Steely McBeam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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The Steelers remained in the playoff race into the final weeks of the regular season despite on offense that ranked near the bottom of the league.
Offensive struggles were a result of playing almost the entire year with Mason Rudolph and Devlin Hodges at quarterback, so most of the credit the team’s ability to hang around has to go to a defense that ranked fifth in both yards and points allowed. That doesn’t mean that the team can’t do more on that side of the ball.
Linebacker T.J. Watt said the Steelers “didn’t shut teams out and control the game defensively” while safety Terrell Edmunds sees the need to go from good to great for the unit to reach its full power.
“We never did anything great, spectacular,” Edmunds said, via Mark Kaboly of TheAthletic.com. “We did a whole lot of good things, we made some good plays, but we didn’t make too many great plays even though we had the stats. I guess this is something that we can work on this offseason and something we have to build off of and be able to take that next step. We are doing a lot of good things, but not a lot of things great and that’s what we want to do.”
Whatever it means they’re labeled good, great or something else, there’s little doubt that better offensive play would help the defense in 2020. Playing with a lead is always good for a pass rush, the chances of balls getting picked off by defensive backs and other potential backbreakers for opposing teams.