Steelers News: The Steelers turning around their 0-3 season starts with stopping the run

The Pittsburgh Steelers are moving into Week 4 of the NFL regular season, and as the team prepares for the Cincinnati Bengals, we continue to provide you with features, commentary and opinions to tide you over until the season starts!

Today in the black-and-gold links article we take a look at how if the Steelers want to claw their way out of this 0-3 hole they’ve dug for themselves, they have to start stopping the run on defense.

Let’s get to the news:

• The Pittsburgh Steelers are off to a bad start, and that might be putting it mildly. So, where do they start rebounding from their 0-3 start? How about stopping the run.

Turning around Steelers’ 0-3 start begins with stopping the run

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The point of emphasis this week is so engrained into the psyche of the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive players T.J. Watt would not allow a reporter to finish asking the question.

“How does the Steelers defense get to being what it wants and needs to …”

“Stop the damn run!” Watt interrupted. “That’s No. 1 — stop the run.”

It became clear during an open locker room session Tuesday — two days after the Steelers lost their third consecutive game to open the season — the defense believes stopping the run is best way it can play a part in snapping the Steelers out of their funk.

“Gotta stop the run,” safety Terrell Edmunds said. “That’s a big emphasis right now.”

For prior versions of the Steelers defense, stopping the run was not only emphasized but was their identity. For the better part of a decade, opposing offenses would not bother putting much of a rushing attack into their gameplan. If they did, it was often abandoned after a few futile attempts.

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• After being held without a carry or reception in Week 3, Jaylen Samuels is willing to do whatever to help the team win.

Steelers’ Jaylen Samuels willing to play tight end, not willing to question his lack of usage

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Samuels is certainly well aware that he was not given a carry or targeted with a pass during Sunday’s loss at the San Francisco 49ers. But if the versatile second-year pro was angry about it, he sure didn’t show it when speaking to media Tuesday.

“As a running back you always do want to run the ball more, but whatever the team needs to do to win, we are willing to do,” Samuels said.

“We‘ve just got to execute as a team, whether that’s running the ball or throwing the ball, we’ve just got to go out there and execute the gameplan.”

Samuels played 14 snaps Sunday, 22 fewer than starting running back James Conner and 11 more than rookie running back Benny Snell. Conner had 13 carries and five passes thrown his way; Snell had three carries. Conner gained 57 yards on his touches, Snell netted 6 yards.

Samuels has averaged 4.6 yards per carry and 7.6 yards per reception in his career.

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• While three games doesn’t make an entire NFL season, starting 0-4 would be a death knell for the Steelers — and they know it.

‘Every game is critical’

By: Mike Prisuta, Steelers.com

Mason Rudolph can’t afford to warm up to his new role as the starting quarterback, not with the Steelers off to an 0-3 start.

But Rudolph wouldn’t expect the benefit of a learning curve in the best of times.

“Every game’s critical,” Rudolph observed late Sunday afternoon following a 24-20 loss to the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium. “Every game, whether you’re 2-0 or 0-2 going into this game, every game’s critical. Whether it’s division or you’re outside of the division, man, that’s how I treat it.

“Obviously, 0-3 start, we’re gonna put the pressure on ourselves to go and compete. We’re not going to need to hear anything from the coaches. Those guys in the locker room are self-starters and they’re gonna want to rally together and get back to work.”

The work begins this week for Cincinnati next Monday night at Heinz Field, the first of a two-game stretch in the AFC North Division that will also include a hosting of the Baltimore Ravens on Oct. 6.

The work Rudolph put in against the 49ers, the first starting assignment of his two-year NFL career produced a couple of big plays but, in Rudolph’s estimation, not enough early splash.

He finished 14-for-27 passing, for 174 yards, with two touchdowns, one interception and a passer rating of 81.4.

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