Titans vs Steelers: 6 Things We Learned from Pittsburgh's 38-17 Win

The Pittsburgh Steelers appeared to have returned to the form that got them to the Super Bowl in 2010, with a big, 38-17 home win against the Tennessee Titans on Sunday afternoon.

Their formerly weak running game and rush defense both stepped up in a major way in the win, and while they're a long way off from proving they can consistently maintain today's performance, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

In the following slides, I will detail the six things we learned about the Steelers—and, to a lesser extent, the Titans—after this week's game.

The Steelers Found a Way to Run the Ball

With starting running back Rashard Mendenhall out with a hamstring injury, and backup Mewelde Moore suffering from a high ankle sprain, the Steelers turned to Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer to not just run the ball but to kick-start the team's struggling run game.

While Redman didn't appear to be the savior the team had been hoping for, rushing 15 times for 49 yards, Dwyer had the best day of his young career. The second-year back had a total of 107 yards on the day from just 11 carries, with a long run of 76 yards in the second quarter.

The Steelers' run blocking still has work to do, clearly, but the fact that these two backs were able to find running lanes while up against a Tennessee run defense ranked second in the league coming into the game is a good sign of things to come.

Dwyer's performance today raises questions about how the Steelers will approach the run game from here on out, but those are at least better, more promising questions than they had faced in the previous four weeks. Now, they have to wonder who will run the ball rather than can they. Not a bad predicament, indeed.

The Steelers Know How to Stop the Run

One of the more shocking things about the Pittsburgh Steelers so far this season was their inability to stop the run. While they allowed only 62.8 rushing yards per game on average last year, they've allowed twice that so far this season.

That is, until today. The Steelers defense held the Titans rushers to a total of 66 yards and allowed just six rushing first downs. Tennessee running back Chris Johnson, set to have another big day against the Pittsburgh defense and coming off of a 101-yard performance last week, had 51 yards today and one touchdown in 14 carries.

It seemed just a matter of time until the Pittsburgh run defense returned to the form for which they are best known. While it's certainly frustrating that it took them until their fifth game to turn things around, now that they've found that groove, it shouldn't prove too difficult to maintain.

There's a Formula to Stopping Chris Johnson

The corollary to the Steelers' defense stopping the Titans' run game is that their running back Chris Johnson doesn't pose the same threat as he did two years ago.

Since his 2,006-yard 2009 season, his production has been in decline. Though he rushed for over 1,000 yards last year, he struggled throughout the season, facing teams that dedicated their defenses to stopping him play after play.

One reason why it can be easy to stop Johnson lies in the Titans' passing game. Last season, the team didn't have much consistency in the air, with issues both at quarterback and at the wide receiver position. Without a passing game to speak of, opposing defenses correctly assume that the Titans would rely on Johnson to be responsible for the bulk of the offensive production.

Therefore, it's easy to stop him. While there was hope that with the addition of quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and the maturation of receiver Kenny Britt, the pressure on Johnson would be somewhat relieved, that didn't end up being the case.

And now that Britt is out for the season with a knee injury, no receiver has adequately replaced him as a reliable primary target for Hasselbeck. This makes it even harder for Johnson to evade the defense, and his rushing yards are held down as a result.

Johnson once appeared unstoppable but today's 51-yard performance shows that not only do the Steelers have his number, but the rest of the league likely does as well.

The Steelers' League-Leading Pass Defense Is No Fluke

A year ago, the biggest problem the Steelers had was stopping the pass. Opposing receivers were getting separation at an alarming rate, and the team was giving up an average of 234 passing yards per game.

Now they're giving up just an average of 119.5 with cornerbacks Ike Taylor, Keenan Lewis and William Gay making so many plays that once-injured starter Bryant McFadden now spends games on the bench, unneeded. Safeties Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark are also the most effective we've seen them in some time.

It's a great sign that the Steelers can so drastically improve a facet of the game that they greatly struggled with last season, and it bodes well for their chances to fix what's broken in their run offense and defense.

If the Steelers' rush defense is truly back to its old form, the team would easily have the most effective and intimidating defensive squad in the NFL. If they can maintain it, then it buys Pittsburgh ample time to solve their offensive problems.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Is the Real Deal

Much has been said about Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger this season—most of it negative—and for good reason.

Going into today's game, he was 85-of-138, for 1,148 yards, with three touchdowns, five interceptions and four fumbles. He redeemed himself in a major way against the Titans, throwing five touchdowns and one interception (a result of a miscommunication rather than something solely his fault), for 228 yards.

It's been clear for some time that it's never a good sign for the Steelers if Roethlisberger has to throw more than 40 times; it's indicative both of playing from behind (not his strongest suit) as well as of a failure in the running game.

The more times he has to force the deep pass, the higher the likelihood of his making a mistake. He's a clutch quarterback, to be sure, and that informs many of his mistakes. But the less he is put in that position, the better it is for the team's chances to win.

Roethlisberger is often dismissed when his name is brought up among the elite quarterbacks of the league, but there's no denying that his arm and his playmaking skills are major reasons why he's led his team to three Super Bowl appearances and two wins.

This is just the second time in his career that he's thrown for five touchdowns. That he managed it when very few even believe the Steelers would win this game means that, whatever the Steelers' problems are, none of them are truly Roethlisberger's sole doing.

No 2-2 Team Is Ever Done

One of the more shocking accusations being leveled at the Steelers heading into Week 5 is that their season was already over, their playoff chances shot. It would make more sense if they were facing the Titans with an 0-4 record, but the team was just 2-2, hardly out of the playoff discussion.

The main issue was where those wins and losses came from. They defeated the Indianapolis Colts and Seattle Seahawks, two of the league's worst teams, while falling to the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans, two so-called powerhouses.

But a win's a win, and a loss is a loss. It doesn't matter who they beat or who beat them (aside, of course, when we're talking about tiebreakers, but we're a long way off from that point), it's that they notched the wins.

Indeed, we are a long way off from any real talk of the playoffs. It's ridiculous to assume that a team with a .500 record through four games has somehow already been eliminated from the postseason. The Steelers' impressive win, over a 3-1 Titans squad, proves that talk of the Steelers' ineffectiveness has been highly exaggerated.

No one is saying that the Atlanta Falcons have no shot at the playoffs, and they enter this week at 2-2. While the Steelers certainly haven't been consistent, they aren't terrible. Today's win shows just that. It's a long season, and anything can happen.