INDIANAPOLIS -- The Steelers were bad against the run last season. Really, really bad.
But, after finishing dead last in yards per carry against and rushing yards allowed per game last season, the Steelers have gotten significantly better against the run this season -- and that's not by accident.
"It's a mix of a lot of things: Schemes, guys being more aware of their gaps, trusting everybody in the back end," T.J. Watt said Saturday afternoon at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. "I don't know if you can pinpoint one thing specifically. We're taking a lot of pride in it this year, and it's showing."
Last year the Steelers ranked last in the NFL in yards per carry (5.0) against and rushing yards allowed per game (146.1). Through the first 11 weeks of this season, Pittsburgh ranks seventh in the NFL with 103.4 rushing yards allowed per game and is tied for third with 3.9 yards per carry against.
The Steelers have been good against the run especially the last two weeks, as they held Alvin Kamara to just 26 yards in Week 10 and a combination of Joe Mixon and Samaje Perine to 50 yards last week against the Bengals.
A key part of the recent success has been Watt's return from a pectoral injury. While he's known more for getting after the quarterback, Watt is also a very solid run defender.
But, the Steelers have dealt with injuries in the front six or seven throughout the season. Going into this week, Robert Spillane is banged up with a back injury and is questionable Monday night. He's the primary communicator for all levels of the defense, which plays a key role in everyone knowing their responsibilities for each and every play and executing the game plan worked on in practice.
If he can't go, or is limited in snaps, communication will be paramount.
"It's huge," Watt said. "I feel very confident with the guys that we have in this room. Always feel confident with the game plan. I feel good about the week that we had, but it doesn't matter unless we perform on Monday."
The run defense was part of the team's issues early on in the season. While the opposition wasn't trampling over them -- as the case was a season ago -- the defense failed to stop the run in the fourth quarter in three straight losses to the Patriots, Browns and Jets. That stretch of poor play in the critical moments was a key reason for the team's 1-3 start to the season.
So, those who aren't paying close attention may be surprised to see the Steelers' run defense ranked as high as it is.
But, this was something the Steelers were dead set on changing this year. Finishing dead last against the run is an embarrassment for an organization like the Steelers. They've long prided themselves on stopping the run. This group wasn't about to let that happen again.
And the road to making that progress began on the practice fields in Latrobe.
"The main difference from last year is the health going into training camp, everybody getting together early and building that camaraderie," Montravius Adams told me. "Just knowing that you can trust the guy right next to you. So if a guy like Cam [Heyward] is not in the game, we can trust [DeMarvin] Leal. If Leal isn't in the game, then we can trust (Isaiahh Loudermilk). If Milky's not in the game, then they can trust me. It's just having that trust for each teammate."
The challenge to stopping the run doesn't get any easier this week. Colts' running back Jonathan Taylor has 693 yards on 151 carries with three touchdowns, along with 21 receptions for 97 yards this season.
It's no secret the Steelers need to neutralize his impact on the game to thwart any attack from the Colts, even though Indianapolis throws the ball on 62.7 percent of its offensive plays, which seventh-highest in the NFL.
"(He's a) home run hitter," Heyward said of Taylor. "Hits the hole hard. Any crease he gets, he can take off. We got to make sure we really bottle him up. Multiple guys to the ball and just continue to keep playing good technique. When guys get short, and nobody is able to follow them, it makes it a tough game."
That being said, Taylor's missed three games this season due to injury and has eclipsed 100 yards in a game only twice. This is coming after a season where the All-Pro tallied 1,811 yards, an average of 5.5 yards per carry and 18 rushing touchdowns, finishing second in voting for the NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
Improvement against the run was needed for this organization. Not only for pride, but also results and establishing the culture that a performance like that is far below the standard expected.
As it does for organizations with high standards, the hardship from last year and the early portion of this season galvanized this group to put more trust in one another.
"Honestly, we've got a lot of really good players per position. I think the young guys are playing well, and I think the older guys are still playing well. Cam is in Year 12, and he's still playing like a Pro Bowler," Adams told me. "Honestly, I'm just grateful. We've got a lot of guys that's willing to teach. I've been in programs where everybody's not willing to do that. This D-line is special."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Who: Steelers (3-7) vs. Colts (4-6-1)
• What: Week 12, regular season
• When: Monday, Nov. 28, 8:15 p.m.
