The Verdict: It's Not The Defense

I keep hearing that the defense is the primary culprit in the Steelers' two losses.  The claim is that the defense isn't playing as well as it should or could, and isn't making the plays it needs to make.  Not so, says I.  Granted, the defense faced mediocre offenses in the first two games, and a potentially powerful yet still inconsistent Bengals offense in the third game.  So maybe the defensive performance looks better on paper than in reality.  Yet, the Steelers defense has steadily improved, and is still in the top ten in the NFL.  My thinking is that the defense played so very well last season that now we are all spoiled.  In 2008, the Steelers defense was about 0.4 yards per game rushing away from being the best defense in NFL history.  That's 6.4 yards for the entire season, or basically two rushes stopped for no gain.  It is unrealistic to expect the Steelers defense to perform at that level every game indefinitel...