In The Trenches
Defensive Line Play Critical to Steelers Success
By Jerry DiPaola

If the Steelers don't get the job done on the line - in the trenches where noses get bloodied, fingers are trampled and legs are twisted in sometimes hideous fashion - they are not a special team.

If they block well enough and move the football on the ground better than the other team, they win. If the opponent forces its will upon the Steelers, the other phases of their game are usually not developed enough to compensate.

No doubt, the Steelers have three of the finest starting defensive linemen in the league (ends Aaron Smith and Brett Keisel and nose tackle Casey Hampton), but when they suffered a letdown against the New York Jets on Nov. 11 and running back Thomas Jones ran for 117 yards, the team lost.

It was only the second time in 35 games that an opposing runner has found enough seams in the Steelers' line to break the 100-yard barrier, and they have lost in both instances.

Only twice in this season's first 10 games did the opponent amass more rushing yardage than the Steelers (77-86 against the Arizona Cardinals and 112-151 against the Jets). The result was the same - defeat.

There was no apparent explanation for what happened against the Jets in New Jersey. The Steelers had allowed only 104 total yards on the ground in the previous two games, and Smith appeared to be getting healthy again after a knee injury forced him to miss two of the past three games. Hampton, the big man in the middle and the key to it all, was five games removed from his only injury-forced absence of the season.

Jones, the Chicago Bears' starter during their Super Bowl run last season, was the first back since Edgerrin James, then of the Indianapolis Colts, to get 100 against the Steelers. The long spell of success didn't make Steelers coach Mike Tomlin any more pleased when it was broken.

"Thomas Jones ran the (darn) ball on us," Tomlin said. "Their ability to run the football was based on our inability to tackle. We missed more tackles than I've ever seen us miss."

Maybe it was an aberration, one of those things that just happens in a long season. Maybe history-recent and far in the past-tells Steelers fans not to worry.

Because, know this: If the Steelers had not made the defensive line a priority throughout the past four decades, they would not own five Super Bowl trophies.

Let's go back to when it all began: 1969, the first year of the Chuck Noll era - one of the most successful time periods enjoyed by one coach in the history of the National Football League.

Noll knew that a team needed to be strong on the line, so he made his first draft choice a relatively little-known defensive lineman from North Texas State - future Hall of Famer Joe Greene.

Now, Greene was as mean and nasty as any football player who prowled the fields of the NFL, and he became the center of the dynasty that Noll built.

But Greene was only the beginning. Noll never was one to do anything to excess, and he drafted only three defensive linemen among his17 picks that year, but two of them were Greene and defensive end L.C. Greenwood.

Two years later, the Steelers drafted Dwight White in the fourth round and Fats Holmes in the eighth, and the Steel Curtain was born.

The next year (1972), when rookie Steve Furness was added for depth with a fifth-round pick, the Steelers went to the playoffs for the first time in a quarter-century and won the first postseason game in their history. The juxtaposition of the formation of the greatest defensive line of all-time and unprecedented Steelers success was no accident. Everyone talks about Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris and the Immaculate Reception that season, but the Steelers also had 40 sacks in 14 games.

The Steelers felt so strongly about fortifying their defensive line that in the 1980s, they force-fed three of the worst No. 1 draft picks of all time onto the roster (defensive ends Keith Gary in 1981, Darryl Sims in 1985 and Aaron Jones in 1988). None of the three players ever led the team in sacks in a season or finished among the franchise's top 15 all-time sack artists. Jones played four seasons; Sims only two.

But the point is clear: The Steelers saw the value in good defensive linemen, even if they weren't always efficient in identifying them.

But when the Steelers became contenders again, they did it because nose tackles Joel Steed and Casey Hampton and ends Ray Seals and Aaron Smith, among others, were playing at a high level. Smith is one of the greatest defensive ends in team history with 35 1/2 sacks (ninth all-time). Only Keith Willis has more sacks than Smith among Steelers ends who did not play on the Steel Curtain. Hampton, meanwhile, has been to three Pro Bowls. Smith brings that rare combination of impressive size, 6-foot-5, 298 pounds, and light feet that allows him to navigate through heavy traffic on the line and to slip through small spaces. Hampton clogs the middle with his ample frame, 6-1, 325, and surprising agility.

The third starter, right defensive end Brett Keisel, is a late-round gem (seventh round from Brigham Young) who helped make the 2002 draft (Kendall Simmons, Antwaan Randle-El, Chris Hope, Larry Foote, Verron Haynes and Keisel) one of the best in the Kevin Colbert era. Keisel is versatile enough to have five passes defensed, to go with his 29 tackles and a sack in 10 games this season.

Veteran linemen Chris Hoke, Travis Kirschke and Nick Eason provide the kind of depth that allows assistant head coach/defensive line coach John Mitchell to rotate his people, keeping them fresh. Mitchell is an excellent position coach who has been with the Steelers since 1994, surviving the bad times because his players always were well-prepared.

None of the six defensive linemen have been in the NFL fewer than five seasons. Is it any wonder that, through 10 games, the opposing quarterback has been harrassed (28 sacks) almost as much as the Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger (30)? And, considering the way Roethlisberger is forced to repeatedly run out of the pocket, that's saying something.

The Steelers' run defense remains one of the best in the league, in large part due to the team's basic philosophy of running the ball and stopping the run. Jones knew he did something special when he became the first back to gain 100 yards against the Steelers in three seasons.

"There are a lot of good running backs in the league. To stop that many backs from getting 100 yards in a game, that's hard to do," Jones said. "They have a great run defense, a very aggressive defense. Against that type of defense, you have to get yards after contact. I ran as hard as I could and finished off runs."

Despite that failure, the Steelers had the best defense in the NFL through 10 games in two categories (an average of 236.2 yards per game and 145 points).They had allowed only 79.9 on the ground.

Can they sustain that type of success through the month of December as the team lunges for that all-important No. 2 seed in the AFC and the first-round playoff bye that goes with it?

It won't be easy.

Running backs Fred Taylor and Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Steven Jackson of the St. Louis Rams and Willie McGahee of the Baltimore Ravens remain on the schedule. That's a lineup that will test any line.

And then there's the New England Patriots on Dec. 9 in Foxboro, Mass. No quarterback is more comfortable in the pocket than Tom Brady. If the line can put pressure on Brady-and it will need help from blitzing linebackers if defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau dares to leave the passing lanes vulnerable-the Steelers can be competitive against the Patriots.

If not, what Thomas Jones did will seem tame in comparison.