During the late stages of the 2015 regular season, the Pittsburgh Steelers began incrementally adopting the use of their dime, or quarter, defense, a sub-package that employs three cornerbacks and three safeties, removing the nose tackle and an inside linebacker from the field in order to better defend against obvious passing situations.
The Steelers tried to dabble with this early in the season, only to find that they lacked the cohesiveness in coaching and personnel to prevent against communication errors. At this time, the coaching staff took second-year inside linebacker Ryan Shazier off the field in order to bring on safety Robert Golden.