Injuries, Absences Won't Hold Steelers Defense from Bouncing Back in Week 11

Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed on Tuesday (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Ed Bouchette) that three defensive starters would again be sidelined for another game. Safety Troy Polamalu, cornerback Ike Taylor and linebacker Ryan Shazier are all ruled out for the team's Monday night contest against the Tennessee Titans.

Polamalu also missed Week 10's meeting with the New York Jets after injuring his knee in Week 9. Shazier, the Steelers' 2014 first-round draft pick, had missed five games total this year, with a knee injury and now with an ankle sprain. Taylor, meanwhile, is still working his way back from the broken arm he suffered in September.

The absences of Shazier and Taylor have had minimal impact for the Steelers thus far, with the Steelers ranking 13th in total defense and 20th in points per game allowed—something that would likely be the case even with both players healthy for the majority of the season.

Shazier has been replaced by a rotation of Vince Williams and Sean Spence. Thus far, Spence has 32 combined tackles and a fumble recovery, while Williams has 16 tackles. In comparison, Shazier has 26 tackles on the season, one pass defensed and a tackle for a loss.

Player	Solo Tackles	Asst. Tackles	Tot. Tackles	Sacks	TFL	PD	FF	FR
Shazier	16	10	26	0.0	1	1	0	0
Spence	22	10	32	0.0	0	0	0	1
Williams	11	5	16	0.0	0	0	0	0

Taylor's injury required the Steelers to get more creative. Initially, Taylor was replaced by Cortez Allen. However, Allen's poor play—after he received a $26 million contract extension—saw him demoted to slot cornerback in favor of Brice McCain and then benched in favor of Antwon Blake in Week 9.

Though Allen leads the Steelers cornerbacks in interceptions, with two, he also leads the team with touchdowns allowed, with five according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Blake and McCain so far have one touchdown allowed apiece and one interception apiece.

The loss of Polamalu impacts the Steelers defense the most, though he ranks just 54th out of 158 safeties ranked by Pro Football Focus, after ranking fifth a season ago. The reason for this is two-fold. One, no matter at what level Polamalu is playing at, opposing offenses must always account for him. He's a threat in ways that fellow Steelers safeties like Will Allen, Shamarko Thomas and Robert Golden are not.

The other is that he's more versatile than the other Steelers safeties and is able to play at any level of the field, whether in coverage, stopping the run or contributing to the pass rush.

Allen played all 61 of the Steelers' defensive snaps at strong safety in place of Polamalu against the Jets and had five combined tackles. He played no pass-rush snaps. Polamalu, in contrast, had three pass-rush snaps in Week 8 against the Oakland Raiders, netting him one sack and one quarterback hurry.

However, the biggest reason that the Steelers defense can weather these injuries for another week is the Titans offense it will be facing on Monday night. Tennessee's offense ranks 31st in total yardage per game, with 308.7. It is dead last in third-down conversion percentage, doing so on just 29.91 percent of its attempts.

Unsurprisingly, the Titans therefore are scoring an average of 16 points per game. They rank 26th in red-zone scoring attempts per game, with an average of 2.7, and are scoring touchdowns on 54.17 percent of those attempts.

Stat	Value	Rank
TEN Yds/Game	308.7	31st
TEN 3rd Down Conv. %	29.91%	32nd
TEN PPG	16.0	31st
TEN RZ Atts./Game	2.7	26th
TEN RZ TD %	54.17%	21st
PIT D Yds/Game Allowed	347.0	13th
PIT D PPG Allowed	23.9	20th
Opp. RZ TD %	51.61%	9th

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's defense ranks ninth in opponent red-zone touchdown percentage, allowing six points on just 51.61 percent of their opponents' attempts and an even better 42.86 percent on the road. They have accomplished this despite Taylor's extended absence, Shazier's two injuries and Polamalu's recent absence.

So the deck still stacks in the Steelers defense's favor against the Titans, despite it being a road game and despite these three starters out with their respective injuries. A stunted offense like the Titans is just what the Steelers need to get their win-loss record back on track and remain in the hunt for the top spot in the AFC North.

Eventually, Shazier, Taylor and Polamalu will all return, most likely after the Steelers' Week 12 bye. Then comes an important final stretch, which includes two difficult home games against the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs and their two final AFC North contests, both against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The final five games will need the Steelers as healthy as possible on defense, so their bye week couldn't be happening at a better time. Just one game stands between the Steelers and their much-needed week off, and it's one they should be able to emerge from with a win.