Steelers vow to get back to 'the standard' of stopping the run on defense

New year, new challenges for the Pittsburgh Steelers defense?

Not so fast, says defensive line coach Karl Dunbar.

While the Steelers theoretically will start with a clean slate when training camp opens Tuesday, Dunbar believes it wouldn’t be productive to ignore the fact the defense gave up the most rushing yards in the NFL last season.

So as much as he wants to look ahead to the fresh start provided by a new season, he can’t ignore the issue that plagued the defense for most of 2021.

“The team has turned the page, but I haven’t,” Dunbar said during minicamp in June. “Giving up the yardage we gave up last year probably was a first in my career.”

Dunbar has spent more than three decades in football as a player or coach, and in the 55 years he has lived, the Steelers never have permitted more rushing yards than they did in 2021.

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The 2,483 yards allowed represented just the second time in the Super Bowl era the Steelers gave up more than 2,000 in a season. Opponents averaged 146.1 yards per game, also a high against a Steelers defense in the Super Bowl era.

“We left a lot out there,” said Teryl Austin, who was promoted to defensive coordinator in the offseason.

The last time a Steelers defense surrendered more rushing yards per game was 1965, when Mike Nixon’s 2-12 team gave up 2,080 — an average of 148.6. The record acknowledged by the team media guide is the 2,193 yards permitted — a 182.8 average — in the 12-game 1954 season. However, in the franchise’s second year of existence, the 1934 Pittsburgh Pirates allowed 2,569 yards — a 214-yard average — per profootballreference.com.

For a team that once boasted the Steel Curtain, the 2021 performance was unacceptable. In four of the final nine games of the regular season, the Steelers gave up 200 yards, and the Cincinnati Bengals nearly became the fifth with a 198-yard performance.

The Minnesota Vikings put up 242 yards against the Steelers in December, and the Baltimore Ravens topped it with 249 in the season finale.

“The standard is not last year,” said linebackers coach Jerry Olsavsky, who was a rookie in 1989 when the Steelers allowed 2,008 yards. “The standard is years previous, a top-10 run defense — that’s the standard.”

The Steelers were a top-10 run defense in 2020 — they tied for 10th and allowed 111.4 yards per game — but bottomed out last year with the absence of Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu for all but five quarters of the season.

Alualu is back, but Tuitt’s retirement left another void that the Steelers hope will be filled by former Cleveland Browns and Bengals lineman Larry Ogunjobi, who signed as a free agent last month. The Steelers also brought in Myles Jack to replace Joe Schobert at inside linebacker and are counting on inside linebacker Devin Bush to regain the speed and playmaking ability that made him a top-10 draft pick.

Steelers 2022 training camp positional breakdowns

• Offense
• Defense
• Specialists

On the coaching staff, the Steelers promoted Austin to replace retired coordinator Keith Butler and then hired former Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores to work with the linebackers.

“There were just too many big runs,” Austin said last month. “We are just going to concentrate on our technique and make sure we have guys in the right place, getting off blocks and tackling better. I think that’s always a big issue.”

The Steelers led the NFL in sacks for the fifth consecutive year in 2022, and the emphasis on dropping the quarterback may have come at the expense of stopping the run, Dunbar said.

“This is a game where you have to disrupt the quarterback,” he said. “If you do that, you do a lot. For pride, you want to stop the run, but if you can disrupt the quarterback and get him off his target, get him on the ground, that is basically what this league has turned into.

“It’s give and take.”

Still, the Steelers never hemorrhaged so many rushing yards in the other seasons they led the NFL in sacks. They ranked 10th or higher in three of the previous four seasons, topping out at No. 6 against the run in 2017. In the most recent year the Steelers didn’t crack the top 10, they were ranked No. 14 in 2019.

It was so bad for the Steelers last year that free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick led the team in tackles because so many ball carriers broke through the first two levels of the defense. The Steelers retained cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon and signed free agent Levi Wallace. If the secondary can provide quality pass coverage, the front seven can take care of the run game issues.

“I think that obviously we will do whatever coverage it is that helps you limit those big plays,” Austin said. “I think part of it with us is that it starts with stopping the run. Because if you don’t stop the run, then there are all kind of things that open up for play-action passes because you have to cheat things. In terms of stopping the run, that will help eliminate some of the big plays regardless of the coverage that you might have to play.”