3 days after joining Steelers, Kyle Dugger plays virtually every snap as defense shines

He officially joined the Pittsburgh Steelers just three days prior. But after his debut with the team, Kyle Dugger already was sounding like a player who had been with the organization — and the coach closely identified with it — for a long time.

“The standard,” Dugger said Sunday, “is the standard.”

For Dugger, the meaning in those five words go back far before his trade from the New England Patriots to the Steelers this week. “The standard is the standard” is a phrase that has been ubiquitous around Steelers headquarters since the arrival of coach Mike Tomlin, so much so that it adorns the entrance to the team’s locker room at Acrisure Stadium. Dugger approached his frenzied week as if he had work to do to uphold the standard as one of the last lines of defense on what had become a beleaguered Steelers unit.

Dugger’s quick assimilation into the defense — he played virtually the entire game at safety — was part of an impressive team effort in a 27-20 victory against the AFC-leading Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.

“Can’t say enough about Kyle Dugger,” said Tomlin, who had, just moments prior, presented Dugger with a game ball.

“This guy got on a moving train, man, and played a lot of defense for us today. And we needed it. We were really short at the safety position. … We were running super thin. And that dude came in here and gave us some quality work. And we’re certainly appreciative of that.”

The reeling defense had taken a beating in national and local media over the past week after the Steelers lost their second consecutive game. Reinforcements were needed in the secondary, and that was before veteran safeties Jabrill Peppers (quadriceps) and Chuck Clark (illness) became unavailable to face the Colts, the team that entered leading the NFL in points and yards gained per game.

A six-year veteran, Dugger officially was acquired Thursday. He practiced hours later and then again Friday.

“He fit in well,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “The guy was in meetings all week — early and after — just trying to catch up on the defense. And then he goes out there, he’s communicating all over the field, talking, just like anybody (who’d been with the team for a while) would.

“I’m definitely happy to have him. He’s a hell of a player. We all know that. And once he really gets the speed on it, I can see him making a lot more plays”

The stat sheet credited Dugger with four tackles (one solo). But Dugger must get some of the credit for limiting the powerful Colts offense.

Whereas the pre-Dugger Steelers defense has allowed eight passing plays of 25 or more yards over the previous two games, Indianapolis delivered only one play of more than 18 yards until the fourth quarter, when the Colts were down three scores and the defense took a more passive approach.

“I think it had everything to do with my coaches … and my teammates,” Dugger said of his smooth Steelers debut. “They were kind of making things like the terminology (sound familiar), as far as like what I used to play and just kind of matching it up for me and simplifying it in meetings and then communicating on the field in practice.

“Every (practice) rep counted, and just putting a ton of work and talking to them every play and things like that. It made it simple for me.”

Still, integrating into a defense on such short notice is anything but simple. Consider how part of the justification for the Steelers’ porous passing defense this season has been that several of its members joined the organization in (for example) March, June, August and September.

For Dugger, it was late October.

“I give him a lot of credit, coming in here and playing the way he did,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “As a professional, that’s hard to do.

“I felt like the (defensive teammates) kind of just brought him in and said, ‘You’re our guy, so go out there and just be yourself and have fun.’ But it is not easy to do that at all. And I give him a lot of credit as a professional, and I’m glad he’s with us.”