Carlos Dunlap was talking about the trip he and the rest of the unbeaten Cincinnati Bengals will have when they drive up to Heinz Field on Sunday to play the tough-nosed hosts, the arch-rival Pittsburgh Steelers.
“It’s a hostile environment,” the Bengals standout defensive end was saying Wednesday. He likened the Pittsburgh trip to some of his days playing on the road with the University of Florida:
“The same thing happens in SEC rivalries, so it’s nothing I’m not used to. It’s something that actually motivates me — when they boo you.”
And there’s a good chance Steeler fans will be booing Dunlap.
He leads the NFL in sacks with 6.5 over six games — New England’s Chandler Jones and Seattle’s Michael Bennett (in seven games) also have 6.5 — and Sunday he’ll be drawing a bead on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who is still hobbled but expected to play after missing four weeks with a sprained MCL.
The 4-3 Steelers are hoping to gain ground on the 6-0 Bengals in the AFC North and the last thing they want to see is Roethlisberger — who endured increased achiness and swelling last week from strenuous work in practice — take any more punishment.
Yet, that’s exactly what Dunlap wants to do.
The 6-foot-6, 280-pound veteran said getting a sack is “the most electrifying feeling ever … because when you’re in Pittsburgh, it’s like ‘oooooh.’ They don’t expect Ben to get hit too often and when he does, if he still has the ball, that’s when the crowd gets quiet.”
And Dunlap has been an especially effective silencer this season, in part because Geno Atkins, the three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle, has returned to herculean form after an ACL tear and pass-rushing mate Michael Johnson has rejoined the team after a season in Tampa Bay.
The Bengals present multiple problems for opposing offensive fronts and Dunlap is hoping that’s especially the case with a patchwork Pittsburgh line.
“My boy Pouncey (his former Florida teammate and now Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey) just had surgery,” Dunlap said. “It’s sad he won’t be out there, I like competing against my boys.
“But for our D-line, that’s something we’re gonna key in on because we know their Pro Bowl center is not gonna be in there. And their left tackle is injured as well, so we know it’s a great opportunity because guys will not be in rhythm with those guys.”
Even so, should the Bengals get to Roethlisberger, Dunlap knows it’s not easy to take the 6-foot-5, 245-pound quarterback down:
“We know he makes a lot of uncanny quarterback plays. He extends the pocket and holds onto the ball to get it down field. He’s a little banged up, so we know he may be a little different Ben, but he’s about a defensive end’s size.
“Multiple guys are gonna have to get to the quarterback and we’re all gonna have to gang up on him.”
And when it comes to the Steelers, don’t expect sympathy or empathy — and especially not apathy — from the Bengals.
“It’s the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Cincinnati Bengals,” Dunlap said. “We don’t like each other. And I’m pretty sure if you went in their locker room they’re gonna say the same thing.”
‘Natural feel for it’
Growing up in North Charleston, S.C., Dunlap said he first embraced basketball and soccer:
“(They) were my first two loves. But I always fouled out in basketball and got red cards in soccer.”
He found the best place for his aggression was the football field, where he quickly made a name for himself as a quarterback’s nightmare.
“I was a natural pass rusher,” he said. “I kinda just had a natural feel for it. Rushing the quarterback — I feel that’s my ace of spades.”
His senior year at Fort Dorchester High School, he had 24 sacks. Playing for Urban Meyer at Florida, where the Gators won a national title in 2009, he had 19 1/2 sacks in three seasons and that made him a second-round draft pick of the Bengals in 2010.
Although he played just 12 games his rookie season, he registered 9 1/2 sacks, a club record for a first-year player.
Since then he’s worked to further develop on and off the field.
He spoke Wednesday about the way he’s learned to take care of his body. He said he does “seven treatments” a week.
On Tuesdays, among other things, he visits a chiropractor and also a masseuse. Fridays he has acupuncture. Saturdays are his day for extra stretching.
On the field, once he learned his own position, he became more of a student about what opposing players do.
In 2013, the Bengals rewarded him with a six-year,$40 million contract and so far this season the team is reaping the benefits of its commitment to him.
And yet he sees the bigger picture:
“I don’t think you can point to one person now. When one person succeeds, the whole team succeeds and that’s what this is about. And right now all that matters is we’re going against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They won the division last year and that’s something we want to do this year, so we gotta go through them.”
Suitable for framing
It was brought up Wednesday that Dunlap, unlike many other big-time quarterback upenders in the league, has no sack dance.
“Naah,” he said with a growing smile. “I’m a bigger guy, so it’s kinda hard for us to do those little Jeremy Hill dances. And Domata Peko has got the Big Man Dance, so I gotta find something in between.”
It would help promote your brand, he was told.
“Yeah, I guess I gotta find something,” he said. “But my brand now, I want it to be sacks, not the dance.”
He has 42 sacks as a pro and he admitted some of them stand out.
“I remember my first sack in the preseason, it was against Michael Vick. In the regular season, it was Peyton Manning.”
To commemorate them, he framed each of the jerseys he was wearing in those game, along with a photo of him making the sack and then added a plaque detailing the particulars.
“Those are two highlights of my career because growing up those were two of the most electrifying players in the game. And they’re both still playing, that tells you what type of players they are.”
All told, he said he’s framed about eight jerseys from his sacks:
“When you start getting a lot of sacks, you can’t frame ‘em all, so I do the highlights: Big-game sacks, multiple-sack games.”
He has no framed memento from playing against Roethlisberger, but there is still room on his wall.
And a sack of Big Ben at Heinz Field certainly would qualify as a highlight.
It would mean he not only got to the rugged quarterback, but he got past the hurled insults, the spittle and a bare bottom or two and made it to the stadium.
About the Author