in this game.

Arthur Moats also got in on the fun in this play, where James Harrison was blatantly held (flag was thrown) forcing Fitzpatrick to move up into the pocket, into the waiting arms of Moats, and fellow linebacker Lawrence Timmons, for the sack.

Overall I thought our defense played pretty dang well, considering the injuries they’ve had to fight through.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I’ve been very impressed with the guys that have stepped up in the absence of starters.

Next up: the Miami Dolphins, who have struggled on offense, with their quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, giving up 7 interceptions (to 6 touchdowns) and 17 sacks in 5 games. We’ll see if the Steelers can main “the standard” heading into Sunday’s game.