Defense delivers in clutch
ST. LOUIS – There haven’t been many times in recent years in which Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin has felt comfortable having his defense on the field at the end of a game.
But that’s the situation Tomlin found himself in Sunday during Pittsburgh’s 12-6 victory over the St. Louis Rams.
With starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger out after suffering a knee injury in the third quarter, and the Steelers clinging to a 9-3 lead, Tomlin didn’t have much choice.
“I can’t say enough about the effort of all the men in that locker room,” said Tomlin. “It takes a collective effort to win a grimy game like that. It feels good to play good defense.”
It’s a feeling Tomlin hasn’t felt much of late.
The Steelers finished 18th last season in both overall and scoring defense. The pass defense was even worse, ranking 27th. And none of those numbers did justice to just how bad the Steelers were on defense.
But after limiting San Francisco to three points in the first three quarters last week in a 43-18 victory, the Steelers put together a four-quarter defensive effort against the Rams.
They allowed St. Louis just 12 first downs and 258 total yards and kept the Rams out of the end zone.
More importantly, with the game on the line, they made big plays.
They made a red-zone stop in the fourth quarter, keeping the Rams out of the end zone while clinging to a 9-3 lead.
Linebacker Sean Spence, starting in place of injured Ryan Shazier, knifed through the line to take down running back Tre Mason for a 2-yard loss on first down.
Two false start penalties and an incompletion later, Rams quarterback Nick Foles was forced to scramble on third down rather make a throw into the end zone because everyone was well covered.
The Rams settled for a field goal.
Foles went for a big play on St. Louis’ next possession and safety Will Allen stepped in front of the errant pass, intercepting it and returning it 20 yards to set up a field goal.
It was the first interception by a Steelers safety since Troy Polamalu made the final interception of his career Dec. 15, 2013 against Cincinnati and it came at a big time.
“We had to rally together,” said Allen, a 12-year-veteran. “We understood we had to step up and make a play and that’s what we did.”
On St. Louis’ final possession, cornerback Antwon Blake broke up a pass – originally ruled a catch it was overturned on review – intended for Kenny Britt, to get the Steelers off the field one last time.
The Rams, who scored 34 points in a win over Seattle at home two weeks ago, scored six points on nine possessions.
“We’re a pretty good defense,” said safety Mike Mitchell. “We’re not where we want to be. But we held that team to six points. That’s a team that put up a lot of points on a Seattle defense that is very talented. To hold them to six at their place, it shows some grit.”
It’s going to take more of that if Roethlisberger is out for an extended period.
“We’ve got to step up as a defense and make more plays for our offense, and give them a short field so they don’t have to go all the way down,” said linebacker Lawrence Timmons. “Give them half a field, or a third of the field, so we can win these games.”
At least for one game, the Steelers defense showed that it has that capability, something many questioned in previous weeks.
“We made strides,” said defensive end Cameron Heyward. “I’m not going to say major strides, but strides. We’ve still got a long way to go to get to where we want to be.”