PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers still don’t have a sack, at least a sack of consequence, through two games.
They also don’t have a loss, a trade-off they can live with while their defensive front four searches for consistency. While Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton threw for 366 yards and a touchdown without an interception in Pittsburgh’s 24-16 victory on Sunday, the overwhelming majority of Dalton’s 31 completions were dump offs to running backs and tight ends. Superstar wide receiver A.J. Green was kept under wraps.
Green finished with just two receptions for 38 yards while getting shadowed by Pittsburgh’s Ross Cockrell.
“I felt like it was a pretty dominant performance,” Steelers safety Mike Mitchell said. “I felt like it was a pretty dominant performance by the group … We were able to take (Green) out of the game.”
Pittsburgh disguised a lot of its coverages, but the primary responsibility for covering Green at the line of scrimmage fell to Cockrell, who spent most of last season as a backup after getting cut by Buffalo at the end of training camp. And yet there he was, marking one of the best players in the league and more than holding his own.