The Pittsburgh Steelers only defeated the New Orleans Saints by six in Week 7, but you wouldn't have guessed that by looking at the box score. The Steelers dominated the Saints in the trenches on both sides of the ball, rushing for 148 yards on 30 carries while limiting New Orleans to just 18 yards on 17 carries.
If that sounds like an elite day for the run defense to you, you would be correct. Prior to this game, the only defense that allowed that little on the ground this season was the Falcons in Week 3 against the Packers, but they only faced nine rushing attempts and allowed 17 yards. If you factor in the number of carries Pittsburgh faced, the dominance of their performance is clear.
According to Stathead Football, since the AFL/NFL merger (1970), there have been only 24 games where a team faced at least 17 carries and allowed 18 yards or less. Well, 25 after the Steelers just did it Sunday in Paris.
The Pittsburgh Steelers dominated the Saints rushing attack in historic fashion in Week 7
Despite Pittsburgh's long and storied history when it comes to defense, this is the first time they have played this level of run defense since the NFL merger. None of the previous 24 games that meet this criteria were accomplished by Steelers teams, not even the Steel Curtain era defenses.
It's not like the Saints came into this week with the NFL's worst run game, either. They were roughly an average running team in terms of production ( 18th in rushing yards with 584) and expected points added (16th) per rush attempt at -0.07, according to Sumer Sports. They aren't the Chiefs or the Bills, but they aren't the Packers, either.
What makes it even more surprising for this version of the Steelers defense to accomplish this kind of outing is the injuries up front. Two of the Steelers' best interior run defenders, Derrick Harmon and Sebastian Joseph-Day, are both on Injured Reserve currently. That meant that players like Yahya Black, rookie Gabriel Rubio, and the usually easily moved Keeanu Benton had to step up big time, and boy did they.
Linebackers Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson also deserve a ton of credit, as they played perhaps their best overall game as a duo this week. Even if the pass defense continues to be hit-or-miss, being able to defend the run at even close to this level consistently will make scoring points against the Steelers extremely difficult.
Add us as a preferred source on Google