Injuries part of problem for defense
his second consecutive game with a hamstring injury and Ryan Shazier making it back in a part-time role Sunday after missing two games with a knee injury, the defense allowed 140 yards rushing and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was neither sacked nor threw an interception.
The frustrating part for Butler and his defense is that they put pressure on Brady but never sacked him. He was forced out of the pocket four times but picked up 14 yards on those plays (he took a knee on the game’s final play to lose a yard).
Jarvis Jones stripped Brady of the ball and recovered it on New England’s first play on offense, but his team’s own offense could not convert that into points.
On the Patriots’ second series, pressure forced Brady to run and he gained 2 yards on one play, and he was pressured on a third down in which he scrambled 5 yards for another first down.
New England went on to score a touchdown to go up, 7-0, on that series.
Brady later scrambled away from pressure for 4 yards on a third-and-3. Arthur Moats did sack Brady for a yard loss in the fourth quarter but the Steelers accepted a holding penalty instead, nullifying the play.
They were close, but came up no Brady on Sunday.
“If you look at the game the other day, how many times did you see Brady pull the ball down without throwing the thing?” Butler asked. “We had the opportunities, we just didn’t get him on the ground.”
Brady never has been a good runner and, at 39, he hasn’t improved. It just added to all the frustration on that Steelers defense. As for the run defense, Mike Tomlin said something rarely heard out of the Steelers — they aimed to stop the pass first, not the run.
“Sometimes, you try to take away the passing game,” Butler said. “The run game, we’ve always been better, we always try to [stop the] run down first. The last two games we haven’t. We’ve got to do better.”
But it’s not just the scheme.
“Some of it, we’re just getting knocked off the dang gum ball,” Butler said. “Some of it we have to be a lot more physical than we were. And we’re trying to correct that.
“I think these guys have enough pride and the history of this franchise is that we’ve always played the run pretty well. In the 14 years I’ve been here, we’ve always been good against the run. We intend to be that again this year.”
There still is plenty of time. Shazier has returned. Heyward hopes to be back for their next game at Baltimore. The Steelers remain alone at the top of the AFC North at 4-3, something that will not change unless they lose to the Ravens Nov. 6.
“We’re doing what we think is best to win football games with the people we’ve got,” said Butler, who cannot manufacture the next Rod Woodson or Kevin Greene or Casey Hampton. “It behooves us to put the best 11 players on the field.”