NFL Note - Pittsburgh Steelers Heyward, Cameron

Sep 18, 2017 - 7:07 AM DE Cam Heyward is back, and so, apparently, is a dominating Steelers defense. The key was the return of Heyward, the captain who missed the last nine games last season with a torn pectoral muscle.

Heyward made his return to Heinz Field with a dominating performance. Heyward was credited with only six tackles, but he forced running backs to take difficult paths throughout the game and drilled Case Keenum twice to force incompletions.

"I'm always fired up," said Heyward. "But this was the home opener and (I) got to play for DMR (the late Dan Rooney) in the first game he wasn't here. We missed him out there, and I thought we played with energy."

Heyward said he didn't feel the need to pick up the slack for injured linemate Stephon Tuitt, insisting that it's always his job to get the unit off and running.

"I'm trying to set the tone period," Heyward said. "Obviously Tuitt wasn't there but whenever we're out there as a defensive line we want to set the tempo. We want to see if they want to test us."