| CB Ike Taylor, who intercepted Eli Manning in Pittsburgh's win over the Giants, is a key member of a Steelers' defense that has risen to the top of the league rankings and answered critics who said they were too old. (US Presswire) |
Old. Slow. It's over.
Former Steelers antagonist and current NFL TV analyst Warren Sapp uttered those words about Pittsburgh's defense after a season-opening loss last year.
Pittsburgh promptly led the NFL in yards allowed while going 12-4.
Then, when the Steelers fell to 2-3 last month with a 26-23 loss to the lowly Tennessee Titans, Sapp tweeted similar sentiments about the Steeler defense.
He likely doesn't share those opinions now.
After shutting down QB Eli Manning and the New York Giants on Sunday, the Steelers moved to the top of the league rankings for total defense and passing defense.
As something of a token for that accomplishment, CB Ike Taylor was named AFC defensive player of the week Wednesday. Taylor had an interception, five tackles and added a pass breakup. Mostly, though, Taylor was just the headliner for a secondary that held Manning to season lows in completions (10) and passing yards (125).
"Everybody's pretty much found themselves," Taylor said after extolling the work of CB Keenan Lewis, S Will Allen, S Ryan Clark, CB Cortez Allen and others. "Yeah, we had a slow start -- but we're just trying to build right now."
Taylor's interception was the 14th of his career -- by his own admission, he has notoriously bad hands -- and it was the fourth this season for the Steelers. An opportunity to improve on that total comes Monday night with the Kansas City Chiefs in town. The Chiefs have thrown an NFL-worst 14 interceptions.
"We've just got to start making those interceptions when we have the opportunities," Lewis said. "We're doing good things; we just need to get our offense the ball in some easy situations so they can make plays."
That's something opponents aren't doing on the Steelers. Pittsburgh has allowed just two pass plays of 40-plus yards this season (only the New York Jets have allowed less) and just 15 passing plays of 20 or more yards (tied with Detroit for the least in the league).
The run defense has been stout, too -- but in today's pass-happy NFL, effectively stopping the pass has been at the forefront of a defensive effort that has allowed only 49 points during this three-game winning streak (taking away the defensive touchdown off a fumble recovery that was somehow held up by replay review Sunday in New Jersey, the Pittsburgh defense is permitting only 14 points per game the last three weeks).
The player of the week honor for Taylor is just a manifestation of that total defensive effort.
"We're excited any time one of our guys gets that award," DE Brett Keisel said. "That means you're playing well. Usually, they're not going to give that to a team that lost the game, so that means we're winning, and Ike's playing tough and the defense is playing tough."
Follow Steelers reporter Chris Adamski on Twitter @CBSSteelers and @BuzzsawPGH.