PITTSBURGH -- Its not the kind of shutout the Pittsburgh Steelers defense had in mind to start the season.Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins dropped back to pass 43 times in Pittsburghs 38-16 victory in the opener last Monday. And 43 times Cousins was able to get the ball off without finding himself laying on the ground underneath someone clad helmet to cleats in black-and-gold.Sure, the Steelers won easily. Yet theyre well aware they need sacks if they want to slow down Cincinnati on Sunday.We have to get pressure, defensive end Cam Heyward said. You can cover up a lot when youre able to hit the quarterback. Weve got to put (Bengals quarterback) Andy (Dalton) on his butt. Thats as simple as its got to be.Even that might not be enough. Cincinnati edged the New York Jets 23-22 in Week 1 despite Dalton getting dropped a career-high seven times. When given time, Dalton carved up New Yorks secondary by finding do-everything wide receiver A.J. Green. Pittsburgh collected three sacks in each of its three meetings with the Bengals a year ago, doing it thanks to a variety of exotic blitz schemes designed by defensive coordinator Keith Butler.Yet the Steelers were decidedly more vanilla against Washington, often just rushing the front four and dropping seven and sometimes eight men into coverage to protect against the deep ball and give its secondary littered with inexperienced players all the help it could get.When you blitz, sometimes theres a little bit of a risk factor that they could make a big play on you, stuff like that, Butler said. A lot of times, we rushed three. Did we want more pressure than we got out of a four-man rush? Yes.The Redskins also relied heavily on a passing game that requires Cousins to get rid of the ball quickly. Rarely did he require a handful of seconds to throw it downfield. Yet thats hardly an excuse to Heyward. Pittsburghs already matched its total of sackless games from 2015, when it finished with 48 sacks in all, a nearly 50 percent jump from the 33 the Steelers collected in 2014.The pocket got awfully uncomfortable in the pocket for the opposing quarterback at times, helping the Steelers for 30 turnovers in 2015, a significant uptick from the 21 they forced in 2014. All that heat helped Pittsburgh make the playoffs for a second straight season despite finishing 30th in the league against the pass. While two of Cousins throws ended up in the arms of guys in a different colored jersey -- momentum-turning plays that served as the fuel for an eventual blowout -- Cousins passed for 329 yards and his jersey didnt even get dirty.Im not OK that we gave up yards, no, Butler said. At the same time, well get better, I think, as the year goes along. At the end of the day, its still about winning, not about how many yards we gave up or where were at defensively in the league. Would I like to be No. 1 in the league? Of course I would. At the same time, I want to make sure we win, too.Butler is likely to open up the playbook as the season goes on and rookie cornerback Artie Burns and rookie safety Sean Davis become more comfortable. Their development would allow Butler to get creative in finding ways to let outside linebackers James Harrison, Arthur Moats and Jarvis Jones get to work coming in off the edge.I felt like we were definitely creating the climate we wanted, Moats said. We got the turnovers we needed.Just no sacks. Something the Steelers know cant become a regular occurrence. Or else.I do think we have the guys, Heyward said. I have high goals for us and when we dont hit them, Im not going to be happy about it.Game notes WR Antonio Brown received a pair of fines from the NFL, one for the touchdown dance against Washington that drew a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct and another for wearing blue cleats, a violation of the leagues uniform policy. Brown did not rule out dancing again but added he didnt want to do anything to hurt the team. ... LB Ryan Shazier (knee) and WR Markus Wheaton (shoulder) are questionable. C Cody Wallace, CB Senquez Golson and FB Rosie Nix are out.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and AP NFL Twitter feed: www.twitter.com/AP-NFL http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/Cowboys-Tyrone-Crawford-Jersey/ .Y. - Jerome Samson scored once in regulation and again in the shootout as the St. http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/Cowboys-Dez-Bryant-Jersey/ .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/Cowboys-Cole-Beasley-Jersey/ . Goals from Jerome Boateng, Franck Ribery and Thomas Mueller extended Bayerns unbeaten run to a record 37 matches. "This record is incredible," Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/Cowboys-Jason-Witten-Jersey/ . In the lead up - which seemed to begin the moment Mike Geiger blew the whistle in Houston last Thursday night - the Impact rumour mill went into overdrive. The speculation went into meltdown mode, of the golden nugget variety. http://www.cowboysrookieproshop.com/Cowboys-Jay-Novacek-Jersey/ . The Oilers come in having lost five in a row (0-4-1) and 16 of their last 20 games, dropping a 2-1 decision to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday.