Physicality, pressure still part of Pittsburgh Steelers’ identity

When Nick Williams arrived in Pittsburgh in May 2013, it did not take him long to be introduced to The Steeler Way.

Williams, a seventh-round draft pick out of Samford, quickly realized two things: One, if you step on the field for the Steelers’ defense, you’re going to be a tough guy. Period.

“Coach (Mike) Tomlin lives by that,” said Williams, who is now a rotational defensive lineman for the Chiefs. “Trying to be the most physical team on the field that day, that’s The Steeler Way.”

And two, the Steelers — who face the Chiefs at noon Sunday (CBS, Ch. 5, 13) — are all about the blitz.

“As soon as you come to Pittsburgh, they’re like ‘We’re going to get to the quarterback, by any means necessary,’ ” Williams said. “So they’re going to blitz. They love blitzing.”

That was certainly the case for a very long time, when the defense was led by legendary defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, a 3-4 zone-blitz pioneer. The Chiefs saw this for themselves last December, when quarterback Alex Smith was sacked six times and hit 10 times, total, in a 20-12 loss that all but ended their playoff dreams.

“The zone pressure, they invented it, and (they) still do it, and do a lot of it,” Smith said. “From a quarterback’s perspective, it was always a lot to deal with.”

That has still proved to be the case this year, even under new defensive coordinator Keith Butler, who has started implementing aspects of the 4-3 attack Tomlin is well versed in. But Butler is still bringing some of the blitzes that helped the franchise earn the “Blitzburgh” moniker long ago.

“Yeah, Keith is doing a nice job of mixing them up with different pressures,” Chiefs coach Andy Reid said. “(It’s) similar to what Dick was doing and he’s probably added more volume, as far as more times doing it during the game, than what was going on before, and it was quite a bit before.”

Offensive coordinator Doug Pederson agreed, noting that Butler has brought “his own flavor” to the job.

“He’s got ... his own style, a lot of his own blitzes that he’s doing that they didn’t do much in the past,” Pederson said. “But, you can really look at the personnel and some of the matchups and things like that and get a good feel for our guys versus their guys.”

In recent games, Butler — who garnered interest from other teams before he was promoted from linebackers coach in January — has not been shy about stacking the line of scrimmage and making teams guess which players are coming.

“And really, it’s over the last three games that he’s increased that,” Reid said. “He’s got good players and he’s bringing them from different areas.”

The Steelers rank seventh in the league in sacks with 17, and 10 different players have recorded sacks, including a safety and seven linebackers.

That kind of pressure could spell trouble for a Chiefs team that has struggled to pick up blitzes and stunts for the better part of two years. Smith has been sacked 23 times this year, the third-most in the league, and the Chiefs have surrendered 36 quarterback hits, the eighth-most in the league.

Needless to say, communication up front — and identifying potential blitzers pre-snap — will be important.

“You have to stay disciplined most of all,” Reid said. “You have to identify certain people and work your way to those people, so accuracy on the protection is the most important thing because they’re going to challenge people right in a row there. It might be that your tackle, his man dropped out, but the rest of the guys along the line are going to be challenged.

“You want to make sure that you get everybody picked up. A body on a body.”

This task will largely fall on center Mitch Morse and Smith.

“He relies on Alex,” Pederson said of Morse. “Alex is a veteran guy that’s sharp with all of the protections and checks ... they meet together in the afternoons and they go over all of those different schemes and make sure they’re both seeing the same things and identifying the proper guys.”

It’s something they’ve worked on everyday this week, according to right guard Zach Fulton.

“Just extra film with the quarterbacks and running backs and tight ends,” Fulton said. “We always get together and talk through it to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

There are areas to attack, however. For all their pressure, the Steelers surrender 283 passing yards per game — ranked 26th in the NFL — and play a sort of bend-but-don’t-break style until the red zone. Plus, athletic tight ends have hurt them in the past, and the Steelers know Travis Kelce certainly fits the bill.

“This guy is a good football player, a young guy who has a lot of potential,” Butler said. “Depending on what their injury situation is, he’ll probably get a few touches. We have to be able to try to at least hold him down a little bit.”

But to beat Pittsburgh, 4-2, the Chiefs will mainly have to match their physicality on both sides of the ball. That is possible, but it won’t be easy, considering the Steelers’ toughness is instilled both in practice — Williams said Pittsburgh runs one of the hardest training camps in the NFL — and even the film room, when Tomlin apparently isn’t shy about calling guys out.

“The head man is going to laser you in meetings (and say) this is the problem,” said Chiefs defensive lineman Hebron Fangupo, a backup for the Steelers in 2012 and 2013. “He’ll circle you in front of everybody, and if he’s circling you, you aren’t tough enough.”

Williams, who the Chiefs signed off the Steelers’ practice squad last November, noted that Tomlin — who is in his ninth year as head coach — gets players to buy in, too, which means opponents have a pretty good idea what they’re up against every time they face Pittsburgh.

“It’s fun for a player (there)… those guys are crazy about being Steelers,” Williams said. “They really buy into it. So when you’re there, in the moment, you’ll do anything for the team.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Physicality, pressure still part of Pittsburgh Steelers’ identity."