Within the Seventies, the Pittsburgh Steelers assembled one of many best defenses of all time. The Metal Curtain helped them win 4 Tremendous Bowls, and since then, the Steelers’ tradition has been tied to their protection. Once they’ve been most profitable, the Steelers have had nice defenses. Ben Roethlisberger supplied them with some spectacular offenses, however even then, he understands what town of Pittsburgh desires to see in its soccer crew.
“The Steelers have virtually at all times been, ‘Let’s discover a solution to get a protection,’” Roethlisberger mentioned not too long ago on his podcast. “I’ve informed any operating again or rookie that is available in right here, ‘The Pittsburgh Steelers will at all times be about protection and a operating again. Settle for it.’
“I’ve no drawback with that. I attempted to evangelise that to [Najee Harris], James Conner, who clearly knew from being round right here that that’s what it’s about. And that’s nice. Irrespective of once we had been the flying excessive offense, the Killer B’s, we had been a top-scoring offense within the league, and we had been placing up all these factors and all these numbers, it was nonetheless concerning the protection. That’s what everybody desires.”
Roethlisberger isn’t mistaken. In the course of the 2010s, he performed a few of his finest soccer. The Steelers’ offense was loaded with expertise, together with Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, Maurkice Pouncey, and David DeCastro. Nonetheless, they by no means acquired to a Tremendous Bowl.
A lot of the story surrounding them was how putrid their protection was. Over the previous few years, the highlight has as soon as once more been on the Steelers’ protection. Nonetheless, throughout the Killer B’s period, that unit struggled. That they had good gamers, like Cam Heyward, Stephon Tuitt, and Ryan Shazier, however they couldn’t put all of the items collectively.
One in every of their greatest points was their secondary. After franchise stalwarts like Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor, and Ryan Clark left Pittsburgh, the Steelers had a troublesome time changing them. William Homosexual was a positive participant, however the remainder of the items in Pittsburgh’s secondary left a lot to be desired.
With Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh had a quarterback that might elevate their passing sport. It was wiser for them to not be so run-centric on offense. Nonetheless, since he retired following the 2021 season, the Steelers have returned to their outdated method. They wish to be a run-first offense, successful largely because of their protection smothering opponents.
Sadly, recreating that method hasn’t been simple. At this time’s NFL is extra of a passing league. It’s not typically that you simply see sub-par quarterbacks making deep playoff runs because of a stellar protection and high quality run sport.
Additionally, Roethlisberger shouldn’t promote the significance of offense in Pittsburgh quick. Currently, the story with the Steelers has been their lack of ability to search out his successor beneath middle. Whereas the Steelers’ protection normally attracts probably the most consideration, they haven’t gained championships with out a franchise quarterback. Roethlisberger and Terry Bradshaw had been simply as essential to Pittsburgh’s Tremendous Bowl wins as their defenses.
