After the Steelers allowed 51 points in an uneven performance last week in Green Bay, there were more than a few people who thought the team's defense was going to start the 2018 season the same way it finished 2017: Subpar.
But five regulars were out of the lineup that game, and the defensive players wanted to show that, with the unit a little closer to full strength, it could provide a little more resistance.
Turns out, it provided a lot.
The first-team defense pitched a shutout in the first half and Ben Roethlisberger and the first-team offense put up a touchdown in an abbreviated outing as the Steelers topped the Titans, 16-6, Saturday at Heinz Field.
It appeared to please Mike Tomlin, who treated the week as he would have one in the regular season in terms of practice and preparation.
"We went through a mock week from a preparation standpoint, game-planning, division of labor, not in complete totality but the semblance of it," Tomlin said. "So we measure the quality of weeks by the end results, so we got the job done with the win. Good week from that perspective."
It was a good week by any perspective.
How dominant were the Steelers' starters against the Titans?
• They outgained them, 176-52, in total yards.
• They sacked Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota twice in 10 pass attempts and intercepted him once.
• Roethlisberger, seeing his first action of the preseason, completed 11 of 18 passes for 114 yards and a touchdown in three possessions.
The end result was only a 10-0 lead, but after throwing a 32-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hunter on the team's second possession, Roethlisberger played just one more series, leading the team into Tennessee territory three times.
That third possession ended with James Conner getting stuffed for no gain on third down and Roethlisberger's fourth-down pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster being broken up by Adoree Jackson, but Roethlisberger expressed satisfaction with the overall body of work.
"It was good," Roethlisberger said. "Three drives. We scored on one. Stayed healthy. We did some no-huddle. We did some huddle. I liked what kind of transpired."
Especially considering the offense was playing without Antonio Brown, who was held out of this game with a minor quad injury, and Le'Veon Bell, who remains out of training camp.
The defense, on the other hand, was still missing a few of its main pieces -- linebacker T.J. Watt, safety Morgan Burnett and nickel back Mike Hilton -- but looked dominant.
The Titans picked up four first downs on their opening possession, gaining 40 yards, but failed to record another first down until early in the fourth quarter.
"It was a good game, but I don't put any stock into it going forward," said Cameron Heyward, who also was seeing his first preseason action. "They're going to be completely different. We're going to be completely different. We've just got to be ready every week."
Much the way the Steelers weren't panicking after losing to the Packers last week, the Steelers weren't ready to proclaim themselves Super Bowl champions after this outing.
Even rookie quarterback Mason Rudolph, who struggled in the first half against the Packers, bounced back with a solid performance. Rudolph played the entire second half, completing 7 of 11 passes for 65 yards and, more importantly, no turnovers.
"We don't want to get too high. We don't want to get too low," said Joe Haden, another defensive starter who saw his first preseason action. "We just want to play consistent. With more starters playing, we wanted to show we could communicate well and do what we can do."
And get through it healthy.
They did that for the most part, with the only new injuries being to receivers Marcus Tucker (ankle) and James Washington (oblique) and tight end Jesse James (back contusion). None seem too serious and now that the Steelers have made it through their first three preseason games relatively unscathed, they have only a final tuneup against Carolina remaining Thursday before the regular-season opener Sept. 9 in Cleveland.
"We just knew we had to have a better defensive performance," said Vince Williams. "We wanted to give the fans at Heinz Field a little preview of what they can expect from us this year."
1. Sack attack
The Steelers had six sacks in the game and it started early with Stephon Tuitt blowing up the middle of the Tennessee offensive line on the Titans' second play from scrimmage after nearly getting there on the first play:
And when they weren't sacking Mariota, who finished 5 of 8 for 43 yards, they were making him very uncomfortable in the pocket.
Not only did the Steelers record six sacks in the game, they had 10 quarterback pressures.
One of those, coming from Bud Dupree, forced Mariota into a bad mistake midway through the second quarter, flushing him to his left. Mariota threw the ball across his body and was intercepted by rookie safety Terrell Edmunds, who slid in front of receiver Taywan Taylor to make the pick.
"I was trying to score," said Edmunds, who started in place of Burnett at strong safety. "Sean (Davis) was yelling for me right away to get up so we could go.”
2. No doubting Thomas
Rookie Matthew Thomas went undrafted this year but was a priority free agent signing after the draft by the Steelers.
He played with the backups in the first two preseason games, but the Steelers put the former Florida State star on full display in this game. Thomas, who ran a 4.58-second 40-yard dash at his on-campus pre-draft workout, saw plenty of action with the starters in this game and played late into the game.
He finished with seven tackles and two more on special teams, showing off his sideline-to-sideline speed.
"It definitely feels good," Thomas said of being featured with the first-team defense. "I guess that doesn't happen a lot of times, but I know I can help out. Wherever they feel comfortable with me at, I've just got to be willing to put it in."
In this case, the Steelers were pulling outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo -- starting in place of an injured Watt -- out of the game to insert Thomas. He stacked behind the line of scrimmage with fellow inside linebackers Williams and Jon Bostic. That allowed the Steelers to play a 4-3 look at times, while on others, they played with no outside linebackers on the field in a 3-3-5 look.
The Steelers have run some packages like that before with Watt and it will be interesting to see if this was something they were trying out just for this game or if Thomas can force his way onto the field more often.
"So it will be me and Matt probably playing the same thing," Dupree told me. "T.J. will probably be on the line. Maybe we'll take a d-lineman out. I don't know. It's crazy. We can do a lot of different stuff."
That was the key to this game, trying some different looks out.
"It's not the first time we've done it," Heyward said. "Moving Bud around, moving all of our linebackers around, we ask them to do that, just makes us very versatile in our approach. You don't know where any single guy is going to come from on any single play. You'd better be ready to block every single one of us.
"It's just different looks. We're trying different things right now. I don't know what sticks and what holds. We're trying different stuff. Matt's a guy who's got unbelievable speed. We're going to try to put him into some spots and see if we can capitalize on it."
3. Hunter’s pitch
Hunter scored the Steelers' lone touchdown on a 32-yard pass from Roethlisberger. But he also had a pass from Landry Jones stolen away from him by linebacker Robert Spillane.
"I got hit on the arm as I caught it," Hunter said. "It popped up and I tried to get it, but he had my arm, so that's what caused the pick."
With Hunter in a battle for a roster spot, it wasn't necessarily a good look. Nor was what Roethlisberger said was a missed opportunity for a long touchdown.
"I expect big things like we saw," Roethlisberger said when asked about his prognosis for Hunter, a former second-round pick of the Titans. "You know, there was a little thing early in the second play that we would have had an 80-yard touchdown, and so, for him to bounce back from that and make a play down the sideline for a touchdown, to me, shows the resolve and shows he's a guy who can put it behind him and move on."
Hunter did a nice job of getting his feet down in bounds on the TD throw by Roethlisberger, but the play was originally ruled a non-catch:
But replay showed he had gotten both feet down in bounds.
"I was just waiting for the (challenge) flag," Hunter said.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Titans, Heinz Field, Aug. 25, 2018. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
