Although the Pittsburgh Steelers offense had a productive day in a 23-9 victory against Cleveland, the defense was the biggest story of the afternoon. With zero touchdowns allowed on the day, the unit looks to be in great shape through five games. With a short week coming up, let’s take a quick look at the state of the defense before we see them against Cincinnati on Thursday.

Good: Healthy defense eats rookies for breakfast

Dillon Gabriel got the starting nod at quarterback for the second straight week, while the Browns also started Quishon Judkins at running back and using Gage Larvadain, Isaiah Bond, Harold Fannin Jr, and Dylan Sampson throughout the game. With so little experience on the opposing offense, Pittsburgh’s defense feasted all day. Gabriel was sacked six times, including two each for Jalen Ramsey and Nick Herbig. Judkins was held to 36 yards on the ground, and outside of Fannin’s 81 yards on seven receptions, no receiver had more than 45 yards.

Alex Highsmith and Joey Porter Jr. both made their season debuts for the Steelers' defense, making an immediate impact with half a sack for Highsmith and two pass breakups for Porter Jr. With Derrick Harmon and DeShon Elliott also joining the lineup somewhat recently, the defense finally had the opportunity to play at full health, and it looked lethal in their sharpest outing so far this year.

Bad: Acrisure Stadium’s playing surface

All of Pittsburgh’s points in the first half came from the leg of the ever-reliable Chris Boswell, but he missed one badly late in the game to extend a Steelers lead. Upon replay, it was obvious that he lost his footing while stepping into the kick, which means that the Steelers' home field cost them three points. Acrisure Stadium has also hosted several Pittsburgh Panthers home games so far this season, so the grass surface has seen more wear and tear then most NFL fields at this point in the year.

The playing surface was in visibly poor condition for much of the game, to such an extent that Aaron Rodgers criticized the field for being a danger to the players. There’s been much debate about playing surfaces in relation to player safety recently, especially with the dangers of artificial turf in terms of knee injuries. With how often the Steelers have been plagued by injuries in the past few seasons, they cannot afford to have their home field be a disadvantage.

Ugly: An arm-for-hire who knows the Steelers all too well

Gabriel’s new position as QB1 in Cleveland led them to make a rare in-division trade, sending Joe Flacco to Cincinnati. Flacco is in line to make his second start for the Bengals against the Steelers this Thursday night. Most quarterbacks would struggle to adapt to a new team in the middle of the season, but as Mike Tomlin noted on Monday, it "doesn't appear to be hard for Joe Flacco.”

Tomlin is plenty familiar with Flacco by now. Between his decade-long tenure in Baltimore and his stints in Cleveland and now Cincinnati, Pittsburgh is the only AFC North team yet to employ Flacco’s services. In total, this will be Flacco’s 12th year in the Steelers’ division. With Flacco’s veteran presence combining with a lethal Bengals receiving corps, Thursday’s game will determine if Pittsburgh’s defense is truly ready to be elite or if they simply beat up on a young squad on Sunday.