“Blitzburgh,” no more. So far this season, the Pittsburgh Steelers are taking an uncharacteristically passive approach on defense.

But will the Steelers’ lack of blitzing over the first three games of the season continue? Members of the defense are playing coy.

“That’s the really cool thing about being here,” edge rusher T.J. Watt said, “you never know what we’re going to do. We can blitz a lot. (Or) we don’t have to blitz a lot.

“We’ll see what we do this week.”

The first three weeks, the Steelers stylistically bared little resemblance to the philosophy they’ve deployed for the better part of three decades. Defining a blitz as sending more than four players on a pass rush, pro-football-reference.com shows only two teams have blitzed less than the Steelers this season (12.2% of defensive snaps).

That is a major departure from 2020, when the Steelers’ 40.3% blitz rate was third highest in the NFL. The Steelers blitzed 36.9% of snaps in 2019 (seventh-most in the NFL) and 38.7% in 2018 (second).

Metrics tracking such things aren’t readily available before that. But since 1992, under coordinators such as Dick LeBeau, the Steelers liked to bring the pressure.

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Present coordinator Keith Butler was a disciple under LeBeau for 11 years.

“We always try to do what’s best for our guys as much as we can,” Butler said this week. “Sometimes, you’ve gotta take chances. We’ve got to be smart about how we play. The structure (opposing offenses) give us, the formations they give us indicate certain things. We’ve just got to be more aware of those things it indicates.”

Asked straight-up if the Steelers still consider themselves a blitzing defense, Butler said: “Probably not as much as we did last year, if you’re looking at that stuff. We try different things. We try not to be predictable, but sometimes you have to be. You’ve gotta say, ‘To heck with it,’ and try to take away what they do best. That’s what you always try to do defensively.”

Perhaps the blueprint for the 2021 Steelers defensive strategy was laid in the opener, an upset win against the Buffalo Bills. The Bills were the NFL’s second-highest scoring offense last season, and they have averaged 39 points in the two games since. But Buffalo scored only 16 points that Sept. 12 afternoon during a game in which the Steelers blitzed only once (per pro-football-reference.com).

“It’s all a week-in and a week-out basis of what we do on defense.” Watt said of the gameplan.

Perhaps defining a “blitz” is in the eye of the beholder.

When the lack of blitzes was mentioned to defensive captain Cameron Heyward, the lineman chuckled.

“There’s blitzes,” he said, knowingly. “Whether it’s a blitz or false blitzes where you’re still just bringing four, there are different things we do. But you’ve got to be able to mix things up.”

The blitzing has picked up since the opener, with the Steelers sending more than four defenders after the quarterback 13 times over the past two games. Still, there were games as recently as 2020 when the Steelers blitzed twice that often.

And in reality, part of the Steelers’ pass rush strength in recent years wasn’t so much that they brought more pass rushers, it was that they would bring different passrushers.

The Steelers value their primary edge rushers to also be able to work in coverage. Watt, Alex Highsmith and the likes of Bud Dupree in recent years proved adept enough at covering tight ends or running backs when asked. That can free up inside linebackers or defensive backs to rush quarterbacks.

Two of the best at that for the Steelers at those positions as recently last season — inside linebacker Vince Williams and slot cornerback Mike Hilton — are gone. Perhaps that, in part, explains why Butler hasn’t been as eager to send more than edge rushers and defensive linemen after the passer.

“There are a lot of things we are doing differently,” inside linebacker Devin Bush said.

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