• Where: Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
• Line: Indianapolis, -2.5
• Over/Under: 39.0
• Weather: Indoor dome stadium; outside mostly cloudy 47°, 9% chance rain, 8 mph wind
• TV: ESPN (national)
• Radio: 102.5 WDVE, ESPN Pittsburgh
• Streaming: Steelers Nation Radio
• Satellite: Sirius XM 385, online 826
• Boxscore: DKPS
• Team media guides: Steelers | Colts
• Official game notes: Steelers | Colts
THE INJURY REPORT
• Steelers: CB Ahkello Witherspoon (hamstring) and RB Jaylen Warren (hamstring) are ruled OUT. WR Miles Boykin (oblique) and LB Robert Spillane (back) are QUESTIONABLE.
I have a separate piece on the Steelers' injuries.
• Colts: DT DeForest Buckner (ribs/illness), TE Kylen Granson (illness), DE Kwity Paye (ankle) and DE Yannick Ngakoue (back) are QUESTIONABLE.
THE KEY VARIABLE
It'll be strength against strength Monday night. Taylor is the heartbeat of the Colts' offense, and the Steelers have been trending upward on offense with a successful rushing attack over the past two games.
While the Steelers have averaged 154.3 yards per game on the ground over the past five games, the Colts are also deceptively strong against the run. While they rank 12th in the NFL against the run, they are second in the league with 3.8 yards per carry against.
"Our running game is getting better, but we're playing one of the highest-ranked defenses in the league this week," Canada said. "They're good at everything. It will be a real challenge for us."
A big part of the Steelers' running success in recent weeks has come with much more success in running the ball on first down -- a down where most teams expect more runs than passes. On the first three scoring drives this past Sunday against the Bengals, Najee Harris averaged 4.2 yards per carry on first downs.
For the season, Harris has averaged 3.9 yards per carry on 92 first-down carries this season.
"I think it shows our physicality of how we want the game to be," Harris said this week. We know and that you guys know our tendencies and stuff. Now it just comes down to, 'Can you stop it?' and our bigs are better than your bigs. It's the competitive nature that the Steelers organization has and they've had for years."
The challenge this week not only comes with the Colts' strong front, but playing without Jaylen Warren as the No. 2 back. Benny Snell Jr. will fill in as Harris' backup as Warren nurses a hamstring injury suffered last week.
The Colts will be preparing more for Harris, and the Steelers don't want to run him into the ground either. They want to keep their first-round running back upright and healthy.
"The attrition component of play is a significant component of play," Mike Tomlin said this week. "We tend to focus our energies on those available to us and don't waste a lot of time lamenting the people that we don't have. We have that mindset when we're planning during the course of work week like this, or we have that same mentality when things transpire in game."
THE HISTORY LESSON
The Steelers have dominated the all-time series with the Colts, 25-6. There are some great moments throughout the series, including the Steelers' victory in the 1995 AFC Championship game, Ben Roethlisberger's season-saving tackle in the 2005 AFC Divisional playoff and Antonio Brown's mount of the field goal post after a punt return touchdown where he never left the lane inside the hashes.
Today, we're going back to the last time the Steelers and Colts faced off the week of Thanksgiving -- which was actually played on Thanksgiving night in 2016.
The Colts were playing without Andrew Luck, which put Scott Tolzien under center. The Steelers' defense set the tone early setting the Colts back 14 yards on a three-and-out, then the offense followed with a quick drive down the field that ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Le'Veon Bell.
Indianapolis was able to move the ball down the field, but Adam Vinatieri missed a 52-yard field goal attempt. Then the Steelers capitalized on the Colts' missed opportunity, driving down the field and scoring on the first of three touchdown connections between Roethlisberger and Brown to jump out to a 14-0 lead.
It looked like the Steelers were about to runaway with the game early, forcing the Colts to punt on the subsequent drive. But, Pittsburgh area native Pat McAfee completed a 35-yard pass to Erik Swoope on a fake punt to revive the dying Colts. Tolzien connected with Donte Moncrief two plays later for a 5-yard touchdown pass that cut the lead in half.
However, the Colts' defense couldn't stop the Steelers' offense. Pittsburgh drove down the field once again, and Roethlisberger found Brown for a 33-yard touchdown to go back up by two touchdowns.
