Lost in the discussion over Ryan Shazier and the no-huddle offense has been the road paved over the Pittsburgh Steelers defense by opposing running attacks. It may be only the preseason but the Steelers rushing defense has surrendered 171 yards to the Giants and another 150 yards to the Bills.
Take away Rashad Jennings’ 73 yard TD run and the Steelers still gave up nearly 100 yards to the G-Men. Dick LeBeau and his defensive staff will tell you that it’s still early and that the defense is still coming together.
OK, that’s fine but as Mike Tomlin says, “you are what you’re record says you are.” In this case, the record says the run defense stinks.
What’s really concerning is that we saw some of this coming last season as the run defense was gashed more than we’d seen in a long time. We can point to many things for that including Steve McLendon’s ups and downs and the loss of Larry Foote or the decline of Brett Keisel but it was what it was.
We know McLendon and defensive Cameron Hewyard are back but can newly acquired Cam Thomas or rookie Stephon Tuitt get the job done routinely enough?
I try to preach patience as often as I can when it comes to the Steelers and I’ll do the same here but only because there will be at least one new starter on the D-Line and one in the linebacking unit. That patience only goes so far though because the opposition won’t be patient at all in cramming down the Steelers’ collective pie hole.
I believe Shazier will make a difference because of his speed and as a result I think that Lawrence Timmons will be better as well. The only concern I have with Shazier and stopping the run is can he get off blocks? If he proves that he can then great, if he can’t consistently do this however, then it’s going to be a long year for the defense when it comes to stopping the run.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio
Photo courtesy Rantsports.com
2 comments
Well the fans asked for him to come back and the fans got what they wanted: The Diesel Brett Kiesel is back on the DL for the Steelers. My question is how does this affect the Defensive roster as far as spots go?
Well, I just put an article out on this. The rotation is going to be very interesting because that unit has been hashed for over 300 yards rushing in two games.