Currently discussing the NFL “best defenses,” analysts continue to refer to yards surrendered. This places the Steelers 25th in the NFL overall defense. This is a misrepresentation of how good the Steelers defense really is this season. When one looks at more detailed, meaningful stats such as points surrendered, takeaways, red zone points surrendered, red zone takeaways, and second half scoring, one will see that the Steelers are either 1st or within the top 5 of all of these categories. The Steelers D is tough and well above average for 2023. I put Carolina in here to demonstrate the misrepresentation. Carolina is a bad team in 2023, including their defense; however, they are ranked high when looking simply at yards. This mainly is related to them giving the ball aways to teams on short fields.