One of the hot button items following the Steelers loss to the Patriots two weeks ago was defensive communication, or more accurately the lack of communication.
That issue vanished last week against the 49ers, and it's a problem the players hope is in their rearview mirror.
"We put more emphasis on it," said linebacker Arthur Moats. "It started in practice. Last Wednesday we came out and were able to focus on the communication, putting the extra emphasis on it, we took it not only in the classroom but on the field, making sure we were all crisp and using the same language.
"The biggest thing was making sure we were using the same language. If I was saying something one way, and he was saying something another way, it could mean the same thing but we are not understanding each other. That helped us out a lot. From that aspect of it I felt like it helped."
Fellow linebacker Lawrence Timmons, who wears the helmet that gets the defensive signals, agreed that the communication was on point last week.
"Everybody was on," said Timmons. "We still echoed the calls. We did a good job communicating."
While the main responsibility falls on Timmons because he is wearing the helmet, Moats said they all share in the responsibility and now that they are in sync that should work fine.
"Instead of putting the burden on one person, we took it upon ourselves as a defense as a whole to understand what the calls would be and knowing the situation," said Moats. "I felt like versus New England there was more scrambling, hurry up, trying to figure out what the call would be. I think last week we displayed that a whole lot better and were more successful."
