Steelers leading NFL in forced fumbles
CINCINNATI — The Pittsburgh Steelers induced a fumble on the opening kickoff Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium. They got another on the next possession and an unofficial one in the third quarter (overturned by a penalty) before going for the kill shot with two game-sealing fumble recoveries in the fourth quarter.
The team pulled off a veritable superfecta of forced fumbles during a 16-10 win — getting them from a quarterback, running back, wide receiver and a kick returner. And it’s not a stretch to say the final two — the only ones the Steelers recovered — are among the biggest reasons they left town with a victory.
“If we’d won this turnover battle,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said, “I feel confident that we would’ve won the game.”
They didn’t, and it was just the latest example of the Steelers’ ball-stripping ways. The Steelers lead the NFL in forced fumbles with 25 in 11 games. Their 14 recoveries of opponent fumbles is tied for the league lead with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Steelers have forced at least one fumble in nine of their past 10 games, and it’s probably not a coincidence they lost the only one of those games in which they did not strip a ball.
“We are that much more now trying to make big splash plays for our offense,” linebacker Bud Dupree said, “so we are going for the ball a lot more now — not just trying to get sacks, but get ‘6’ (points) for ourselves.”
Dupree’s strip sack of Bengals quarterback Ryan Finley with 2 minutes, 38 seconds to play Sunday all but clinched the Steelers’ victory. The Steelers’ other outside linebacker, T.J. Watt, had a strip sack of his own during the first quarter (the Bengals recovered it).
That was Watt’s 11th forced fumble over his past 23 games, the most in the NFL over that time. Watt has four forced fumbles in his past five games. Dupree has two in his past four games.
Dupree said he and Watt narrowly missed an additional strip sack each during the first half Sunday.
“We’re just focusing more on strip sacks,” Dupree said.
“We’ve got to make that happen. We’ve got to do that. We’ve got to go for the ball. We can’t be selfish just getting sacks for ourselves. We’ve got to do it for the team.”
The dip. The rip. The finish. @Bud_Dupree with the textbook strip-sack. ?#HereWeGo
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Dupree was referring to a struggling offense that is without its starting quarterback for the season and was without its No. 1 running back and No. 1 wide receiver against the Bengals.
The Steelers are No. 2 in the AFC in scoring defense but are third from the bottom in scoring offense. Defensive players are embracing this challenge, and it’s showing in turnovers. The Steelers’ 28 takeaways are the most the team has had through 11 games in 22 years.
Half have been interceptions, and eight of the fumble recoveries have come over the past six games.
Led by Watt (five) and Dupree (three), nine Steelers have forced at least one fumble. Seven defenders have recovered a fumble, and 12 have forced fumble and/or a fumble recovery.
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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