Steelers defense regains form as offense awakens vs. Colts - TribLIVE

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A sputtering offense shouldered most of the blame for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ collapse in December, and deservedly so. But a once-dominant defense was not without culpability during a fall from 11-0 to three consecutive defeats.

Eight plays into the second half of Sunday’s game against Indianapolis, the Colts already had amassed 288 yards of offense against the Steelers and were seconds away from scoring for a fourth time and taking a commanding lead.

But a Stephon Tuitt sack made that score a field goal instead of a touchdown, and if that wasn’t the turning point for the Steelers defense in a 28-24 win, it came minutes later when the unit forced a three-and-out after the Colts took over at their own 2 yard-line.

Either way, after the Colts had almost 300 yards, 24 points and 15 first downs over the first 36 minutes, they managed just 77 yards, five first downs and no points over the game’s final 24 minutes.

“We had a slow start,” Tuitt said, “but we came back out in the second half and made the plays we needed to make. And I think, in the second half, we played great team football.”

The offense did its part with four long drives and three touchdowns after halftime. But the efforts of the defense shouldn’t be overlooked.

Although it allowed Indianapolis to drive to the Steelers 3-yard line on the first possession of the second half, the Tuitt sack limited the Colts to a field goal. Three consecutive short drives — two three-and-outs and one that featured one first down — followed while the Steelers offense roared back from a 24-7 deficit.

The first of those stops was after coach Mike Tomlin made the decision to go for it on a fourth-and-goal in the third quarter. The play was unsuccessful, but the message was sent.

“We had a lot of confidence in our defense’s ability to leave them down there,” Tomlin said. “Now, that’s easier said than done.”

A stuffed run, forced incompletion and harmless dump-off later, though, it was mission accomplished.

“I appreciate the efforts in terms of making that real,” Tomlin said.

Set up at the Indianapolis 39 after a punt, the Steelers offense struck immediately on a Diontae Johnson touchdown reception. It gave them enough momentum to never look back.

“The defense gets off the field, offense gets a quick touchdown,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “You could just feel like, ‘OK, let’s just ride this wave a little bit.’ And we just kept battling back.”

The offense was scoring. The defense was rattling Philip Rivers, sacking him on consecutive drives. It also shut down the Colts’ running game, limiting star rookie running back Jonathan Taylor to 25 second-half rushing yards.

“We didn’t have enough answers to combat what they were doing,” Colts coach Frank Reich said.

Though the biggest defensive play of the game for the Steelers came on a strip-sack of Rivers during the first quarter that set up a 3-yard Steelers drive for a touchdown, the biggest splash of the second half was an interception by Mike Hilton with 6 minutes, 5 seconds left.

In all, the defense had two takeaways, five sacks, seven QB hits and two tackles for loss on running plays.

“I just can’t say enough about our defense in the second half,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said, “kind of shutting them down, getting us the ball, guys making plays on offense. It was a lot of fun.”

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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at cadamski@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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