Socci’s Notebook: As the Steelers try to stop, and start, the Patriots look to keep it going

Start with the nickname: “Steelers.” And the logo on the side of the helmet, the tri-colored, four-pointed stars called hypocycloids, adopted from the American Iron and Steel Institute and designed to represent the coal, iron ore and scrap metal used to produce steel.

Then picture the franchise’s real icons. 

The  ‘Steel Curtain’ defense of the seventies led by a scowling Jack Lambert, missing his front teeth, and an equally legendary tackle renowned as Mean Joe (Greene). And the offense of the same era whose quarterback, Terry Bradshaw, was a ‘Ragin’ Cajun’ with a retreating hairline and protruding chin and whose star back, Franco Harris, ran behind a Vietnam vet at fullback named Rocky (Bleier) and was followed by a fan brigade known as his 'Italian Army.'  

Or more recently, the 251-pound ‘Bus’ Jerome Bettis, barrelling into the endzone, and 241-pound quarterback ‘Big Ben’ (Roethlisberger), repelling defenders from his tree-trunk legs. And the receiver (Hines Ward) worthy of being a Hall of Fame semifinalist, respected as much for his blocking as his pass-catching; the Polynesian playmaker on defense (Troy Palamalu) whose long, dark curls looked like his cape as he leaped over the line; and the pass rusher (James Harrison) who bench-pressed 500 pounds of iron and 300 pounds of a lineman to take down opposing quarterbacks.

All playing to the delirium of proudly self-proclaimed ‘Yinzers’ twirling ‘Terrible Towels’ and, in many cases, crushing cans of Iron City.

Tough as steel. Tough as the town they represented. That’s what Pittsburgh’s team was in its best of times. Tough to run on. Tough to stop. Tough to beat.

In some respects, the Steelers still are, 21 seasons after they last finished with a losing record. When games are tight, like their Week 1, 34-32 win over the Jets, nobody in the NFL has been better; Pittsburgh is 16-6 in its last 22 games decided by eight points or fewer. Mainly because the Steelers don’t beat themselves. Since 2023, they are a league-best plus-28 in turnover margin. In that same span, the number of penalties they committed were among the 10 fewest totals. So far this year, they’ve had only six, tied with Seattle for the NFL’s fewest.

At the same time, however, the Steelers haven't resembled their usually sturdy selves on defense. They’ve allowed nearly 300 yards rushing (299) and 800 yards of total offense (789), while surrendering at least 31 points in each of their first two games for the first time since 2002.

Pittsburgh’s porousness is partly, if not largely due to injuries. Entering last Sunday’s 31-17 home loss to Seattle, the Steelers were without starting defensive lineman Derrick Harmon, safety DeShon Elliott and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. Exiting it, they are without linebacker Alex Highsmith and lineman Isaiah Loudermilk, after each suffered a high ankle sprain vs. the Seahawks.

Bankrolling the league’s highest-paid defense, the Steelers continue to field stars T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward. Between them, edge-rusher Watt and tackle Heyward have 196½ career sacks and 259 tackles for loss. Cornerbacks Darius Slay and Jalen Ramsey, rank fourth and fifth among the NFL’s active leaders with 28 and 25 career interceptions, respectively. Watt, Heyward, Ramsey, Highsmith and linebacker Patrick Queen all have salary cap figures north of $17.5 million.

Yet, the whole isn't equaling the sum of their parts, or paychecks.

“The first note of every single week is 'smash the run,' and you guys have heard me say for nine years, we're always trying to smash the run,” Watt told reporters on Sunday. “And it's not a lack of trying, schematically, effort. I don't know.”

One can be sure as Watt and company (1-1) visit Foxborough this Sunday, the Patriots (1-1) will quickly probe to see if they’ve figured it out. Following a pass-heavy loss to the Raiders, the Pats netted 122 rushing yards – granted, 31 were by quarterback Drake Maye – in their 33-27 win last weekend at Miami.

