The Steelers made some meaningful and necessary tweaks to their defense in Week 9. Ray Fittipaldo says players want to keep them. While they made these changes largely due to temporary circumstance—e.g., injury and illness—they worked. At least, they worked for one week but against the top-ranked offense in the NFL.
T.J. Watt talked about the Steelers “simplifying the game plan” on defense after they beat the Colts. They didn’t have a lot of choice but to do that, because they had a new starter. Due to injury and illness, they played newly acquired Kyle Dugger at safety.