Baltimore Ravens rivals: Takeaways around the AFC North

Pittsburgh Steelers: Sticking to their bread and butter – Defense

Ben Roethisberger played his first game after missing most of last season with an elbow injury and while it took him a half to shake the rust off, the Steelers are a much better team with him under center. The Steelers offense is not pretty to watch at all, but they got the job done against a subpar Giants defense and were able to find JuJu Smith-Schuster for two touchdowns.

This year’s Steelers team is going to win their ballgames by game-managing on offense and relying on defense to embarrass opponents, which they did at times Monday night.

Here are some key stats from last night in the tweet below:

The Giants actually had a few impressive drives, but when the Steelers defense forced an interception inside the five yard-line late in the third quarter, all the momentum swung Pittsburgh’s way.

The Steelers were able to hold Saquon Barkley, a top running back in the NFL, to only six rushing yards, his second-lowest mark in his career. Bud Dupree had two tackles for loss and both T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward came away with interceptions.

The Steelers are absolutely loaded on defense this year, and if they can eliminate the pass better than they did last night, they are going to give most teams nightmares. Pittsburgh will head home to face the Denver Broncos and their second year quarterback Drew Lock next Sunday.