“Most of us playcallers and coordinators want to try to maintain balance,” offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels said on Thursday. “That helps every aspect of your team and your game. We wanted to try to do that Week 1. We didn’t accomplish it. I told you last week I needed to do a better job (and) I think our guys executed well.”

Looking ahead at Pittsburgh, McDaniels surely noted the success his Seahawks’ counterpart Klint Kubiak enjoyed with a run-pass ratio of 35 dropbacks to 29 running plays; one of which went for a touchdown by Kenneth Walker on 3rd-and-goal from the 19-yard line. That’s certainly a play stuck in the craw of Heyward, the 15-year vet and seven-time Pro Bowler.

“I think it’s about being aware. A couple of times, we had them on third-and-long. I think that third-and-19 was just unforgivable,” Heyward said in a midweek press conference. “You look at that situation, you’ve gotta know they’re playing a lot of safe football there, and, if you give up any yards, it can’t be for a touchdown. Gotta take good angles, can’t go behind blocks, gotta get off blocks. And so all of those are included in the run game, but understanding what an offense is trying to do in those situations.”

Adding to Heyward’s remarks, Slay mentioned the mounting injuries. Safety Juan Thornhill pointed to communication breakdowns amid the din of a home crowd trying to make it hard for the Seahawks to hear on offense and sounded a cautionary note, following wholesale offseason personnel changes. It takes time, he said, it’s just Week 3.

“Everyone wants us to be great right now, but we have a bunch of new guys together who really haven’t had a ton of game experience together,” Thornhill said, per Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I’m not panicking whatsoever.”

While Thornhill lays off the panic button, don’t think for a second that the Pats believe pounding the rock this Sunday will be as simple as punching the ‘easy button.’ Not with a proud competitor like Heyward over the ball.

“I played against him a few years ago,” Patriots center Garrett Bradbury said, referencing a 2021 game between his former team, the Vikings, and Heyward’s Steelers. “Anyone that's in the trenches that's played that well, that long, you have to have a lot of respect for. He’s earned all the respect from me. Kind of becoming a veteran myself, you don't make it in this league long unless you're still doing it at a high level.

“He’s a good player, he’s going to be a good test for us. It’s incredible at that position. Same team, doing it at a high level. So yeah, he's a good player.”

Bradbury, who’s started 90 games in his career, has lived the weekly toll of playing in the trenches for seven NFL seasons. He marvels at the durability Heyward’s shown withstanding that punishment for twice as long, and now at age 36. 

“It's a grind man. It's a mental and physical grind, because once camp starts, you don't feel a hundred percent until February, March probably," Bradbury said. "But that's part of the job, especially in the trenches. There's always going to be something that's kind of there or lingering and so yeah, it's just the longer you play in this league, you feel more and more things.

“But I feel like other things kind of step up, like the experience, the knowledge of the game. You've seen more things. So it's give or take. Experience is a good thing, but you also feel it sometimes.”

By late Sunday afternoon, when Heyward’s 214th regular-season game is in the books, we’ll know if the knowledge he’s tried to impart on teammates this week and, to Thornhill’s point, one more game of experience together has helped the Steelers improve on their season-opening performances. 

Or, of course, whether the Patriots are able to execute again to McDaniels’ liking and pick up where the Seahawks left off. 

Through two weeks, the Steelers have not only struggled to stop the run, they’ve been unable to get their own ground game going. With former lead back Najee Harris in Los Angeles as a Charger, Pittsburgh is averaging 62.5 rushing yards per game and 3.05 yards a carry. Only two teams rank below them in both categories.

Fourth-year running back Jaylen Warren has gained just 85 yards off 25 attempts (3.4 average), but seemingly has the ability to add a lot more as a ballcarrier. Why so? Check out what he does after the catch on his 65-yard ‘reception’ in Sunday’s loss to Seattle. Warren also has two career 100-yard rushing performances on his resume. 

