Labriola on the win over the Bengals

It was during that awful stretch of an NFL training camp, where the monotony was as thick as the humidity, when a change in the time of the daily thunderstorm from late afternoon to early afternoon qualified as a welcome diversion. During an interview that would air on the team’s flagship radio station (WDVE-FM), Coach Mike Tomlin said about his defense, “We have the men, not only in personnel but in schematics and coaching. I expect them to be dominant.”

Expect them to be dominant. Wow. Not a lot of room for misunderstanding there. But there’s this: What qualifies as dominant? Statistics? Awards?

“You tell me,” answered Tomlin. “Give me a circumstance, and I’ll tell you what dominant defenses do. Dominant defenses smile in the face of adversity. The offense turns the ball over and puts them on a short field, they stand up. They stand up in the weighty moments – goal-line, short-yardage, two-minute. You know, (dominant) means a lot of things, and I was thoughtful when I said it because I want them to be what we need them to be whenever we need them to be it. And so dominant defenses are ready in a moment’s notice, to put out a fire, to provide a winning edge, to take the ball away, to do the things that position your team for victory.”

Four weeks later, the 2022 NFL regular season began, and the Steelers emerged from the opening weekend with a dramatic upset victory in overtime against the defending AFC Champions. A win that could be traced directly to their dominant defense.

Go back over Steelers 23, Bengals 20 in your mind’s eye, and then re-read Tomlin’s interpretation of dominant. It’s as if it came directly from the game’s official play-by-play.

To use numbers as evidence to support the narrative, the Steelers defense sacked Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow seven times and hit him 11 times; recorded five takeaways (four interceptions and a recovered fumble; finished with nine tackles for loss and nine passes defensed; limited the Bengals offense to 2-of-5 in the…