Kareem Huntnt isi theth nextnt challenge h ll n for once-heralded run defense
Just as they do now, the Steelers lived by one simple mantra when they put together a streak in the 2004 and 2005 seasons that was unmatched in the NFL. Stop the run. But they didn’t just pay it lip service. They went out and proved it. They shut down opposing running backs the way a plumber shuts down a water line.
“Our strong point was stopping the run,” said former inside linebacker James Farrior. “Our main focus into every game was not to allow the run.” And they didn’t. Beginning in October 2004, the Steelers went 24 games in a row without allowing a running back to gain more than 100 yards. At the time, it was the stingiest streak in the league.
When that streak was ended 13 months later by Edgerrin James of the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers immediately went 30 more games without a 100-yard rusher until Thomas Jones of the New York Jets ended that streak in 2007.
That means the Steelers allowed just one 100-yard rusher in a span of 55 games in that three-year period.
“When I got there, that mindset was already etched in stone in Pittsburgh — that we’re going to play physical and nobody is going to run the ball on us,” said former inside linebacker Larry Foote, who played 11 seasons with the Steelers, beginning in 2002.
But that wasn’t the only time. Over a stretch of three seasons under Mike Tomlin (2007-09), the Steelers went 32 games without allowing a 100-yard back. A year later, they set a franchise record by allowing an average of just 62.8 yards rushing per game, the second-lowest average in a 16-game season in league history behind only the 2000 Ravens (60.6). The Steelers were so dominant that year, they allowed only two teams — the Jets (106) and New England Patriots (103) — to rush for more than 100 yards.
The Steelers also allowed only five rushing touchdowns that season. Through five games of the 2017 season, the Steelers have already allowed six.
“We’d get in trouble sometimes and Mike T. would be mad at us because we’d be giving up a pass for touchdown,” Foote said. “But at least they didn’t run it in on us.” So what’s happened? The current Steelers defense adheres to the very same mantra, talks about the very same objective every game — stop the run, make the other team onedimensional. They even have a sign in one of the meeting rooms — “No 100-yard rushers.” But, through the first five games of the season, and even before that, it hasn’t been working.
Consider: In the past 16 games — the equivalent of one season — the Steelers have allowed six running backs to rush for more than 100 yards, the latest coming last week when Jacksonville rookie Leonard Fournette had 181 yards that included a 90-yard touchdown run.
Worse, they are allowing teams to run for more than 200 yards at an alarming clip. In the past three weeks, the Chicago Bears (220) and Jacksonville Jaguars (231) have topped that mark. So did the Cleveland Browns in Week 16 last season (231), making it three times in the past six games. Throw in the Miami Dolphins (222) on Oct. 16 last season, and that’s four teams in that same 16-game stretch to top 200 yards rushing.
Now consider this: From 2000-07, the Steelers once went 123 games without allowing a team to rush for more than 200 yards. The team to end that streak? It was the Jaguars, who had 224 yards rushing in a 29-22 victory at Heinz Field.
“A lot of it had to do with the chemistry, the leadership on the squad, a lot of it was coach [Dick] LeBeau and his mindset and our collective mindset that there’s one thing we won’t allow, that’s allow us getting run on,” said former defensive end Brett Keisel, who played on a line with Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton after replacing Kimo von Oelhoffen at right defensive end. “That’s how we beat teams — getting them to be one-dimensional so LeBeau could enforce all his zone blitzes. It totally played into our hand.”
It might not get any better when the Steelers (3-2) face the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs (5-0) and another rookie running back at 4:25 p.m. Sunday at Arrowhead Stadium. Kareem Hunt, a third-round draft choice from Toledo, has four 100yard rushing performances in five games and leads the NFL in rushing yards (609), yards per carry (6.3), runs of 20-plus yards (7) and runs of 40-plus yards (3)
“It’s mainly just guys buying into the scheme, buying into everything going on,” Farrior said. “When you buy into the scheme, it’s a lot easier to go out and make plays. Even when guys make mistakes, as long as every other guy is doing what they’re supposed to do, you can cover up for mistakes.
“The team I see now, they press too much and get overwhelmed with statistics and want to be perfect. I watch now as a fan, I don’t know the calls, but it seems like guys aren’t fitting into the right gaps. Then you got guys trying to cover up for other teammates’ mistakes and trying to do too much and guys are missing tackles.”
It is not what the Steelers are accustomed to seeing.
Passing fancy begets run
There are mitigating factors why teams such as the Steelers have trouble stopping the run.
Because the NFL has become a passing league, teams draft defensive linemen who are built to rush the passer and lighter, faster linebackers — Ryan Shazier is an example — who can drop into coverage with running backs, tight ends and, on occasion, slot receivers. Stopping the run is almost overlooked, if not ignored. Also, offenses will spread the field with extra receivers and get defenses to use their nickel and dime packages, then run the ball against their twoman fronts, often leading to longer runs.
Since the Ravens shut down the run with a record performance in 2000, the number of 40-yard runs in the league has slowly increased. In 2016, there were 71 runs of at least 40 yards, 23 more than 16 years earlier.
However, the number of defenses that allow an average of 100-plus yards rushing per game has decreased in that same period, going from 24 teams in 2000 to 20 in 2016 and again in 2017 after five games.
“The game has changed,” said Foote, now a linebackers coach with the Arizona Cardinals. “When we played, it was more smash-mouth. Now everything is lateral. Your gap is here one time, but it can also be over there. Everything is lateral and misdirection. The ball will go anywhere.”
Former Steelers left tackle Tunch Ilkin, a two-time Pro Bowler, said player safety rules that have limited the amount of padded practices are another contributing factor, because defensive players can’t simulate plugging holes and tackling in practice. Keisel agreed.
“The way practices are now, you can’t do too much hitting,” Keisel said. “There’s been missed tackles, guys out of gaps, plus there are some new guys in places that don’t have a lot of experience. This is a time when you hopefully figure it all out. Unfortunately, it’s bit them a few times and they dropped a few games they could’ve won.”
When anchors get away
In the early 1990s, the Philadelphia Eagles defense that featured Reggie White and Jerome Brown went 53 games without allowing a 100-yard rusher, the longest streak in the post-merger era.
From 1962-64, the Los Angeles Rams and their “Fearsome Foursome” defense went 51 weeks without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
The Ravens went from 1998-2001 without allowing a 100-yard back, a streak of 46 games, the third-longest alltime.
A couple years later, along come the Steelers with a front threesome of Hampton, the quintessential nose tackle; Smith, whom LeBeau once said was the best 3-4 defensive end he’s ever seen; and von Oelhoffen, acquired in free agency from the Cincinnati Bengals. Keisel replaced him as the starter several years later.
“I always felt our defensive line was superior,” Farrior said. “They allowed me and the rest of the linebackers to flow and make plays. Casey Hampton was probably the best nose guard I’ve ever seen. When you got a guy like that anchoring the defense, then you got Aaron Smith and the rest of those guys, we had a pretty stout line. It made our job easier.”
It hasn’t looked easy lately for the Steelers.