Backfield mate Kenneth Gainwell was very productive in the 2022-23 playoffs, helping Philadelphia to Super Bowl LVI. But he has since been more of a factor on special teams for the Eagles and Steelers.

One reason for Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to build more runs into Sunday’s gameplan is the lack of success quarterback Aaron Rodgers had on play-action passes vs. Seattle. According to reporter Christopher Carter of the Post-Gazette, Rodgers completed only one pass for five yards in five play-action dropbacks. 

And one way for the Patriots to dissuade Smith from sticking to the run is by defending it as well in Week 3 as they did in their first two games. They enter Sunday with the NFL’s third-best rushing defense, yielding 3.0 yards a carry and 58.5 yards a game.

If you look at his bio, you’ll see that Patriots third-year punter Bryce Baringer never had any of his first 176 career punts blocked. Technically, true. But in reality, there’s a rub.

When the Pats won in Pittsburgh, 21-18, on Thursday of Week 14 in 2023, a third of Baringer’s punts pinned the Steelers inside their 20-yard line. Three other punts set them up at either the 21- or 20-yard line. 

But holding a 21-10 lead early in the fourth quarter and punting from his own 15-yard line, Baringer had his kick tipped by Steelers’ ace Miles Killebrew. The punt traveled past the line of scrimmage, bounding 11 yards and, therefore, wasn’t recorded as a block. 

Nonetheless, Pittsburgh’s public relations staff makes sure that Killebrew’s deflection, which set up a touchdown and two-point conversion, isn’t forgotten altogether. It’s not lost on Baringer either, who also knows full well about Killebrew’s league-leading three official blocked punts since the start of 2021.

“He’s a really, really damn good player at what he does. And he's done it at a really high level for a long time. He's an animal. He's someone that can change a game. Obviously, we’ve seen him do it in the past.” 

“They've got a lot of really good core (special teams) guys. Him, (Ben) Skowronek, Connor Heyward, who I played with at Michigan State, (James) Pierre at gunner. (Ex-Patriot) Corliss (Waitman) has done a really good job punting too. It will be good to see him again. And then 'Boz' (kicker Chris Boswell) obviously is pretty much ‘nails,’ so it'll be fun to get with those guys, compete with them, and just put our best foot forward.”

Baringer's best foot is his right. Waitman's is his left. 

Time was in New England, before right-footer Jake Bailey was drafted by Bill Belichick in 2019, lefties punting for the Pats were the norm. Lee Johnson, Josh Miller, Chris Hanson, Zoltan Mesko and Ryan Allen punted for Belichick left-footed. So did Michael Palardy, filling in for an injured Bailey in 2022, and Waitman, who competed with Baringer in the summer of 2023.

Lefties are relatively rare across the league and produce a counterclockwise spin of the ball from the punter’s point of view, and their punts fade to the returner’s right. It's exactly the opposite for right-footers.

Therefore, it’s long been commonplace for teams to bring in left-footed punters for workouts the same week they’re scheduled to face one in a game. Waitman has said in the past that his in-season visits as a free agent often served a dual purpose. He got a look from a team, and gave that team a (left-footed) look in preparation for its next opponent. 

In fact, before Waitman punted in this year’s opener at New York, the Jets prepared for him by working out free agent Colton Spangler. A lefty, naturally.

Awaiting Corliss on Sunday, New England’s Marcus Jones had a chance in an Aug. 6 joint practice to catch punts from Washington’s lefty Tress Way. But, special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer said this week the Pats punted on the idea of dialing up another left-footer. 

“We’ve got JUGS machines, and you can put a lefty spin on it,” Springer said, “It’s 2025, baby.”

Bob Socci is in his 13th season calling play-by-play for the Patriots Radio Network on 98.5 The Sports Hub. He'll join Scott Zolak for the broadcast of Patriots vs. Steelers at 1 p.m. on Sunday.