Finally, Indianapolis figured a way to thwart the high-powered Steelers' offense, forcing them to punt on three of the next four drives (the other ended when time ran out at the end of the first half). Meanwhile, Tolzien and the Colts' offense moved the ball effectively and threatened to score on two different drives, but were stopped on fourth and goal at the Steelers' 1-yard line both times.
The Steelers finally pulled away with Roethlisberger's third and final touchdown pass to Brown after Mike Mitchell intercepted Tolzien midway through the fourth quarter. An interception by William Gay on the subsequent drive was the final nail in the coffin as the Steelers improved to 6-5 on the season with the 28-7 victory.
THE MAIN MATCHUP
The Colts' offense lives and dies with Taylor. His 693 rushing yards is still 563 more than any other Colts player this season.
As we saw with the Steelers last week, a running back can hurt the defense just as much through the air as he can on the ground. Even with Mixon going down with an injury and holding Bengals' running backs to 50 total yards rushing, Perine scored three times through the air -- once on a screen and two more on swing passes in the flat.
"I feel like we had a good game plan going into it, and we just didn't execute it well," Alex Highsmith told our Corey Crisan this week. "They used Perine in a lot of ways. He took advantage of that, and so Joe Burrow's a guy where you can't not execute against him. You've got to be on your Ps and Qs, and if you're not, he'll exploit it. We've just got to execute better."
Taylor racked up most of his 2,171 yards from scrimmage last year on the ground, but his 40 catches for 360 yards (9.0 yards per catch) and two receiving touchdowns shows he can be a threat if the Steelers manage a way to bottle him up on the ground.
The Colts have found a bit of rhythm and momentum since Jeff Saturday was hired as interim head coach, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The Steelers must find a way to bottle up Taylor on the ground in the passing game to make the Colts one-dimensional. Despite Matt Ryan's quick release, no team has allowed more sacks than the Colts.
Limit Taylor, and the Steelers have a much greater chance of winning.
And, attack that football. No team has fumbled more than the Colts.
10 DATA POINTS
• The Steelers are 18-3 Monday Night Football under Tomlin.
• The 20 points scored by the Steelers in the first half against the Bengals was their most in a first half of play this season.
• This will be a tough week for the Steelers' passing game. Indianapolis gives up an average of 113.5 yards per game to opposing wide receivers, which is second-best in the NFL.
• Part of the reason the Colts have been so good against receivers: They have the lowest blitz percentage at only 13.9 percent of the time, but also have 28 sacks this year, which is 12th in the NFL.
• Pittsburgh blitzes 29.9 percent of the time. That is the fifth-highest percentage in the league.
• Indianapolis has given up the most sacks in the league. In their three wins, the Steelers have 11 sacks. In seven losses, they have only eight.
• Ryan does get the ball out of his hands quickly, with an average time to throw of 2.58 seconds.
• Harris has 189 rush yards in the last two games (94.5 rush YPG) after averaging 45.1 rush YPG in the first eight weeks of the season.
• Over the past three games, the Steelers have allowed only 3.4 yards per carry.
• The Colts are second-worst at turning drives into touchdowns and third-worst at turning drives into points.
THE FANTASY CORNER
Another week, another performance that landed me just outside of earning some money. Nevertheless, here's my lineup for Week 12 (with a $50,000 salary cap on DraftKings):
• QB: Kyler Murray, Cardinals ($6,800)
• RB1: Kenneth Walker III, Seahawks ($6,900)
• RB2: Jeff Wilson Jr., Dolphins ($5,900)
• WR1: Tee Higgins, Bengals ($6,900)
• WR2: Christian Kirk, Jaguars ($6,500)
• WR3: Chris Godwin, Buccaneers ($6,000)
• TE: Foster Moreau, Raiders ($3,400)
• FLEX: Donovan Peoples-Jones, Browns ($4,800)
• DEF/ST: Chiefs ($2,800)
The Cardinals aren't good, but Murray has been a productive fantasy quarterback this season. Walker's been a fantasy machine, and Wilson should see an uptick with Raheem Mostert banged up. I'm riding the hot hand with Higgins. Kirk has been consistently good for me when I've used him this season. Godwin has also been Mr. Consistent in terms of fantasy production.
Moreau has had two good performances in the last three weeks, and has a favorable matchup against the Seahawks. Peoples-Jones has put up double-digit performances in each of the last five weeks. Finally, the Chiefs are facing the Rams without Matthew Stafford. I like the value at $2,800.
