When the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense has struggled this season, the main culprit has usually been stopping the run. After surrendering a staggering 139.3 rushing yards per game over the first three weeks, the unit has (mostly) steadied itself. Derrick Harmon discussed the turnaround of the run defense Friday on 102.5 WDVE’s Morning Show with Randy Baumann.
“We know near the beginning half of the season, we didn’t like our run defense and we had to change some things quickly just to get back on the road to where we’re trying to go,” Harmon said. “I feel like we’ve done that in a short amount of games. But this [Bengals] game is big, ’cause like you said, [Chase Brown] had a game last game and it’s our job to stop him from having one this one.”
About the supposed turnaround of the run defense, one of the changes Harmon might be referring to is his increasing involvement along the defensive line. He missed the first two games of the season and played less than half of the total defensive snaps in his first couple weeks before playing just shy of 60 percent since then.
They also ramped up Daniel Ekuale’s involvement at nose tackle to spell the struggling Keeanu Benton until Ekuale suffered a season-ending knee injury. Now that has shifted to more snaps for rookie Yahya Black.
It’s reasonable to expect the defensive line to improve as those two rookies become more accustomed to the NFL game, but there is also the risk of them hitting the rookie wall in December after playing 15 or 16 games. In Harmon’s case, he at least faced the rigors of 14 games with Oregon in the College Football Playoffs last year.
In recent weeks, with a new safety tandem on the back end of the Steelers’ defense, Harmon credited “a lot simpler” play calls for allowing them to play fast and free. While they technically allowed over 100 rushing yards against the Chargers, it wasn’t what ultimately did them in. The offense and special teams turned the ball over three times, and the defense was on the field for 69 snaps. And even then they only allowed 3.7 yards per carry.
The biggest anomaly in the trend since the run defense got its act together in Week 4 was the last Cincinnati Bengals game in Week 7. They entered the game with a historically bad rushing attack and exited with a 147-yard team rushing performance.
With their hands full against Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, the Steelers can’t allow Chase Brown to have a repeat performance.
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