Steelers Identity Shift Paying Big Dividends with Potent Offensive Attack

The Pittsburgh Steelers defense still isn't what it used to be, and that's OK.

In Week 3, the Steelers (2-1) took down a good Carolina Panthers (2-1) team 37-19 in Carolina. Though it's still early on in the season, the Steelers look like possible contenders—if not for the AFC North, then at least for an AFC wild-card spot (especially if those are as easy to come by as they were last season).

For decades, the "Steel Curtain" moniker has stuck with Pittsburgh, thanks to a devastating defense which always seemed to restock the cupboards faster than age or attrition could ever deal with. Since 2004, a big part of that has been the fantastic coaching of defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, who will go down in NFL lore as one of the most prolific defensive masterminds in the history of the game.

Now?

The Steelers' defensive cupboards are looking like Mother Hubbard has been doing the shopping, and it is the offense that is winning games for them. 

It's not the Steelers we're used to, but it's a Steelers team that can win football games. 

Good Isn't Good Enough When Defensive Greatness Is the Standard

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The whole "Steelers are getting old" meme has been overused for some time. 

Jimmy Kempski of Philly.com compiles age data for all 32 teams every season and has found that the Steelers' average age has hung around the 26-26.5 mark for the past couple of years.

Although they've recently been in the mid- to late 20s in terms of rank, that number dropped to 18th this year, showing that the Steelers—as a team—are getting younger and not older. 

The defense, specifically, has added plenty of younger key players in recent years. The linebacking corps of Ryan Shazier (22), Lawrence Timmons (28), Jarvis Jones (24) and Jason Worilds (26) is hardly applying for AARP anytime soon. Other young players such as defensive end Cameron Heyward (25) and cornerback Cortez Allen (25) are helping drive down that average as well. 

Honestly, the only reason people still think of the Steelers as an "aging" team is because of the visibility of players such as safety Troy Polamalu (33) and cornerback Ike Taylor (34). 

The problem isn't age; it's talent. Bob Labriola shared some insight about the Steelers defense:

To be more precise: The Steelers used to have one of the best "home run" swings in NFL talent acquisition. For the longest time, it seemed as if every time they went digging in the rough, they'd pop out with a diamond. It wasn't just that they were better—they were unconventionally so. 

Players such as linebacker James Harrison and defensive ends Brett Keisel and Aaron Smith were huge parts of a Steelers team that struck fear in the hearts of its opponents, but that's an undrafted free agent, a seventh-round pick and a fourth-rounder. 

I hate to use the term luck, but in the grand history of mid- to late-round draft picks, the Steelers were statistically ahead of the game for a while there. 

Timmons, Worilds and Jones aren't on the level of those guys. Shazier can be but not yet. The defensive line—once a proud league's-best kind of unit—is in shambles with subpar play that almost makes me pine for the days of the always underachieving Ziggy Hood (almost, not quite).

The defensive backfield should've moved on from Taylor years ago, and Polamalu is officially a shell of his former self, but it has some promise in Allen and recently acquired safety Mike Mitchell. A well-placed draft pick or signing could perk up this group in no time. 

The problem isn't that the Steelers haven't been adding good talent—they have. No, the problem is that "good" was never the standard before. The standard was getting pick after pick right and finding themselves stocked with players heading either to the Hall of Fame or at least the Steelers' ring of honor some day. 

It was an incredible run of talent acquisition, but those days look to be over. 

Frankly, even if the Steelers find themselves with a statistically sound defense once again (they entered Week 3 ranked 19th in total yardage), it could be a generation before they find that Steel Curtain mentality once again...if ever. 

This Is Officially Big Ben Roethlisberger's Team, and It's Set Up to Score Massive Points

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Guess what: None of that really matters. 

We can mourn for the Steelers' defensive dominance. Well, you can. I won't. Teams that don't move on from their past are doomed to be stuck in neutral, and that's exactly where the Steelers had been for some time. Instead, it would be much better to move past our paradigm of what Steelers football should look like and get excited about the team that is on the field. 

Brake-pumping moment, first: This Steelers unit is not a great team. Its offense has the ability to be great, but it's solidly on the cusp and will likely have a few more games like Week 2's sad performance against the Baltimore Ravens. 

Don't take the negative things I say about the Steelers defense as "Haterade," and don't take the good things I'm about to say as "Kool-Aid." Really, I'm just saying that if the Steelers are going to find success this season, we have to stop looking at the wrong side of the ball. 

These aren't your daddy's Steelers. Football Outsiders' Scott Kacsmar shared an observation about the Steelers' performance:

It all starts with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was masterful on Sunday Night Football against the Panthers, passing for 196 yards and two touchdowns, hitting on 22 of 30 attempts. Those aren't video-game numbers, but Big Ben spent the night beating the Panthers defense like a snare drum, connecting with wide receiver Antonio Brown 10 times on 10 targets. 

Roethlisberger moved inside the pocket, outside the pocket and every which way but loose as he extended plays, eluded rushers and willed his receiver open. 

More could and should be said about Brown, but I'll leave it at this: He's gone from a one-tool speedster out on the perimeter to being one of the top five receivers in the entire league. It's a level of growth that few prospects could hope for, and if he doesn't make that leap over the past couple of seasons, this is a totally different team. 

Running backs Le'Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount both eclipsed 100 yards on the day with 147 and 118, respectively. Bell has been revelatory this season as he's lost weight since his rookie year and is a completely different back than the one the Steelers drafted out of Michigan State. 

His run of 81 yards against the Panthers? That doesn't happen in 2013. 

In 2013, those 81 yards get stopped at the second level for a gain of 14, 24 if he runs over a couple more people. It isn't just that Bell is a better back (he is—he totally is). It's that he's more dynamic. He's become a back who can beat opponents in any number of ways and isn't limited to just pounding the rock over and over again, hoping the defense wears down before he does. 

The Indianapolis Colts' Trent Richardson should take some notes. 

Blount, then, has taken over that role, applying "Blount-force trauma" (bad-pun alert) to defenses. It showed at the end of Sunday night as the Panthers defense simply didn't want to tackle him anymore, and he scampered (using that term loosely) for a number of his longest runs. 

Tight end Heath Miller—still a major factor in the offense—and second-year receiver Markus Wheaton are complementary pieces, yes, but both are consistently on the cusp of having the kinds of games that will come out of nowhere just when you're up against them in fantasy. 

The offensive line isn't as good as we'd all like it to be, but it's better than it's been in some time, and the offensive play-calling of Todd Haley has masked a lot of its deficiencies this year, thanks to a personnel group that doesn't have to fall into old, one-dimensional habits. 

In all, this looks like a group that won't win every single matchup it faces. So, again, no one is saying that the offensive record books are in any danger of being rewritten this season by this team. But while they may not win every matchup, the Steelers will win a lot more than they have in recent years, which will keep them in a lot of ballgames. 

If the Steelers are going to make any noise in 2014 and beyond, it looks like it will be the offensive side of the ball that will be shouldering the load. In today's NFL, that's not exactly something to be embarrassed about. 

It's not the Steelers we're used to, but they're going to be awfully fun to get to know.

Michael Schottey is an NFL National Lead Writer for Bleacher Report and a member of the Pro Football Writers of America. Find more of his stuff on his archive page and follow him on Twitter.