Four and out: Surprises from the NFL in Week 3

What year is it?

The Steelers haven’t fielded a dominant defense in several years. It was a case of the Frog Effect: the defense suffered the fate of a frog put in a pot of cold water that was slowly brought to a boil. Suddenly the situation was horrible, terrible. What happened?

The Steelers winning a defensive battle would have been a predictable headline for many years. In fact, it is still a bit strange referring to them as an offensive powerhouse. Still, given all of the predictions about the strength of the Steelers offense, it seemed their match up against the St. Louis Rams would be very high scoring.

Instead, it was the lowest-scoring game of the week, with a final score of 12-6. It was on track to be low scoring well before Big Ben Roethlisberger was carted off injured (more on that later.) Running back Le’Veon Bell was finally on the field after serving his two-game suspension. Instead of the magic he brought to the field last season, the Rams held him to 62 yards on the ground. St. Louis and its committee of running backs were held to 71 yards. The Steelers had 230 receiving yards after totaling 369 against the 49ers and 351 against the Patriots.

The Rams are not known for their offense, but even with Tre Mason, Todd Gurley, and Benny Cunningham on the field, they could not get much going on the ground against the Steelers’ defense.

Next: Big injuries for big players