Steelers vs. Chargers: Did the Steelers save their season?
By Eric Hassel
The Steelers first-round pick continues to impress and to help to improve the defense
The Steelers defense improved to the 15th best defense in the NFL through six games with their performance against the Chargers Sunday night. Heading into the bye week, the defense is allowing an average of 354.3 total yards per game, of which 244.2 yards per game are being surrendered via the aerial attack and 110.2 yards per game are being given up via the run game.
The above-mentioned stats place the ‘D’ at 15th best and 17th best, according to the official website of the NFL. To illustrate these rankings, The defense gave up 316 yards through the air but held the Chargers run game to just 32 yards.
To be fair, with a 24-0 lead in the 3rd quarter, the Steelers defense played more of the ‘don’t get beat over the top’ coverage than the ‘let’s be aggressive’ coverage because we playing with such a sizable lead. Personally, I am not in favor of playing ‘soft coverage’ with a lead, but I understand it was necessary to get out of Los Angeles with a victory.
While it was a team effort on defense that earned the Steelers a much-deserved second win, Devin Bush, our first-round pick in 2019 just continues to improve his game and continues to impress with said improvement. On the Chargers’ second possession, Bush picked up a backward pass and ran into the endzone to give the Steelers a 7-0 lead. You can watch it here: Bush scoop and score.
What was interesting about that play is that Bush seemed to hesitate for a second, but maybe realized it was a backward pass and, thus, a fumble which could have been advanced. Bush was credited with one fumble recovery, one interception, and four tackles. If his play continues to improve, which I believe it will, Bush may find himself in the discussion for Defensive Rookie of the Year.
The Steelers ‘D’ picked off two passes and racked up one sack, which now gives them 8 INTs on the season, which is good enough for 3rd best in the NFL and brings the sack total to 20, which, ironically, puts the defense at 3rd best in that category. I think it fair to say the ‘D’ has been playing really well through six games.
Let’s turn our attention to the Steelers offense.