Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos: Why Steelers must slow down this group to win

The Pittsburgh Steelers go to face a Denver Broncos team that does not have any obvious superstars on the team outside of Pat Surtain II. And while he could be this week's matchup to watch against George Pickens since the Steelers' passing attack relies so much on Pickens, but the Broncos defensive line is even more of a key for Pittsburgh if they want to win.

While not known nationally as one of the top defensive lines in the NFL, this group has lots of talent. The group has some pass-rushing juice from Zach Allen and John Franklin-Myers on the interior to Jonathan Cooper, Baron Browning, and Nik Bonitto on the edge.

"They are a group that maybe people don't know nationally, but they're a really sound, good group," guard Spencer Anderson said. "There's a lot of juice and talent in that group, so we're going to have to meet that challenge."

Many of the linemen are somewhat undersized, but they hunt tackles for loss aggressively by rushing upfield. The Seattle Seahawks combated that in the run game by running gap concepts and kicking out the overaggressive linemen, which might be something the Broncos see coming from the Steelers.

That feels right for the Steelers to attack until the Broncos can prove they can slow it down. Cooper, in particular, hunted those big plays and had a great day against the Seahawks. His explosiveness, leverage, and power make him one of the more underrated edge rushers in the NFL. However, his talent pops, and the Steelers must be alert to slow him down.

Much like they did a week ago when they did not allow Grady Jarrett and Matt Judon to knock them off schedule consistently, the Steelers can not let these aggressive Broncos defensive linemen slow them down and knock them back off the chains. If they can get the Steelers into obvious passing situations, that could signal a world of trouble for the Steelers. Slowing down this unit is critical for the Steelers to move the ball and put points up on the board.

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