The Pittsburgh Steelers, once upon a time, made their mark on the league by being the premiere run-stoppers, forcing teams to throw the ball against them, at which point their pass rush would wreak havoc and create turnovers.
That was the old model for playing defense, which largely no longer holds in a league where everybody is throwing the ball 60-65 percent of the time simply out of preference. But it’s still essential to stop the run when opposing teams actually run the ball, and head coach Mike Tomlin is not satisfied with how they have done that job recently.