Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
Steelers who have had stellar seasons through eight weeks.
Haters hated. Doubters doubted. Yet here we are midway through the regular season already. It’s hard to believe.
No one would’ve guessed the Pittsburgh Steelers would be undefeated at this point either.
Here are eight reasons why the Steelers remain unbeaten.
Injuries to Cam Heyward and Tyson Alualu leave the Steelers with a need at defensive tackle.
Per the NFL transaction report, the Steelers hosted defensive tackle Demarcus Christmas for a visit on Tuesday.
Christmas was a sixth-round draft selection by the Seattle Seahawks in 2019. He was placed on the PUP list during rookie training camp and never activated. The Seahawks released him in October after he failed to make the 53-man roster.
The 6’3, 302-pound Florida State product played in 51 games (38 starts). He contributed 105 tackles (10.5 for loss), 3.5 sacks, 13 defended passes and two fumble recoveries.
Pittsburgh is in the market for run-stopping depth at defensive tackle after suffering two injuries on Sunday — after and during being gashed for 265 yards rushing. A visit is just a visit, but still, scouting reports are mixed about his abilities as a run defender and note weaknesses in pass pro.
Injuries to Cam Heyward (quad) and Tyson Alualu have been deemed not serious by head coach Mike Tomlin, but neither participated in practice on Wednesday.
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The Steelers defensive tackle has a good answer for why the Steelers and Ravens have been so dominant over the years.
Sunday’s showdown will not only be epic because the Steelers and Ravens are two powerhouse defenses, but because they’ve been among the best for years.
When ESPN’s Steelers reporter Brooke Pryor asked the traits of a truly successful defense, even as players and coaches change, tackle Tyson Alualu answered simply, “It’s that old school, hard-nosed football. Both teams, both organizations pride themselves on that.”
Hard-nosed has been their signature style for decades. More recently, since 2015, the Steelers have averaged 10th in both points and yards allowed. This season, the defense leaped to sixth and first, respectively.
The Ravens have averaged ninth in points allowed and sixth in yards allowed during that same span. This season, the defense is first in points and ninth in yards.
Seven @NFL teams are averaging at least 30 points per game in 2020, the most teams in a single season through Week 7 since 1970. pic.twitter.com/qS9IsqbANh
— NFL345 (@NFL345) October 29, 2020
And so, four days from now, the Steelers with sixth-most points scored will go head-to-head versus the defense allowing the least.
Expect a knock-down-drag-out battle in Baltimore on Sunday — as if you weren’t already.
Stats courtesy of Pro Football Reference
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Alualu, who has eight tackles and a sack, is the second-leading interior defensive lineman in pass rush win rate.
It only took him 11 seasons and two teams, but Tyson Alualu is breaking out — and at the (NFL) ripe age of 33.
And the Steelers are all the better for it.
After Javon Hargrave headed to Philadelphia via free agency, no doubt it was risky to roll without replacing him with an outside veteran. Turns out, that veteran was already in-house.
Through three weeks, Alualu, who has eight tackles and a sack, is the second-leading interior defensive lineman in pass rush win rate.
A 10th-overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft, Alualu never thrived with the Jacksonville Jaguars. In Pittsburgh, he’s finally playing like the first-round talent he was tabbed as.
As great teammates do, Alualu is crediting his fellow linemen for new-found success.
“Every week we look to do better and get better. I think I am fitting in well,” Alualu said in a recent press conference. “Just having the guys we have on our defense makes it a lot better for me. Whether it’s T.J. [Watt] or Bud [Dupree] coming off the edge, or Cam [Heyward] or [Stephon] Tuitt pushing up the middle, I think teams have to game plan around those guys and it makes it that much easier for me to go out and do my job. That is my focus and what I try to get done.”
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The question remains, is Alualu part of Pittsburgh’s plans beyond 2020? The lineman is one of 18 Steelers who will become free agents in March. According to OvertheCap.com, his current salary cap charge is $3.625 million.
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Daily Fantasy: The one Steelers player you need to start in Week 1 on Draft Kings
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The 2020 NFL season is upon us and that means fans and experts alike will be closely watching their favorites players stat lines for fantasy football. The Pittsburgh Steelers open up on the road against an NFC East bottom-feeder, the New York Giants.
The Giants went 3-13 in 2019, leading to a coaching change that saw Joe Judge go from a special teams/wide receiver coach for the Patriots to earning New York’s most appealing head coaching job.
With the regular season set to kick on Thursday night, the Steelers vaunted defense is the one unit that is must start in DraftKings and daily fantasy this week.
Pittsburgh has the 6th ranked D/ST in DraftKing’s fantasy football rankings and the Steelers are coming off a campaign in which they were second in fantasy points per game last season, utilizing a ferocious pass rush and talented secondary that played off the charts after the arrival of Minkah Fitzpatrick. The Steelers led the NFL in sacks and takeaways last year and face the Giants’ second-year signal-caller Daniel Jones, who just so happen to lead the NFL with 23 giveaways in 2019, good for second in the NFL.
With a mostly virtual offseason because of the pandemic, the Giants will look for rhythm in an offense that’ll be looking to gain coherency on the fly, a definite advantage for a Steelers defense that returns just about every integral piece from last season, including one of the top passers in all of football in Ben Roethlisberger.
If the Steelers offense can muster points and a ball-control offense, it could force the Giants to become one dimensional, straying away from Saquon Barkley, while leaning more on Daniel Jones.
If Pittsburgh can make the Giants one-dimensional that will create more opportunities for turnovers and the Steelers thrive off such a scenario.
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