The Steelers Front Seven Arrived Angry And Departed With TJ Watt's 75th Sack And A Victory Over The Carolina Panthers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have the highest paid defense in the NFL. The unit has endured at best, an uneven season in 2022. The defense was spectacular in the season opener, middle of the pack without T.J. Watt and slightly above average with a less than 100% Watt since he returned to action. The Steelers were coming off an embarrassing loss to a one-dimensional Baltimore Ravens team with a backup quarterback that ran at will against them just a week ago.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (AP)

Week 15 was going to be a Herculean task according to prognosticators for a defense that was brutalized at home just a week before. An angry Pittsburgh front seven showed up in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sunday and shut down one of the league’s best rushing attacks in recent weeks. The combination of D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard had pulled the Carolina Panthers within one game of the division leading Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They had unique personnel packages that Pittsburgh wasn’t supposed to be able to handle, and the Steelers were a decided underdog going into the game.

The Steelers did more than slow the Panthers running attack. The Panthers were averaging nearly 200 yards rushing in their 5 wins. On Sunday, they rushed for 21 yards and they lost 24-16. The black and gold were constantly stuffing first down runs and the Steelers countered the unique blocking packages by using DeMarvin Leal as an extra lineman to counter the Panthers attack. Despite missing their leading tackler in Myles Jack, the combination of Devin Bush and Robert Spillane filled in admirably with Spillane leading the team in tackles with 7.

When the Panthers turned to the passing game, they were more successful. But on 26 drop backs, the Steelers rediscovered the one element that makes them a special unit. They sacked Sam Darnold 4 times and hit him on 6 other occasions. Nearly half of the passing plays resulted in pressure from the front seven and Watt had his first multiple sack game of the season. Watt also became the third fastest player in NFL history to reach 75 sacks. He trails only the Hall of Famer Reggie White and his brother J.J. Watt in the category. Which may come up in a telephone conversation between the two highly competitive brothers.

“It feels like the last couple years, we’ve kind of come out flat from halftime,” Watt said after the game. “It was a big emphasis to come out guns blazing after the half. I don’t know if we did that to the fullest potential, but it feels good about how we did it.”

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The defense was hurt by a pass interference penalty and bizarre taunting penalty that occurred when a marginal special teams player, Marcus Allen decided to run over and taunt the Panthers after a huge stop pushed them out of field goal range. In the second half, the Steelers allowed 6 points that could have easily been zero if they had avoided the costly infractions.

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The Steelers have plenty to build off from this performance. When the front seven completely takes away the run like they did today, Watt, Alex Highsmith and Cam Heyward become almost unblockable for an offense. Teams have to pick their poison; you can’t double team three pass rushers at the same time. Today’s performance is just a glimpse of what the trio could be capable of, although the clock on Heyward’s career is ticking.

What do you think, Steeler Nation? Does Sunday’s performance give you hope that a healthy front seven in 2023 is the quickest way back to the playoffs? Please comment below, or on my Twitter @thebubbasq.