The Pittsburgh Steelers shut down the Atlanta Falcons\u2019 offense in Week 1 for the most part. They held star RB Bijan Robinson largely in check, limiting him to 83 yards rushing on 23 carries. He did do damage in the passing game, catching eight passes for 90 yards and a touchdown, though.<\/p>\n
However, the defense responded with a touchdown of its when OLB T.J. Watt snagged his first career pick-six in the fourth quarter. That capped a stellar performance that earned Watt the AFC Defensive Player of the Week award<\/a>.<\/p>\n Watt was certainly the highlight of a defense that locked up the Falcons\u2019 offense all game. The performance certainly caught analyst Brian Baldinger\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cI texted our buddy, Andy Weidl, after watching the defense,\u201d Baldinger said Thursday on Move The Sticks with Daniel Jeremiah<\/a>. \u201cI said they got a chance to be the best defense in football. But they might lead the league in takeaways. They\u2019ve got a chance. With their speed, youth, combination of the vets, and what Cam Heyward, he leads the league right now in deflected passes, batted balls. And T.J.\u2019s in the passing lanes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got a chance to be really good. And they know it\u2026 All those young guys, [Nick] Herbig, [T.J.] Sawyer, Yayha Black, all those guys are going to be good players. Payton Wilson already is. They\u2019ve got horses everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, Baldinger thought highly enough of what he saw to reach out to Weidl with his thoughts. And perhaps Weidly agrees with Baldinger on the state of the Steelers\u2019 defense, based on Baldinger saying, \u201cAnd they know it.\u201d<\/p>\n The Steelers held the Falcons to 238 total yards of offense. They sacked Falcons QB Cooper Rush four times and forced two turnovers. The Falcons only managed 3.9 yards per rush, too.<\/p>\n The Steelers could not have asked for much better of a defensive start to the season. The performance, statistically and on tape, has Baldinger excited for what the Steelers\u2019 defense could do this season.<\/p>\n The offense was not as good as people hoped, though. With the Falcons\u2019 top two pass rushers out, QB Aaron Rodgers and the new-look offense under new head coach Mike McCarthy weren\u2019t able to take advantage.<\/p>\n The Steelers only scored 20 points, and the defense accounted for one of their two touchdowns. Rodgers only completed 24 of his 40 passing attempts for 221 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n However, the statistics do not tell the whole story of the offense. After the game, Rodgers talked about how the offense \u201cdid a lot of good things<\/a>\u201d process-wise, but the results just weren\u2019t there. Some of the issues were self-inflicted, like drops.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they would catch the ball in that game, if the receivers caught the ball, they\u2019re putting 40 up,\u201d Baldinger said. \u201cAaron couldn\u2019t put it any better than he did to DK [Metcalf] a couple of times, to Roman Wilson. The ball\u2019s right there on the tee. He\u2019s gotta squeeze it.\u201d<\/p>\n