Nov 24, 2018 6 min read

The talk of the NFL was last Monday night’s 54-51 win by the Rams over the Chiefs. Is this the kind of game the NFL wants?

In many ways, yes.

The league wants high-scoring games that get fans talking. It wants to stem the tide of lower viewership, which it has. Viewership last week was up nearly 10 percent from 2017 in an era when TV viewership as a whole is down.

But is it good for the game?

It certainly had people talking, which is never a bad thing when they’re talking about the play that took place on the football field instead of something that happened off it.

Some said, however, that it showed defense is dead in the league. But that wasn’t the case. There were a number of big defensive plays in that game. In fact, there were more defensive plays in that game than were made in last season’s Super Bowl.

But it was proof that it’s getting more and more difficult to play good pass defense. That’s what makes the Steelers’ play in their past five games so impressive.

In a league where it’s nearly impossible to play good pass defense, the Steelers have limited their past five opponents to 158.8 yards passing per game. This after giving up an average of 296.2 yards passing per game in their first five games.

Their opponents have not been as daunting in the past five games as they were in the first five. But they have shut down former MVP Cam Newton, former Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco and a Cincinnati passing game that features Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Green.

Buffalo currently leads the league in pass defense, allowing 202 yards per game. The Steelers have been nearly 50 yards better than that in their past five games.

What has changed?

More solid play in the secondary has coincided with the insertion of Coty Sensabaugh into the lineup in place of Artie Burns, with whom he had previously been rotating at cornerback opposite Joe Haden.

“I feel like that kind of just settled everyone in,” nickel cornerback Mike Hilton said. “That let everyone know who the guy was at that position. It kind of settled us in as a secondary. We knew who to communicate with. It’s a lot of different things that have played into how we’ve performed.”

Pass rush would certainly be part of that. The Steelers enter Week 12 leading the NFL with 37 sacks. But they led the NFL in sacks last season. And it didn’t add up to pass defense this good.

A big part of that has been after allowing 13 pass plays of 40 or more yards last season, the Steelers have given up just four this season. Opponents are completing just 32.9 percent (24 of 73) of their deep passing attempts (15-plus yards) this season, the lowest rate in the league.

And the Steelers have limited opposing wide receivers to just 8.3 yards per catch in their past five games. Not running backs. Not tight ends. Receivers.

Can that work against teams such as the Rams or Chiefs? Well, the Steelers will play the Patriots and Saints in the coming weeks, so we’ll get a chance to find out.

But it’s been a pretty good run.

• On the subject of pretty good runs, how about Ben Roethlisberger’s game-winner last week at Jacksonville?

That completed a 16-point comeback in the final 18 minutes that was the largest second-half deficit overcome by Roethlisberger in his career.

How good was Roethlisberger in the comeback?

Prior to Jacksonville taking a 16-0 lead late in the third quarter on a Leonard Fournette touchdown run, Roethlisberger had an atrocious 11.2 passer rating. After that touchdown, he posted a passer rating of 132.2. Take out his spike to stop the clock on the play before his 1-yard touchdown run and that climbs to 137.8.

• The Jaguars were taunting Roethlisberger after each of his three interceptions earlier in the game.

They were pretty quiet afterward.

“You think he didn’t want to run that touchdown in himself?” guard Ramon Foster said. “Absolutely he did. But that’s what you get when you have a quarterback like that. When you have a guy like that, you want to have him on your side. That’s what we’ve been saying for years. I’ll put him up against anybody and he’s more than likely going to win.”

This week’s picks

Steelers minus-3 over Broncos: The Steelers haven’t had a lot of success over the years in Denver, going 5-12-1 there, but this team is pretty locked in, regardless of where it is playing. The Steelers are 15-1-1 in their past 17 road games. The Broncos have been competitive in losses to the Chiefs (twice), Rams and Texans, and have split with the Chargers. But they also have been blown out by the Ravens and Jets. It won’t be easy, but the Steelers should win this, 24-17.

Cincinnati minus-3 over Cleveland: The Browns haven’t won a road game since the 2015 season and are one loss away from matching the league record for longest road losing streak. They’re the exact opposite of the Steelers. The Bengals also should get Green back after missing the past two games with a toe injury. That should be enough for the Bengals to pull out a 26-21 victory.

Ravens minus 10 ½ over Raiders: This is the kind of game the Ravens usually feast on with their defense. It’s at home. It’s a bad opponent. And it could be a huge game by rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson. The Ravens might run for 300 yards in this game in a 34-6 victory.

Vikings minus 3 over Packers: This is a big rivalry game, but the Packers haven’t traveled well this season. Green Bay is 0-5 away from Lambeau Field. A loss would pretty much eliminate the Packers from playoff contention, something the Vikings would love to accomplish. They do that in a 27-23 victory.

Titans plus 6 ½ at Texans: The Titans were blown out last week in Indianapolis, but they’re a better team than that. And the Texans, winners of seven consecutive games, haven’t been blowing opponents out. They’ve been sneaking by. This promises to be a defensive battle, so take the points. The Texans will win, 17-13, but they won’t cover.

Dale Lolley covers the Steelers for DKPittsburghSports.com and writes a Sunday column for the Observer-Reporter.