Steelers Defense Shined, Season-Shaping Play, Pittsburgh West
By Kim Myers
The Steelers offseason started with some surprises and certainly doesn’t look to be a boring one in the next few months. While the Steelers prepare for free agency and coaching moves, we’ll be busy looking around for mentions of your Black & Gold so we’ve got you covered. Here’s your Steelers Morning Huddle for Thursday, Jan. 15th.
More from Steelers News
- Steelers news: Rashard Mendenhall calls out Big Ben, Brian Flores interviews for HC job, and more
- Steelers play it safe in recent 2023 NFL mock draft
- Kenny Pickett gets his guy in latest Steelers mock draft with trades
- Steelers face potentially dark reality if Matt Canada doesn’t pan out
- Senior Bowl sleepers the Steelers must have on their radar
Here are 5 times the Steelers defense didn’t suck last year
Always the optimist, Mike Prisuta brings us five instances for the 2014 season where the Steelers defense stood strong and made game-changing plays instead of blowing late leads or allowing big plays. I kid, I’m not completely down on the defense and they did make some good contributions this year, particularly one of the instances Prisuta cites during the final weeks of the season against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Steelers defense brought back memories of the defenses of old that day, blitzing the quarterback like crazy, forcing turnovers, and not allowing the Chiefs to get into the endzone. That game clinched the Steelers spot in the post-season and it was definitely thanks to the defensive performance put on by the Steelers that day.
Season-shaping plays
ESPN’s Scott Brown is doing a series of looks at plays that he says shaped the Steelers 2014 season. He starts off with the season-opener at Heinz Field against the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers were up 17-3 on the Browns halfway through the second quarter when Le’Veon Bell took off for a 38-yard touchdown run. Brown states that play was the setup for the season Bell ended up having in which he finished as the leading rusher in the AFC and was voted the Steelers team MVP. It should be interesting to see which other plays Brown selects as those which shaped the Steeler season.
They’re at it again
This could be complete speculation but Conor Orr from Around the NFL says that now former Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau could be reuniting with another former Steelers coordinator by going out west to join Bruce Arians’ staff in Arizona. Not that all of the players the Cardinals have scooped up have been exactly “rejects” and I certainly wouldn’t put LeBeau in that category but isn’t Arizona starting to look like the NFL’s version of the Island of Misfit Toys from Rudolph?