(Sports Network) - The defending Stanley Cup champions will kick off the second round on home ice, as the Los Angeles Kings host the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday in the opener of the Western Conference semifinals. Watch all the action unfold live on TSN and TSN Mobile TV at 10pm et/ 7pm pt and get interactive with our Game Night Blog in the Game Tracker. With their first-round victory over St. Louis, the Kings became the first team in NHL history to win five straight playoff series despite opening each set on the road. In Round 2, however, the Kings will open a playoff series at home for the first time since 1992. As the Western Conferences eighth seed a season ago, the Kings knocked off the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Phoenix Coyotes and New Jersey Devils to win their first ever Stanley Cup championship and did so without home-ice advantage in any of the four rounds. Los Angeles also opened up the 2013 postseason on the road with a rematch against the Blues and dropped the first two games of the series in St. Louis before rebounding to win the next four contests. All six games were decided by a single goal and the fifth-seeded Kings finally grabbed a series advantage by winning Game 5, 3-2 in overtime on defenseman Slava Voynovs winner eight minutes into the bonus frame before taking Game 6 by a 2-1 margin at home. It was the Kings 10th straight victory at home dating back to the regular season. "I think were confident now," said Kings center Mike Richards. The Kings will now get ready to open their first playoff series at home since the 1992 division semifinals against the Edmonton Oilers. Los Angeles lost that series in six games and hasnt won a set it opened at home since beating Vancouver in six games during the 1991 division semifinals. L.A. is 4-5 all-time in the playoffs in sets that begin at home. After averaging 2.73 goals per game during the regular season, the Kings averaged just two per contest versus the Blues, but turned up the defense by yielding just 1.67 goals per game. A lot of the credit should go to netminder and reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Quick, who allowed more than two goals in a game just once during the series with the Blues. Even more important, Quick did not get rattled after losing the first two games of the set following an inconsistent regular season. He ended Round 1 with a 1.58 goals against average, .944 save percentage and one shutout. The sixth-seeded Sharks turned in a solid four-game sweep of the Northwest Division-champion Vancouver Canucks in the opening round. However, San Jose hopes its poor play on the road this season doesnt prevent it from getting past the Kings in the second round The Sharks went just 8-14-2 on the road this season, negating an outstanding 17-2-5 mark at home. So, there had to have been a sense of relief when the Sharks won their first two games in Vancouver before opening up the home portion of its playoff schedule with a 5-2 victory in Game 3. San Jose then showed its resilience, again rallying from behind to win the series-clincher 4-3 in overtime. "In the past you kind of felt the pressure.dddddddddddd This year we didnt feel that way and maybe that carried through into third periods," said Sharks head coach Todd McLellan about his teams mindset in this postseason. "Were a loose group, playing free. (Theres) not a lot of expectations that are put on us from the outside that have been on us in the past." The Sharks used an excellent power play to get by the Canucks, scoring seven of their 15 goals on the man advantage. All three of Logan Coutures first- round goals came on the power play, while Joe Pavelski also scored a trio of goals on the man advantage. That helped the duo pace the Sharks with eight points each, taking some pressure off of expected scorers Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. Not that the two didnt do their jobs, with Thornton notching four power-play assists as part of his six first-round points. Marleau added four goals and an assist versus Vancouver. In addition to killing off two of 10 short-handed situations, the defensive story was goaltender Antti Niemi, who helped the Chicago Blackhawks win a Stanley Cup in 2010 but had been less than impressive during his two playoff runs with the Sharks. That all changed in the first round, with the 2013 Vezina Trophy finalist winning a pair of overtime games while posting a 1.86 goals against average and .937 save percentage. In front of Niemi, McLellan continued to spread his minutes out between his six defenders. Dan Boyle (23 minutes) and Marc-Edouard Vlasic (22 minutes, 40 seconds) were the team leaders, while Justin Braun, Brad Stuart, Matt Irwin and Scott Hannan all averaged at least 17 minutes of ice time per game. That also allowed former blueliner Brent Burns to remain up front at forward, where he notched a goal and two assists. Boyle, Burns and Hannan combined for two goals and seven points, while forward Raffi Torres provided some energy with 14 hits to along with solid speed. Depth could be an issue for the Sharks in Round 2. Forward Martin Havlat did not play after Game 1 due to injury and he is not expected to return until at least Game 3 of this series. Veteran Scott Gomez filled in for Havlat in the last round. Fellow forward Adam Burish, a key penalty-killer for the Sharks, is also expected to miss the entire second round with an upper-body injury suffered in Game 4 against Vancouver. This will mark just the second postseason meeting between these two Pacific Division rivals. The Sharks got the best of the Kings in six games during the 2011 conference quarterfinals. Thornton, Marleau and Couture all had two goals and three assists in the set, while Pavelski had three goals. The Kings and Sharks split four regular-season meetings this year, with each team winning twice at home. The Sharks and Kings faced off in their respective regular-season finales, with L.A. notching a 3-2 win. Los Angeles has won six of its last seven at home versus the Sharks, but has dropped six in a row in San Jose. Game 2 of this series is scheduled for Thursday in L.A. 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