The Pittsburgh Steelers are no strangers to having to be carried by a strong defense. Even throughout the 1980s and 90s, the team would have to rely on its stars on the defensive side to step up so the franchise could win without scoring 20 or more points. They even carried Neil O'Donnell to a Super Bowl appearance, which they ended up losing to the Dallas Cowboys. Throughout that rough stretch of seasons, the defense would regularly get frustrated with the offense, and they would even sometimes let them know about it.
Super Bowl XXX Book / Erich Schlegel
Legendary Cowboys quarterback Troy Aikman fires a pass before Pittsburgh Steelers' Greg Lloyd can react.
Greg Lloyd was one of those kinds of players. He was not happy with the state of the offense throughout his time in Pittsburgh. He spoke about those frustrations while making an appearance on Conversations with a Legend with LaVarr Arrington.
"The mentality was [that] defensive guys were getting on offensive guys and telling offensive guys 'Y'all get y'all's sh** together,' or, like me, I would tell Dermontti [Dawson] and them. Dermontti and them would go out on the field, and they would get a fumble or something like that, and they'd be coming off the field. Dermontti is one of the nicest [people] in the world. You can't out-nice Dermontti. He'd be walking off the field going 'Oh, brother, Greg. We're going to get that back.' I turned around and looked at him and said 'I'm glad y'all fumbled because didn't nobody come to watch y'all a** anyways. They come to watch us.'"
Of course, the stars of the team were always the ones that had the highest jersey sales, so Pittsburgh was likely full of fans wearing a defensive player's number while walking around town. With many of the legends of the Steel Curtain being gone by then, the Steelers had to rebuild the team. They built the defense back up, but they could never find consistency on the offensive side of the ball. It was just a pain to watch on all accounts, especially for the Steelers' own defense.
George Gojkovich / Getty Images
Steelers Kevin Greene and Greg Lloyd were the best pair of outside linebackers in the 3-4 defense.
Steelers Tried To Lighten The Defense's Workload
The Steelers still routinely won more than they lost, but that is never enough for Steeler Nation. The team would spend all kinds of money and draft capital to find players that could give the offense the jolt that they need. Near the end of Lloyd's legendary tenure in Pittsburgh, the Steelers even experimented with the drafting a Swiss-army-knife that could play both quarterback and receiver at the NFL level.
While the offense did improve in Lloyd's final years in the league, it was never enough until long after he retired. He was an afterthought by the time the Steelers finally had everything they needed to go on a deep run and eventually win more Super Bowls. The 2000s Steelers had a dynamic offense to go with a defense that could shut anyone down and would even create their own offense if needed.
Al Bello
Steelers linebacker James Harrison returns an interception for touchdown against the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII, which is still considered one of the best plays in the history of the big game.
The modern-day Steelers are stuck in this level too. The defense has to do most of the heavy lifting while the offense regularly scores less than 20 points to get to their wins. In fact, in Week 2 of 2023, the Steelers had two defensive touchdowns and maned to go the entire fourth quarter with negative yardage in a key win against a divisional opponent. History has been repeating itself for the Steelers, and everyone is waiting for the day that the offense can stabilize like it did in 2004.
What do you think about Greg Lloyd regularly talking trash to his own teammates for struggling on the field, as well as the current state of the Steelers? Would those kinds of insults fly with today's team? Let us know in the comments.
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