That was the first line that appeared in this space the day the Steelers opened their season. Your humble correspondent pointed out that, while so much of the preseason talk was about the Steelers' offensive line and whether it can do a better job of protecting Ben Roethlisberger without Alan Faneca at left guard, the defense was just as much a question mark, and its ability to keep the Steelers in games was dependent upon how many games Troy Polamalu and Aaron Smith played.
It was pointed out that Smith and Polmalu played in 11 games last season and suggested that, if they combined for less than 28 games played in 2008, the Steelers won't make it to the postseason.
Both Smith and Polamlau played their 11th games Thursday night against the Bengals.
Have you noticed the Steelers' defense seems to be doing OK?
Nobody has been able to run on the Steelers' defense and it leads the league in every significant category. It's the best defense in the league.
Smith plays a major role in stopping the run and in allowing the Steelers' outside linebackers to harass quarterbacks. Polamalu is a maniac who has the potential to make a game-breaking play on every snap. There is no way the Steelers' defense would be playing as well if either missed significant playing time. Without them, the Steelers wouldn't be leading the AFC North.
Things get much more difficult for the Steelers the next five weeks, at least on paper. They play three of their next five games on the road, with games in New England, Baltimore and Tennessee.
The Patriots are next on Nov. 30. Matt Cassel has played better than a lot of people expected since taking over for Tom Brady at quarterback, but he hasn't seen anything like the Steelers' defense. Neither has Tony Romo, who comes to Pittsburgh with the Cowboys on Dec. 7. After that it's the Ravens in Baltimore. Joe Flacco has had a pretty good year for a rookie, but nobody should expect him to have anything but an extremely rough day on Dec. 14.
Tennessee is undefeated despite having Kerry Collins starting at quarterback. Collins is the kind of quarterback that the Steelers' defense loves to torture. The Browns will be thinking about what beach they're going to be visiting on Dec. 29 when they come in to close out the season Dec. 28.
The Steelers should win at least three of their last five games. That would make them 11-5 and a possible No. 2 seed for the playoffs. Of course, their offense will have to play better than it played against the Bengals. If it doesn't, disregard what you just read.
n Marvin Lewis was given lots of credit for having the guts to deactivate Chad Ocho Cinco (I can't believe I typed that) before Thursday's game.
Fine.
But I'll have to take most of the credit back because of his decision to kick a field goal on third-and-goal at the eight-yard line to make the score 20-10 with six minutes left in the game. I would have fired him after the game. Getting three points in that situation wasn't better than going for the touchdown and failing. At least in that scenario, the Steelers would have been inside their 10. Chances are they would have played it conservatively and given the Bengals a good chance of forcing a three-and-out.
I would rather be behind 20-7 with the ball near midfield after a punt than behind 20-10 and kicking off. I also would rather have a head coach who doesn't signal to my team that he's giving up with more than six minutes to go.
n The best news for the Penguins is that both Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby are on pace to score about 25 goals. Guess what? They're both going to score a lot more than 25 goals, which means they both have a lot of goals to score in the next 60 games, which means lots of wins for the Penguins.
n Remember when everybody used to talk about how difficult it was for kickers at Heinz Field? Jeff Reed seems to have quieted that conversation. He's become as automatic as Gary Anderson, and that's saying something.
n Ken Whisenhunt's performance with the Arizona Cardinals has left open the question of whether the Steelers made the right decision when they let him go and hired Mike Tomlin to be their head coach. That's not to say that Tomlin hasn't looked like a great choice. It's just that it's too early to say that he was a better choice than Whisenhunt.
n I had planned to predict that when the Steelers played the Patriots in December, Cassel would have better stats than Ben Roethlisberger, but I forgot.
John Steigerwald hosts a nightly talk show on KDKA Radio and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.