Aren’t Mondays always better after a Steelers win?

You know they are! Especially following the kind of win our boys had last night!

The Steelers entered primetime with some weight on their shoulders from last week; I’m all but sure there was a little extra weight on the likes of the defense. They allowed 34 points to a rookie QB (Carson Wentz) and the Philadelphia Eagles. Not only that, but the pressure on the quarterbacks through three games was non-existent, registering one sack through three weeks.

That’s not good.

Leading up to this game, a lot of hype was made about the Chiefs offense.

Why?

Well, the Eagles first-year head coach Doug Pederson was the Chiefs offensive coordinator last season. The one thing that killed the Steelers defense a week earlier were screen plays and quick “dink and dunk” passes. If the Eagles carved up the Steelers defense with a rookie QB, surely the Chiefs would too. That style of offense is something that Alex Smith does extremely well.

While Pederson was the OC in KC in 2015, Andy Reid has always been the offensive playcaller. The drop off from Pederson leaving would be minimal; or so we thought. Obviously Alex Smith isn’t “elite,” but he’s excellent at executing Reid’s style of offense. This had a lot of us here at Steel City Underground a little worried. Especially since we knew Robert Golden and Ryan Shazier weren’t playing, and backup safety Sean Davis was likely out as well.

Despite all of the concerns on the defensive side of the ball, combined with the list of injuries, the Steelers defense were nearly flawless in this game.

Let’s take a look at made them so successful.

I think the first thing that made the Steelers defense have a great game, was wanting to avenged the performance they had in Philly: they wanted to come out and make a statement early.

And they certainly did.

As most of us know, the Steelers barely blitzed through the first three games. When I say barely, I mean it in every sense of the word. Steelers Defensive Coordinator Keith Butler has only been sending three or four players to pass rush while dropping the rest into coverage. This came as a surprise to a lot of us because our beloved Steelers are known for blitzing. Blitzing seemed to be successful last year, so why fix what isn’t broken?

My opinion is, since the Steelers were blown out in Philly, they changed it up a bit in this game.

You’re going to see the fruits of my labor on this article: I literally went through the coaches film and tallied every time the Steelers blitzed (i.ei. five or more players were sent to rush the QB).

According to my calculations, the Steelers blitzed 24 times out of a possible 75 plays; roughly 1/3 of the defensive snaps. I think this was one the major key as to why the defense was so successful. It threw Alex Smith and the Chiefs offense off rhythm, which was definitely needed for the type of offense that they were playing.

The defense also made a statement by being ballhawks and creating turnovers early. In the first quarter, Stephon Tuitt penetrates the offensive line and forces Chiefs RB Spencer Ware to fumble. The ball bounced to, and was quickly recovered by Ross Cockrell, for the first turnover of the night.

Still in the first quarter, Keith Butler dials up a blitz, which lead to the most memorable defensive play of the game. In this clip, Jordan Dangerfield comes unblocked, off the right side to force Alex Smith to throw early; an attempted screen. The pass was tipped by Cam Heyward, and picked off by Jarvis Jones, who returned it 20 yards to the Chiefs four-yard line.

The interception lead to a scoring play for Big Ben & company.

Of course, one question I had going into this was game was how the defense was going to do without Ryan Shazier. Well, have no fear, Vince Williams is here! Apparently Kevin Colbert knew what he was doing when he gave Vince Williams a three-year extension this year.

Vinnie Williams showed up in this game.

Filling in for Shazier, Williams tallied 15 total tackles, 13 solo, two assisted, and one sack: granted it wasn’t the most impressive sack, but it goes down as one statistically. The Steelers crowd the line of scrimmage, angling Javon Hargrave in the A gap and forcing a double team, as Butler dials up a 5 man rush. Cam Heyward manhandles his blocker, forcing Smith into the presence of Williams!

Did I mention Williams finished with the most tackles? Well, he did! Here’s one of those tackles, where Williams (top of the screen) lined up on the outside in an obvious mismatch against a wide receivers. The Chiefs stuck with the play call, and Williams blows up his blocker, nearly suplexing Tyreek Hill for a mere 1 yard gain.

Once again Williams would work in coverage to limit Hill to a 1 yard gain, as Jarvis Jones also drops into coverage, in what has become a familiar 3-man front manned (this time by Daniel McCullers, Hargrave, and Ricardo Mathews).

Tackling was an issue against Philadelphia, and short passes killed the Steelers a week earlier; so this is something that should make all of us in Steelers Nation very happy. Hats off to Vince Williams, and yes, Jarvis Jones as well, for a game well played… however, they were not the only ones to have a big game. Cam Heyward lead all Steelers with 3 sacks in this game, the most since Ray Seals in 1994.

The Steelers once again send five on this blitz, with Heyward easily beating his one-on-one matchup with Zach Fulton. (Note the tremendous job by the secondary, and Vince Williams watching Travis Kelce, who slips and falls as well.)

With an extra DB in the game, the Steelers only rush 4: Tuitt and Heyward line up in the B gaps, as Arthur Moats (left) and James Harrison (right) apply pressure from the edges. The Chiefs center never gets a block on anyone until it’s too late: Harrison crosses with Heyward, picking up a double team as Cam works his way to Alex Smith, who was pressured into his direction by Tuitt:

While there’s a lot to get excited about, I’m not going to get too excited about this defensive performance. I did that after the Bengals game, and look what happened the next week. I’ll temper my expectations, and just take this as it is.

Our boys had a great defensive performance.

Let’s hope they keep this up until they get the seventh Lombardi.

Film breakdown co-contributed by Joe Kuzma.