Willie Gay celebrates his 52-yard pick-6 with Stephon Tuitt Sunday at the Georgia Dome. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
ATLANTA — “Textbook,” Arthur Moats called it. And he was standing at the stall right next to that of Jason Worilds as he spoke. “What that man delivered on that sack was a textbook football play. It’s football. When you teach children how to tackle, that’s how you teach it. When you …”
Moats shook his head in disgust. Couldn’t even complete the thought.
So maybe that was it.
Maybe that was finally it.
Maybe that was the moment, after 14 weeks of chasing ghosts and chopping down what had been the trademark of Pittsburgh’s football franchise, that this defense had enough.
Maybe it took seeing Worilds level Atlanta’s Matt Ryan with what looked for all the world to be a bone-shaking, game-changing and, yes, clean sack, then seeing the officials toss up the yellow flag, then seeing absolute red …
“Horrendous” was Cam Heyward’s term for the call.
“Awful,” Jarvis Jones snapped off.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” Mike Tomlin barked back when I brought it up.
“It was a hard-fought game, and I give Atlanta a lot of credit,” Tomlin rightly described the broader scene. “For us to win, we needed all three phases to win, and we did what was necessary.”
No question, and I’m not going to take anything away from the contributions of the other two toward pushing the Steelers to 9-5, still very much in control of their playoff .
Ben Roethlisberger needed to be at his best with the Falcons filling the box to stuff Le’Veon Bell, and he completed 27 of 35 for 360 yards. Bell popped loose for a 13-yard touchdown run and five catches. Antonio Brown — pardon the yawn — had 10 catches, including a Willie Mays special down the left sideline. Markus Wheaton was Mr. Third Down. Maurkice Pouncey was a beast. Ramon Foster threw a hellacious block on a Bell TD. Heath Miller made the critical catch to set up victory formation, and that on a masterful call by Todd Haley following a timeout.
“Gutsy stuff,” Miller said of that call. “But it worked.”
Hey, no one takes criticism seriously if praise isn’t given where due. Haley deserves it.
The other phase, special teams, was nearly as good, aside from one long Devin Hester kick return. That had everything to do with a rabid Shamarko Thomas.
All of it was above the line, to borrow a Tomlinism. Obviously, to borrow another.
But sorry, at least one hat will be doffed to the defense on this Sunday, and not just because of the striking scene inside the Georgia Dome late in the fourth quarter when the southeast chapter of Steelers Nation brought forth a ‘DEE-FENSE!’ chant so robust it moved Tomlin to make a rare comment on fan support afterward: “We’re used to seeing it, but it’s always appreciated.”
So was the sentiment, to be sure.
The defense hardly was perfect, best evidenced by Ryan’s 310 yards and two touchdowns in the air. And it did open the day with the most beneficial development possible when the great Julio Jones was announced among Atlanta’s injured inactives.
But those asterisks, from this view, don’t detract in the slightest from Willie Gay delivering a third pick-6 on the season. Dump on the coverage as a whole, but his TDs have been huge, and none was bigger — or more athletic, given his many jukes over a 52-yard return — than this one.
“That’s something you try to get in December football,” Gay said. “We’re just trying to win each game, because that’s what it’s going to take.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Vince Williams and Sean Spence playing possibly the best games of their young careers, Williams with seven tackles and Spence with sideline-to-sideline pursuit.
“It was a big game,” Williams said. “We all needed to step up.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Lawrence Timmons forcing his way back onto the field repeatedly despite needing exhaustive assistance from the athletic trainers each time off.
“It’s nothing,” Timmons said. “Football.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Mike Mitchell — yes, the same — making two touchdown-saving tackles. Yes, that’s what a safety is supposed to do, but the first came on Hester with a full head of steam, as intimidating a sight as any in the NFL, and the second came while hunting down Harry Douglasafter he’d injured a groin that robbed him of most of his speed.
Here, as with Haley, give up credit where due:
Those asterisks absolutely don’t detract in any way, shape or form from Worilds’ sack. And call it that, a sack, rather than a penalty, because the NFL’s official apology should be arriving at Steelers HQ by, oh, Tuesday or so after all concerned get so much as a cursory glance.
Ridiculous call. Really, not even worth elaborating.
