The Pittsburgh Steelers defense did okay today. Other than the free points they gave the Broncos, they played a solid game. They had 7 sacks and one interception by Joe Haden. Mike Hilton led the team with 8 tackles also adding a sack to the stat sheet. The defense doing what they did today made the game easy for Ben Roethlisberger who is still acclimating back to the field after missing the 2019 season. The defense once again created some early turnovers and had pressure on the Quarterback Drew Lock and Jeff Driskel all game. However, Driskel did make us look pretty terrible after the second half. It was looking like we weren't going to pull it off for awhile.
All this is expected from a defense expecting to be one of the best in the league. I can tell you now, I expect the Steelers lead the league in sacks this year and expect another MVP like season from TJ Watt. He looks unstoppable out there. Not to mention, Bud Dupree is going to earn himself a huge payday with his play.
Some negatives coming from the defense were some of the sloppy penalties coming from Joe Haden and Minkah Fitzpatrick. Both still good players, but they kept the defense on the field on some crucial third-down plays. Giving up easy touchdown to Noah Fant and the two-point conversions were quite easy plays for the offense. That was a complete mismatch expecting Devin Bush to be able to cover the athletic tight end by himself. Keith Butler really set him up for failure there with the offense getting 8 points on the drive. Terrell Edmunds also had a big play on fourth down to put the Broncos on ice on fourth down.
Another solid unit this game was the Steelers special teams’ unit specifically highlighting Chase Claypool getting three special teams tackles. Another good thing that happened was the late safety against Sam Martin who got decked that play after a dropped ball.
My defensive player of the game would have to be T.J. Watt getting to the quarterback consistently and getting 2.5 sacks and 4 combined tackles. Another great performance was from Mike Hilton with 8 tackles and 1 sack on the game as mentioned above.