The late, great Craig Wolfley will be honored today before the Steelers' home opener at Acrisure Stadium as the Steelers attempt to get back to fundamentals against the Seattle Seahawks.
Defensively.
The offense wasn't a problem in beating the New York Jets, 34-32, in the opener last week. Aaron Rodgers threw 4 touchdown passes, in spite of missing two weeks of OTAs!
Yes, that was the panic in Pittsburgh last spring as the 41-year-old QB contemplated his next career move. Meanwhile, the defense worked hard in the spring in the high hope of erasing the taste in its collective mouth from the bludgeoning administered by the Baltimore Ravens in the last playoffs.
Guess that hard work didn't mean much, because the defense was once again bludgeoned between the tackles in allowing 32 points against the Jets last week. And for that there is justifiable panic in Pittsburgh.
It was the run defense last January, and it's the run defense once again. In their last two games, the Steelers have allowed 481 yards rushing at 5.4 per carry. Extrapolated over 17 games, you have soft, softer, softest.
Are they soft?
That formed the gist of the questions put to Mike Tomlin this week.
"I didn't think we whipped enough blocks and made enough tackles, specifically," Tomlin said. "Those are fundamental things."
And so the Steelers went back to basics this week. Too bad we don't have Wolfley to tell his story about the Seahawks and getting back to basics in 1981. I'll try to paraphrase:
After a three-point loss in Seattle, a game in which a Franco Harris touchdown catch off a screen pass was called back because Wolf was a step too far downfield, the Steelers' left guard was in the shower complaining to Steelers right tackle Tunch Ilkin about their coach, Chuck Noll, and his post-game speech in which Noll promised they would be going "back to basics" the ensuing week in practice.
That meant training camp all over again for the pair of second-year offensive linemen, which meant hell on earth from a scorned Noll. As Wolfley complained about "back to basics" to Ilkin in the shower, as Wolfley closed his eyes and rinsed soap out of his hair and off his face, Ilkin tried to give him the heads-up that he should keep quiet. Wolf finally noticed Tunch subtley shaking his head and turned to see Noll showering next to him. Noll nodded and Wolfley said, "Going back to basics. Good idea, Coach."
The Steelers got back to basics that week and won their next game. They even won the following week by 22 at Cleveland, and then the next week they shut out the Rams. The '81 Steelers unraveled down the stretch, but going back to basics helped them through a key stretch. Will it help them now?
Let's dig deeper into that question with more specific questions:
* Are the Steelers running the right scheme with a pack of hybrids brought here to either rush the passer or defend the pass?
"We certainly can do some more things schematically to help the guys, and will. But that's an easier endeavor once we gain more experience collectively and some continuity in that space," said Tomlin.
My guess is that means they'll be able to play more press man with their deep group of talented cornerbacks and thus concentrate on stopping the run.
Without Joey Porter Jr. this week, Brandin Echols steps in as the No. 3 cornerback behind Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay. The Seahawks counter with a two-man passing game of QB Sam Darnold and WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who was targeted on 13 of Darnold's 22 throws in a loss last week at home to the 49ers. The third-year pro out of Ohio State caught 9 of those throws for 124 yards, or more than half of the Seahawks' 230 yards of total offense.
Sounds like a job for Ramsey.
Are the Steelers' experienced enough collectively for such a simple game plan? Even though Ramsey missed all of spring practice, the Steelers should be able to handle that game plan, especially at home.
* The Ravens didn't even have a go-to WR. Their most targeted WR was Anthony Miller, whom the Steelers had once cut. The Jets targeted one WR, Garrett Wilson, on 9 of their 14 throws to WRs. Still, that didn't help the Steelers up front. Are they just too soft, even with nine in the box?
"It was not the same thing," Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said of the Ravens and Jets games. "It wasn't that. It was just some things where I didn't think we got knocked around. I just thought we missed some opportunities, and so I didn't feel that way. I know how I felt coming off that field at Baltimore last year, and I didn't feel the same this year. I feel good with our group. I feel good that they'll rebound and we'll play better moving forward."
* OK, let's get more specific. The Steelers allowed 4.2 per carry the year before Joel Steed became their nose tackle; they allowed 4.3 and then 4.0 per carry the two years before Casey Hampton became their nose tackle; they allowed 3.8 per carry the final year Javon Hargrave played nose tackle, before the recent seasons in which they've allowed 4.3, 5.0, 4.2, 4.3, and last year 4.1 with combinations of Isaiah Buggs, 35-year-old Tyson Alualu, Montravius Adams, and third-year second-round pick Keeanu Benton playing nose tackle.
Is Benton, at an un-Steed/Hampton/Hargrave-like 6-4, 309, a true nose tackle?
"He's a big strong guy. He's a wrestler," said Austin. "That's what he played in college, so he's got a lot of familiarity there. We like the fact that he gives us some flexibility to play out as a 4i and do those things. We just like him. We like the flexibility."
The problem, it seems, is that quest for flexibility.
"The nose tackle before," Austin said, "was just, 'Hey, I'm a 2-gap guy. I'm going to sit in here and I'm going to kill people and keep guys off my backers.' But now with so much 11 personnel and three-WR, that same guy has to be able to play as a 3-technique sometimes, a 2-technique. He's got to play different things. I think the flexibility that you're looking for now in a nose tackle is probably a little different than you did 10, 15 years ago."
But can't a 0-technique NT come off the bench when the other team is not using three WRs?
"You could," Austin said, "but then it's the same thing in terms of amount of snaps. If you're going to play 80 percent of your game in nickel because they're in 11 personnel and then you have a guy that could be your starting nose tackle that's going to play maybe 10 snaps a game, is that worth it? We may need it at another position. I think sometimes that always goes into the big picture that sometimes guys don't see, that we may want to have that guy up, but we can't have him up because we may have added injury, we need another special teams guy, we need another defensive back, we need another receiver, whoever it may be. Because of the lack of snaps, somebody else has to absorb it, so you can't keep that specialized guy up sometimes."
I can't buy that answer. They kept nine defensive linemen for an alignment that uses only 2-3 DL per snap. Only one of those nine is a true run-plugger, and he - rookie fifth-round pick Yahya Black - should be expected to play more this week.
Still, Cam Heyward promises that Benton will become that guy.
"He's very similar to how Javon Hargrave used to play," Heyward said. "Not always the biggest stature, but can get to a spot quick. He's gonna be a great player. I have no doubt in my mind that he's gonna be a nose we can depend on, and he can also rush the passer. So having that type of flexibility at that position is key."
It was just a stinker, said Austin.
You take your lumps, said Heyward.
They responded in the weighty moments, said Tomlin.
All true. But in the name of Craig Wolfley rinsing soap off his head, the Steelers need to bounce back. Otherwise, having a legit QB this season will certainly go to waste.
"Physically, we could be a lot better," said Heyward. "Being accountable, too. If you have to be in the B gap, you got to be in the B gap. It doesn't matter that you're getting doubled. That means somebody else is free. When we've been at our best, it's multiple guys either defeating their blocks or just maintaining their gaps."
"Sometimes you've just got to get out and beat a block, get off a block and win," said Austin.
And that's the simple truth. It's about time we see it again.
Breece Hall gained 107 yards on 19 carries against the Steelers last week (Photo: Wendell Cruz, USA TODAY Sports)