Second-half shutdown
Haden, secondary assert themselves, hold Green without a catch after halftime
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Joe Haden felt as though he hadn’t really done anything special since joining the Steelers. Mostly, he has been playing his spot on the left side of the defense and going unnoticed as though he were elevator music. For a cornerback, that is usually a good thing.
Haden, though, made himself noticed Sunday at Heinz Field against the Cincinnati Bengals, and he did it in a big way. In the process, he is helping the Steelers secondary make people take notice of the job it has done through six games.
Not only did Haden have his first interception with the Steelers on an athletic play in the third quarter, leading to a field goal, he played a big part in keeping Bengals receiver A.J. Green under control, shutting him out in the second half.
“It was definitely special,” said Haden, who had 19 career interceptions in seven seasons with the Cleveland Browns. “It felt good to get it, especially being here in front of the home crowd. I felt like I haven’t made too many splash plays. I feel like I’ve just been doing my job.”
Haden’s interception was one of two in the third quarter — the other was by dime back William Gay — and part of a defensive lockdown in the second half when the Steelers held quarterback Andy Dalton to 34 yards passing and sacked him four times.
Dalton was 11 of 18 for 106 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, keeping the Bengals within shouting distance at halftime, 2014. It was the first time this season the Steelers had allowed two receiving touchdowns in a game. Three of Dalton’s completions were to Green for 41 yards, including a 16-yarder on third-and-5 to keep alive the first touchdown drive.
But that was it for Green. He was targeted only twice in the second half, including on the play when Dalton’s pass deflected off his hands and into the arms of Haden, who cradled the ball in mid-air and tumbled to the turf. Three plays later, the Steelers had a 26-14 lead.
In the previous three games, Green had caught 22 passes for 363 yards and three touchdowns, including a 77-yarder that was his longest in two years.
“They did a great job taking me away,” Green said.
“We had a good scheme,” Haden said.
Haden didn’t always line up against Green, and rarely played him in press coverage, though he did get to use his little “stab” technique on a couple of matchups. No matter, the Steelers clamped down on Green and the Bengals in the second half. What changed? “Execution,” Gay said. “They executed better than us [in the first half] and we wanted to even out the battle and try to win more than they did. That’s what basic football comes down to. You just try to get more positives than your opponent.”
“The biggest thing is the first half is we had a a couple busted coverages, a couple miscommunication problems.
“When we came in at halftime, we said let’s over-communicate, even if it’s the wrong play, just makesure we’re all doing the same thing at the same time. It was just a couplethings that were off.”
So the defense spent the second half shutting down the Bengals the way it stuffed the Kansas City Chiefs for three quarters last week. Not only did Green not have a catch in the second half, running back Joe Mixon strangely was not given a carry after he had 48 yards on seven carries in the first half.
Throw in four sacks, including one each from outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree, and the defense held the Bengals to 179 yards of offense, fewest by an opponent this season. It was also the fifth time in seven games the secondary held a quarterback under 200 yards passing.
“All those guys, collectively, have been huge for us,” said defensive end Cam Heyward, who had a sack.
“We’re just being very consistent, doing our job, not trying to go out of the way and do somebody else’s,” Haden said. “The biggest thing you can mess up is being in someone else’s business. Just do what you got to do and cover up your job and the play is going to come to you.”