Worilds wasn’t in much mood to discuss it, saying only, “I haven’t really seen it on tape yet,” but you saw — and you’ve now read — how his teammates rushed to his defense on this count. In fact, more than one cited it as a galvanizing factor on both sides of the ball.
“After that happened, we wanted to go right down the field and score,” Foster said. “That’s just part of winning football. We all felt that as a team. We wanted to get it right back.”
The offense pulled that off just before halftime, 80 yards on a dozen plays for a 20-7 lead.
Worilds was delighted to discuss that: “Picked us right up.”
Above all, though, those asterisks up there don’t detract from the defense winning the game on their last stand. That’s what occurred, too. Nothing less. Don’t shortchange it.
Brad Wing’s punt placed the Falcons at their 17 with 6:23 on the clock, down just seven. That’s a ton of time for Ryan and Steven Jackson, Roddy White, Harry Douglas and a still-dynamic-without-Julio offense to get down the field, really, any which way they pleased.
Instead, they went nowhere …
First down, pass incomplete to Douglas, airtight coverage by Gay.
Second down, 4-yard pass to Douglas, wrapped up and slammed down immediately by Williams.
Third down, exact same as the second, only with a little more oomph on Williams’ slam.
Three-and-out?
Yeah, three-and-out.
The Steelers have a lot of positives going for them heading into these final two against the Chiefs and Bengals, not least of which is the Big Mo. “Momentum is key,” Brown said. “We’re feeling it.” And they should.
But imagine if the defense could achieve even … I don’t know, normalcy. Imagine if a three-and-out like this one reaches the point of being routine rather than remarkable. Imagine this defense, which isn’t capable of being great, just being good enough.
Imagine more postgame assessments like this gem from Timmons: “They tried to run the ball on us. We weren’t having it. They saw they couldn’t run. We made them pass. Then we just bottled them up.”
Bottling up isn’t what it used to be in this pass-happy NFL. But if I’m the Steelers, I’ll take the following results from the Atlanta drive chart — punt, interception, punt, touchdown, field goal, field goal, touchdown, punt — and bottle that up for any day.
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December 14, 2014
Column: At long last, one for Steelers’ defense
by Dejan Kovacevic • Columns • Steelers
Willie Gay celebrates his 52-yard pick-6 with Stephon Tuitt Sunday at the Georgia Dome. — GETTY
BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC
ATLANTA — “Textbook,” Arthur Moats called it. And he was standing at the stall right next to that of Jason Worilds as he spoke. “What that man delivered on that sack was a textbook football play. It’s football. When you teach children how to tackle, that’s how you teach it. When you …”
Moats shook his head in disgust. Couldn’t even complete the thought.
So maybe that was it.
Maybe that was finally it.
Maybe that was the moment, after 14 weeks of chasing ghosts and chopping down what had been the trademark of Pittsburgh’s football franchise, that this defense had enough.
Maybe it took seeing Worilds level Atlanta’s Matt Ryan with what looked for all the world to be a bone-shaking, game-changing and, yes, clean sack, then seeing the officials toss up the yellow flag, then seeing absolute red …
“Horrendous” was Cam Heyward’s term for the call.
“Awful,” Jarvis Jones snapped off.
“I’ve got nothing to say,” Mike Tomlin barked back when I brought it up.
Maybe it took all that for the defense to finally finish a job: Steelers 27, Falcons 20
“It was a hard-fought game, and I give Atlanta a lot of credit,” Tomlin rightly described the broader scene. “For us to win, we needed all three phases to win, and we did what was necessary.”
No question, and I’m not going to take anything away from the contributions of the other two toward pushing the Steelers to 9-5, still very much in control of their playoff .
Ben Roethlisberger needed to be at his best with the Falcons filling the box to stuff Le’Veon Bell, and he completed 27 of 35 for 360 yards. Bell popped loose for a 13-yard touchdown run and five catches. Antonio Brown — pardon the yawn — had 10 catches, including a Willie Mays special down the left sideline. Markus Wheaton was Mr. Third Down. Maurkice Pouncey was a beast. Ramon Foster threw a hellacious block on a Bell TD. Heath Miller made the critical catch to set up victory formation, and that on a masterful call by Todd Haley following a timeout.
“Gutsy stuff,” Miller said of that call. “But it worked.”
Hey, no one takes criticism seriously if praise isn’t given where due. Haley deserves it.
