Steelers' Nick Herbig Calls Out Multiple "Dogs" After Strong Performance

The Pittsburgh Steelers may have had their best defensive performance of the 2025 season on Sunday. The defense went up against a very talented Cincinnati Bengals offense, but outscored them on the day. Two defensive touchdowns were enough to best a unit that only scored 12 points, but getting that extra 20 points from the offense definitely felt good. All in all, this was the kind of performance that everyone expected to see out of Pittsburgh based on all of the training camp comments. Now, the question is if the unit can keep it up or not. 

During his postgame press conference, edge rusher Nick Herbig shouted out a few of his teammates in the secondary for how great they played, despite not getting nationwide recognition most of the time.

"Those guys are ballers," Herbig said. [James Pierre], B.E., Brandin Echols, he's a dog too. Dugger's a dog, all them boys are dogs. They come in whenever their number is called. You don't know when it's going to be, and they keep making plays, consistently showing up on film, playing Steeler football. You love to see that, man. Coach always says 'The standard is the standard' no matter who's in the game. Next man up mentality, and I think those guys exemplified that to the highest level."

The Steelers have plenty of big names on defense, but sometimes, you have to get strong work out of the guys that don't receive recognition. This time, however, Herbig made sure to give them all their flowers for the work they put in and how they helped stomp a division rival into the ground and shut down the typical high-scoring unit. That's exactly what Pittsburgh needed for now and for momentum going forward. 

Not only did James Pierre have a scoop-and-score to ice the game at the end, but he was one of the many players that shut down Ja'Marr Chase and frustrated him to the brink of losing his mind and allegedly spitting on a Steeler. It's hard to expect a last-string cornerback that primarily plays special teams to lock down maybe the best receiver in football, but that's exactly what happened in the contest.

Earlier on, safety Kyle Dugger also had a pick-six to help give the Steelers the win. He also did his job to keep the Bengals from beating the defense over the top. He did not appear on the stat sheet much outside of the interception returned for a touchdown, but he still did his job throughout the entire 60 minutes. Trading for him has turned out to be an amazing decision. 

Brandin Echols may not have gotten a big play like the previous two did, but he was still second on the team in tackles, as well as applying pressure on the quarterback once. He has taken over as the starting slot corner for a few weeks now, and has done well overall during that timeframe. With how well the defense has done ever since the big change, it's likely that Echols will keep the starting spot for the remainder of the season. 

Overall, the defense as a whole has been great in the past three games, and there seems to be nothing that can stop them besides their own offense struggling, but that was not the case this time around. As long as that side of the ball does its job well, Pittsburgh can maybe beat anybody in the NFL at this point.

Steelers Will Get More Reinforcements On Gameday Soon

On top of all that, the Steelers still have Asante Samuel Jr. getting up to speed and preparing to make his team debut. Once he gets into the fold, this secondary should be even better than it was in Week 11. The fact that Pittsburgh's defense still has another gear to hit will be very concerning for their upcoming opponents.

What do you think about Herbig praising the unsung heroes of the defense? Let us know in the comments or on X at @Steelers_ChrisB.

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