Mike Tomlin knows that in order for 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers to have any chance at moving the ball in Monday night's playoff bout versus the Houston Texans, the Pittsburgh Steelers must slow down dominant pass rushers Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr..
"Will Anderson and Hunter are simply the most dynamic edge rush tandem in the National Football League in 2025," Tomlin said Tuesday, via the team's official transcript. "They got 27 sacks between them. I think it's 12 for Anderson, 15 for Hunter. They're a formidable group. You can talk about the things that you need to do schematically to minimize them and all that. It's nothing that they haven't seen.
"We better stay out of a bunch of one-dimensional passing circumstances, because if we're in those circumstances, we're going to be in trouble. That's just the reality of it."
Tomlin didn't flub his sack stats, with Hunter's 15 ranking third in the NFL in 2025. Anderson might have only taken down the QB a dozen times, but he finished second in the NFL with 85 QB pressures, per Next Gen Stats. Anderson led all players with 48 QB pressures on third downs.
Tomlin praised the entirety of DeMeco Ryans' destructive defense, calling it a "kick-butt" unit.
"They got a top-flight corner tandem on the outside, and so they rush very well," he said. "They cover very well. They're not trying to split the atom schematically. They don't have to when you have corners and edge rushers like that."
The Texans had four players with at least four interceptions in 2025, the most in a season since the 2017 Jaguars -- Derek Stingley Jr., Kamari Lassiter, Calen Bullock and Jalen Pitre (each had four).
Houston finished with the No. 1 total defense (277.2 yards per game) and No. 2 scoring D (17.4 points per game). Ryans' crew also finished first in opponents' three-and-out percentage (29.7) and first downs per game (16.2) and generated the third-most turnovers (29).
It all starts with Anderson and Hunter discombobulating the offense at the snap. The last time the Steelers played a dominant pass-rush force in Week 17 versus Cleveland, they appeared preoccupied with keeping Myles Garrett off Rodgers, which sapped them of some of the short dump-offs that have been a staple for after-the-catch production.
Tomlin was asked how the Steelers will go about defending not just one but two elite defenders while avoiding the pitfalls that came against Cleveland.
"Let me be clear. I mentioned this several times, but you guys don't seem to hear me. We didn't do anything uniquely against the Cleveland Browns from a protection standpoint that we don't always do when we play the Cleveland Browns," he insisted. "We did the same thing the first time we played Cleveland. Won the game, scored more points, he had zero sacks. So, there was no significant change. We certainly got a challenge this week because they have a formidable tandem. As I mentioned, we'd better do a really good job minimizing the amount we're in those one-dimensional circumstances."
According to Next Gen Stats, in Week 6, on 24 pass rush snaps, the Steelers chipped Garrett six times and doubled him six -- the pass rusher earned three QB pressures, including two quick pressures. In Week 17, Pittsburgh chipped Garrett 16 times and doubled him once on 39 pass rushes (41%) -- he generated six pressures and three quick pressures. In 2024, the Steelers chipped Garrett 18 times in 32 Week 2 snaps (56.3%) with five double teams (gave up three sacks). In Week 14, they chipped him five times, doubled four (gave up one sack, four pressures).
Since Garrett entered the NFL in 2017, the Steelers have chipped the edge rusher on 16.7 percent of his pass rush snaps (81 times). Of those 81 chips, 45 came in the past two seasons -- with 34 of those combined in the three-sack game in 2024 and the discombobulated loss in Week 17.
Regardless of how the Steelers offense defended Garrett, the brilliance of the Texans defense is that if an offense chips or slides to one side, it leaves the other star edge with an advantage. Take away the edges, and a good middle can collapse right into the QB's lap.
With two beasts screaming off the edge Monday night, expect Rodgers to continue peppering quick, short passes.
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