Ever since the heyday of Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers have been a team heavily reliant on defense. This consistent trait was never more evident than in the Steelers’ 18-10 Opening Day victory over the Falcons in Atlanta. Notching two sacks and seven QB hits, while grabbing three turnovers, the defense applied relentless pressure on the statuesque Kirk Cousins.

Pittsburgh’s defense yielded a total of only 89 yards rushing and 155 yards passing — relegating Cousins to an anemic 59.0 rating which hardly met the sky-high expectations of Falcons fans after he was acquired during the offseason. T.J. Watt turned in his usual dominant performance, notching a sack and continually hounding Cousins. Rookie linebacker Payton Wilson also got into the action with a solid debut despite limited playing time. Notably, Wilson beat a block to stop what otherwise would have been a first-quarter TD on a short pass from Cousins to RB Bijan Robinson.

Overall, the Steelers defense was so dominant that, if not for the referees’ failure to flag a pre-snap head-bob by the Falcons’ Center, the Steelers also would have added a strip-sack fumble recovery in the Red Zone that would have denied the Falcons their only TD.

Offensively, the Steelers were mostly ineffective, but Justin Fields nevertheless was able to take care of the football — with the sole exception of a muffed snap which he recovered on the Steelers’ very first offensive play. But for the most part, the Steelers continually found themselves facing second-and-long or third-and-long situations, and they never managed to convert promising field position into TDs.

Perhaps due to the late scratch of Russell Wilson from the starting lineup — and also because of a general lack of familiarity among several players — the offense looked tentative and disorganized. Quite often, Fields appeared to be running a college-style offense — carrying the ball himself 14 times for 57 yards and a 4.1-yard average. Overall, it appeared that the Arthur Smith offense with Fields at the helm was operating with the handicap of a limited play repertoire, thus making it difficult for the offense to sustain any drives. But the foot of Chris Boswell was perfect and his six FGs proved sufficient to win the day.

Considering the circumstances involved in this first regular-season game — and with the exception of losing punter Cameron Johnston to injury — most of the faithful in Steelers Nation probably would consider this game as a definite step forward. The defense played as well as anyone could expect, while the offense avoided costly mistakes and moved the ball well enough to set up the ever-reliable Boswell.

As fans, it’s natural to believe the Steelers gradually will eliminate the many communications and execution errors we saw from the offense. Given what already looks like a stellar defensive unit, these anticipated, offensive improvements promise to make the team better in the weeks ahead. While nobody expects the offensive performance we witnessed on Sunday to carry this team very far, the season opener was exactly the type of gritty victory needed by this largely revamped Steelers team — a team which is only beginning to tackle the key element of offensive cohesion. Moving forward, there’s hope that the Steelers’ milder September schedule might turn out to be a springboard for a Black-and-gold group on the rise.