Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz (11.16.23)
You’ve been through losing a starting quarterback and seeing a team make quite a run. Have you shared some of that experience this week or did you feel the need to?
“Yeah, we share a lot of experiences with players. One of the benefits of being in this league for so long, 31 years now. You’ve seen an awful lot and you’ve seen teams overcome an awful lot. You’ve also seen teams be derailed by different things. So, we’re always pointing out things like that. I think that we’ve seen throughout the year, we’ve seen guys step up and be productive in roles. It’s just that the quarterback position is such a high-profile position, right? It’s the one that everybody sees. But when it comes to the players, when it comes to the coaches, when it comes to the locker room, you know, plug the next guy in and still be productive. And I think all players have that kind of mentality and things.”
At the beginning of the year, you talked about not wanting to use guys a ton. I think Myles (Garrett) played a real high percentage of snaps against Baltimore. Is that just you get to that point of the year?
“It was a big game. Yeah, you know, I think that’s one of the benefits of being disciplined in certain times and trying to keep snap counts down. When there comes a time like that you can go out and play. I mean, I’ve been on different defenses where we rotated pretty well through the season. We got to the playoffs and rotation wasn’t the same. I think that it’s part of the plan. It’s not just the D line we’ve been rotating our linebackers through, trying to keep those guys fresh, even rotating our corners a little bit. When some of those guys have had to be out there an awful lot, we play a lot of man and it’s hard on those guys. So I think the benefit of taking that approach is when it comes time, the guys like Myles can go out and play those things. One of the best plays I’ve seen Myles make was that last third down stop when he was running the chase down Lamar (Jackson). Now Z (Za’Darius Smith) probably gets him. Z clips his heels. Him and Z were just going and he’s probably going to go down. But Myles is running, and just unusual for such a big man like that, he’s running like a DB and cleans him up and makes sure that we get the ball back there. And I think that you’d like to think that his freshness in that situation was the discipline from certain times during the year. A lot of great players don’t like to be taken off the field, but as long as you can sell them on the plan and show them the vision, I think they all buy-in. But that last series, and it really wasn’t just the last series, it was the fourth quarter. We’ve done some good things on defense this year, but the most impressed I’ve been with our defense has been the attitude that they had in that fourth quarter. You guys aren’t on the sideline, but you could feel it. You could feel it down in your soul. Those guys had a tenacity that I hadn’t seen from them before, and I think that was a huge step for us. I think some of that was our failure in that situation against Seattle, and failure is a wicked teacher, right? But some of those lessons, and our guys were, we’re down seven, we get that stop, we fumble the punt, we get a stop, we get a penalty, we get a stop, we get a penalty, we give up a touchdown, we go out and score, miss an extra point, come back. And that last drive, I thought that was a huge step. And you saw that with the effort that both Z and Myles were playing with in that situation. So long answer to a short question.”
What can you say, about Myles, that he has made so many game-changing plays this year?
“You know, that comes with the job description of being an elite player in the NFL. And when it’s a big game, your big players need to play well. He understands that. He knows that. Some of those plays were game-changing plays. They’re right around midfield getting ready to potentially score if they can get another first down. And our guys do a good job in coverage, hold the ball just a little bit for Myles to be able to get there and make the sack. And he feeds off those other guys. The other guys were rushing really well, particularly inside. I thought Z, even though he didn’t fill up the stat sheet, Z had a really disruptive day rushing the passer, and it made a big difference, like I said. But the biggest thing in there, you can take all the things away. The biggest thing I thought was just the tenacity that we saw from the team. And I don’t know if you guys could see it from the box or watch it on TV or whatever, but you could feel it on the sideline. And I thought that was a big step for us defensively.”
Is there a difference between being a great player and making a lot of great plays and then making those plays in the game that you’re just describing those big games that really matter?
“Yeah, I mean, that’s what this league is all about. That was a road game against really one of the best teams in the NFL, was leading our division. They had beat us at home. We needed to go return the favor. So, when you put the criteria for a big game, that’s pretty close. When you’re not in the playoffs, at the end of the season, and we’re only middle of the season right now, but that was a big game, and those great players have a tendency to show up in those big plays. I think we saw that from Myles. We saw that from a lot of guys on our team.”
The Steelers are 6-0 in one score game, they seem to drag you into that tight game and then come out on top at the end. Is that the way you handicap them and look at them?
“Well, if you just look at their offensive stats, it’s not eye-popping, but you look at their win total. I think I’ve been on the record of saying how we’re doing is always 5-3, 6-3. That’s how we do. And I think Pittsburgh lives that a little bit. The stat that pops out the most about them is their turnovers. They don’t turn the ball over. Now, we got two in the first game, but their defense got three, four, whatever it was, and they’re one of the best teams in the NFL at turnover margin. And we all know what an indicator for winning games is. And that’s our big challenge, is taking the ball away from those guys because they do a good job of taking care of the ball, and that puts them in the win column more often than not.”
What are you hearing from your guys or sensing from your guys in the wake of the loss of Deshaun Watson, just in terms of what they still hope to achieve or accomplish?
“Yeah, I think there’s a resilience that goes to players that they understand that injuries are part of the game and they’ve lived through a bunch of them. I think it gives them a little bit more resolve, but we need to be careful. It’s a little bit like I talked about after our first couple of weeks of the season where we weren’t getting turnovers, we weren’t getting takeaways. And we talked about, look, you can try to do too much and press, and you can give up a lot of plays and you can defeat the purpose. And we just need to do our job and do it with a nasty physical attitude. And turnovers will come and they have, and I think it’s the same thing when you’re talking about an injured player, particularly a quarterback. We have to resist the urge to try to do too much and to play outside of what we do, because what we do is enough and just make the plays that come to us. Do it with some physicality, do it with some great effort and some great spirit, and all those things will take care of itself. And that’s the best way that we can honor Deshaun, and that’s the best way that we can help out DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson).”
You think those penalties after that muff punt were legitimate called on you guys?
“Yeah, nice try. You’re not getting me on that. They were called, and I think that you got to be careful with your hands down there. And they’re called. Whatever’s called on the field, we got to go play. So, we try not to officiate. Our job is to go play defense and to do it with some toughness and some physicality. And even though we gave up a touchdown there, like I said, that just increased our determination. I think our guys really. I thought they really showed some maturity, and they really showed, I don’t know what the word is, but they really showed something there, and I think that’s it. We try to play clean. We try to do it as physical and as tough and as fast as we can. If the officials throw a penalty, it’s our job to come back the next play and play even better. We didn’t get the job done in that situation. Would really be nice to have the turnover count or to hold them to a field goal right there. But after we got the win, Jeff (Schudel), I think long term, maybe it serves us a little bit, like said – this is all just learning opportunities. And you learn from failure, sometimes a lot better than success. And I think that’s probably anything that you do in life. Failure is a wicked teacher, and we learned in that situation, penalty can change the game. And we had our resolve that weren’t going to allow it to affect us. And went out the next series and got a huge – I thought that was such a turning point for us, not only as a defense but as a team, being able to get that stop, get the ball back and go win that game, make that kick. I know our fans felt probably the same way. Because that game didn’t always look so good early in the game.”
(Kenny) Pickett seems to play his best football in the fourth quarter. What do you think of that?
“I don’t know if I’ve really studied him that way. We just look at the whole body of work. But you’d always respect that about a player. When the game is on the line, it’s time to go make plays. It’s our job to go make plays in the fourth quarter, too. So that would be a great matchup on Sunday.”
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