Defensive back Jalen Ramsey selflessly filled in at safety to help the Pittsburgh Steelers pick up a key win against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 9. But that wasn’t the only way Ramsey led the Steelers to a 27-20 victory.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers told reporters after Sunday’s game that Ramsey spoke to the team the night before kickoff. Rodgers wouldn’t reveal details of what Ramsey said but indicated that the speech played an intricate part in Pittsburgh’s dominating victory over the Colts.
“I noticed that something kind of changed last night when Jalen [Ramsey] spoke,” Rodger told reporters Sunday. “It’s not easy to speak in front of the team even when you’re a player. It’s unnatural. Coaches are used to it. They do it every day. Mike [Tomlin] is fantastic about it.
“Jalen went on and on. Had the attention in the room. He said good stuff. I’m not going to get into it. It’s kind of need-to-know information. It was meaningful to me on the offensive side. I felt like we had a different energy in the locker room today.”
Rodgers offered just one main detail on what Ramsey said to the team.
“The only peek into the conversation last night was that he wanted us to play with the edge on defense,” Rodgers added. “Didn’t feel like we were doing that enough. And they played with an edge today for sure.
“Really thankful that Jalen is here, and that he felt comfortable speaking up and then the guys responded the right way.”
Jalen Ramsey Leads Steelers Defensive Turnaround
There was a ton of criticism thrown at the Steelers defense the past couple weeks. That criticism included less than stellar reviews from the unit’s own players.
Defensive captain Cameron Heyward told reporters after the team’s loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 8 that the defense wasn’t playing with enough fight. Heyward argued the defense wasn’t responding well to adversity either.
Whether Ramsey echoed that message or not remains to be seen. But Rodgers clearly suggested the cornerback’s speech resonated.
“Got to give 5 [Jalen Ramsey] a lot of credit for his leadership the last 24 hours. I haven’t seen the film,” Rodgers said. “But the eye test felt like he was in the right place at the right time on defense, and we were opportunistic. Really proud of those guys.”
Ramsey finished the Colts matchup with five tackles. A couple of those tackles were vicious hits Ramsey delivered from the back end of the Steelers secondary.
One hit from Ramsey resulted in a 15-yard penalty for unnecessary roughness on a defenseless receiver.
It will be important for the veteran defensive back not to cross the line with those kinds of hits going forward. But clearly, he set a pregame tone and followed through in Week 9.
Steelers Debut New Safety Tandem
Without starting safety DeShon Elliott and a couple other backup safeties, the Steelers moved Ramsey to the back end of the secondary out of necessity. The team also acquired veteran safety Kyle Dugger from the New England Patriots last week. Dugger had to play a lot on Sunday too.
Those two safeties played all but one defensive snap together in Week 9. Ramsey lined up for all 73 snaps while Dugger missed just one.
The new safety combination was very effective. The Steelers defense effectively slowed down MVP candidate Jonathan Taylor. Tight ends also didn’t run wild on the Pittsburgh defense as they did last week.
A lot of things were different for the Steelers defense in Week 9. A big reason why was because of the inspiration Ramsey provided.
But the Steelers may have also discovered a new safety combination to utilize going forward.
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