When the Pittsburgh Steelers defense first took the field on Sunday against the Bengals, they did so in the nickel, which, according to our charting, the Steelers have used approximately two-thirds of the time this season.
And they did so with nose tackle Steve McLendon on the field, who slid over to left defensive end for the couple dozen or so snaps that actually came out of the base, 3-4 defense. While he did not technically start at defensive end, since the Steelers did not open at end, it was his first game in which he was essentially a starting defensive end, logging zero snaps at nose tackle in the game.