The Steelers best defense is their offense
Ball control. That’s going to be the key to the Steelers extending their season deep into the playoffs. After a phenomenal performance by the black and gold offense against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football, a 39-38 victory, led by Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and the latest ‘Killer B’, Chris Boswell, it has become even more apparent to me that the best defense this team has, is its offense.
Over the course of the second half of the season, the Steelers defense has regressed, they’ve been exposed at times and they’ve been susceptible to the big plays. That is a formula for disaster.
The Baltimore Ravens, who have had very little offensive success this season, dropped 38 points on the now porous black and gold defense. Sadly, without their all-world linebacker, Ryan Shazier, this team is very capable of allowing both big run plays along with big pass plays. Arthur Moates and Sean Spence cannot make up for the loss of Shazier, nor should anyone expect them to, but it does spell trouble for this team.
The linebacking corps is now weakened, badly, with the loss of their biggest playmaker. Shazier was a game changer, much like Troy Polamalu in his prime and he leaves a void that it appears nobody can fill.
That, however, is not the primary issue on this defensive unit. The secondary is weak, even weaker without Joe Haden out there. Time will tell when he returns but I doubt we’ll see him this week against New England. I like Artie Burns and the upside that he has but he’s not showing me that he’s a number one corner yet. Coty Sensabaugh looks downright awful filling in for Haden and I don’t even know where to begin on Sean Davis, whom I’m souring on quickly. This unit gets burned on the regular by guys like Brett Hundley and Jacoby Brissett. Tom Brady doesn’t just burn this team when he plays them, he torches them and brings the whole thing down.
I fear that if the Steelers don’t control the ball and the clock along with it, keeping Brady off the field and other opposing offenses in the playoffs, the San Diego Chargers, whom I think are going to make it in, come to mind, then they could be in for the 39-38 type of games that make everyone watching sweat until the end.
It’s all fine and good when the Steelers eek out a victory, as they did on Sunday night. But how many times can Ben throw for 500 yards? How many times can Brown go over 200? They shouldn’t have to drop nearly 40 points to win, especially against a dismal Ravens offense. But they had to on this night and that may continue down the stretch without Shazier.
The offense must control the clock, this week in particular, to keep guys like Brady off the field. The Patriots offense always finds your weakness and in this case, the Steelers now have two layers of weakness. The middle linebacker position is a mess and the secondary is just plain bad.
Yet, the offense is as good as it gets and can score with anyone. The key, however, is scoring enough points while keeping the other guys off the field. Enter Bell, the man in charge of controlling the tempo of the game. If the Steelers can give him the ball enough times for him to move the sticks and take time off the clock, I think they’ll have a better opportunity for long-term success. It would be fantastic to see the black and gold dropping 40 points a game but when you go up against a team like the Patriots or potentially the Chargers, if you’re scoring 40, they’re probably right there with you, making it a game of who has the ball last.
The best defense in these big games, from here on out, is the offense. Control the clock, maintain possession and put up points after a methodical, time-consuming drive.
