The Pittsburgh Steelers’ pass rush has reached the point where the criticism is no longer aimed only at the edge. Ray Fittipaldo said earlier this week that the interior pass rush is nonexistent, and he added that the defense is not pushing the pocket at all.
That matters now because the Steelers head into Sunday’s meeting with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers carrying a pressure problem that has shown up over five games. Against the Indianapolis Colts, they managed one sack, and Cam Heyward, 37, produced it late in the game. It was the kind of late flash that can cover for a night, but not for a month.
The numbers behind that game explain why the conversation has sharpened. Daniel Jones got the ball out in 2.74 seconds on average, which left the Steelers little time to make the rush count. When the throw comes that quickly, the back end and the front stop functioning as separate units. The defense has to win faster, and through five games it has not done that consistently enough.
That is where the injuries matter. Derrick Harmon was hurt against the Cleveland Browns in Week 4 and is now on IR, and the loss has cut into a rotation that needed more juice inside. Keeanu Benton has shown flashes, but he has zero sacks, which leaves Heyward carrying more of the burden than Pittsburgh would prefer at this stage of the season.
There is, though, a competing view inside the larger discussion. Patrick Graham has brushed the concern aside by saying pressure comes in waves and bunches. That idea can hold for a stretch, but it does not match what the Steelers have put on film. When the pocket is collapsing late, the offense is already comfortable. When the pocket is not collapsing at all, the defense is asking its secondary to survive longer than it should.
That is the real problem for Pittsburgh. The defense has long been built to squeeze quarterbacks into mistakes, yet the margin is thinner now because the back end has been hit by injuries and opposing teams are getting the ball out quickly. Tampa Bay has protected its quarterback well this season, so the Steelers will need more than one veteran stopgap from Heyward. They need Benton, and the rest of the interior, to start turning flashes into pressure before the next opening appears.