The other phase, special teams, was nearly as good, aside from one long Devin Hester kick return. That had everything to do with a rabid Shamarko Thomas.
All of it was above the line, to borrow a Tomlinism. Obviously, to borrow another.
But sorry, at least one hat will be doffed to the defense on this Sunday, and not just because of the striking scene inside the Georgia Dome late in the fourth quarter when the southeast chapter of Steelers Nation brought forth a ‘DEE-FENSE!’ chant so robust it moved Tomlin to make a rare comment on fan support afterward: “We’re used to seeing it, but it’s always appreciated.”
So was the sentiment, to be sure.
The defense hardly was perfect, best evidenced by Ryan’s 310 yards and two touchdowns in the air. And it did open the day with the most beneficial development possible when the great Julio Jones was announced among Atlanta’s injured inactives.
But those asterisks, from this view, don’t detract in the slightest from Willie Gay delivering a third pick-6 on the season. Dump on the coverage as a whole, but his TDs have been huge, and none was bigger — or more athletic, given his many jukes over a 52-yard return — than this one.
“That’s something you try to get in December football,” Gay said. “We’re just trying to win each game, because that’s what it’s going to take.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Vince Williams and Sean Spence playing possibly the best games of their young careers, Williams with seven tackles and Spence with sideline-to-sideline pursuit.
“It was a big game,” Williams said. “We all needed to step up.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Lawrence Timmons forcing his way back onto the field repeatedly despite needing exhaustive assistance from the athletic trainers each time off.
“It’s nothing,” Timmons said. “Football.”
Those asterisks don’t detract from Mike Mitchell — yes, the same — making two touchdown-saving tackles. Yes, that’s what a safety is supposed to do, but the first came on Hester with a full head of steam, as intimidating a sight as any in the NFL, and the second came while hunting down Harry Douglas after he’d injured a groin that robbed him of most of his speed.
Here, as with Haley, give up credit where due:
Those asterisks absolutely don’t detract in any way, shape or form from Worilds’ sack. And call it that, a sack, rather than a penalty, because the NFL’s official apology should be arriving at Steelers HQ by, oh, Tuesday or so after all concerned get so much as a cursory glance.
Ridiculous call. Really, not even worth elaborating.
Worilds wasn’t in much mood to discuss it, saying only, “I haven’t really seen it on tape yet,” but you saw — and you’ve now read — how his teammates rushed to his defense on this count. In fact, more than one cited it as a galvanizing factor on both sides of the ball.
“After that happened, we wanted to go right down the field and score,” Foster said. “That’s just part of winning football. We all felt that as a team. We wanted to get it right back.”
The offense pulled that off just before halftime, 80 yards on a dozen plays for a 20-7 lead.
Worilds was delighted to discuss that: “Picked us right up.”
Above all, though, those asterisks up there don’t detract from the defense winning the game on their last stand. That’s what occurred, too. Nothing less. Don’t shortchange it.
Brad Wing’s punt placed the Falcons at their 17 with 6:23 on the clock, down just seven. That’s a ton of time for Ryan and Steven Jackson, Roddy White, Harry Douglas and a still-dynamic-without-Julio offense to get down the field, really, any which way they pleased.
Instead, they went nowhere …
First down, pass incomplete to Douglas, airtight coverage by Gay.
Second down, 4-yard pass to Douglas, wrapped up and slammed down immediately by Williams.
Third down, exact same as the second, only with a little more oomph on Williams’ slam.
Three-and-out?
Yeah, three-and-out.
The Steelers have a lot of positives going for them heading into these final two against the Chiefs and Bengals, not least of which is the Big Mo. “Momentum is key,” Brown said. “We’re feeling it.” And they should.
But imagine if the defense could achieve even … I don’t know, normalcy. Imagine if a three-and-out like this one reaches the point of being routine rather than remarkable. Imagine this defense, which isn’t capable of being great, just being good enough.
Imagine more postgame assessments like this gem from Timmons: “They tried to run the ball on us. We weren’t having it. They saw they couldn’t run. We made them pass. Then we just bottled them up.”
Bottling up isn’t what it used to be in this pass-happy NFL. But if I’m the Steelers, I’ll take the following results from the Atlanta drive chart — punt, interception, punt, touchdown, field goal, field goal, touchdown, punt — and bottle that up for any day.