PITTSBURGH (AP) — Kameron Kelly walked into a hotel lobby in San Diego on the first Sunday night in February Tony Pollard Jersey , plopped down in a chair and spent the next four hours transfixed. Tom Brady methodically led the New England Patriots to a sixth Super Bowl title. One thought kept running through Kelly’s mind over and over again.“The whole time I’m watching the game I’m like, ‘I can do this, I want to do this,'” Kelly said.Seven months, a couple thousand miles and one bankruptcy filing by the Alliance of American Football later, the first-year Pittsburgh Steelers safety will get his chance. With starting free safety Sean Davis nursing an ankle injury, Kelly could run out with the starters for Sunday night’s season opener in New England.Maybe it’s fitting. The one thing the Steelers have stressed the entire offseason, creating more turnovers on a defense that struggled to get them during a wildly uneven 2018, is the one thing that fueled Kelly’s sprint up the depth chart.“Even from OTAs, he jumped out from the beginning,” linebacker Mark Barron said. “He kept getting his hands on the ball. He was ’round the football a lot. Like a lot a lot. That’s what you want from a safety Noah Fant Jersey , ball awareness and being around the ball.”That’s something Pittsburgh didn’t do nearly enough last season. While the Steelers led the NFL in sacks for a second straight year, all that disruption in the backfield failed to translate into turnovers. Pittsburgh finished with just 15 takeaways in 2018. Only Detroit and San Francisco had fewer. The Steelers produced multiple turnovers just twice while going 9-6-1. Five times they didn’t manage to take the ball away even once.Pittsburgh is well aware those numbers need to change if the Steelers are to keep pace in what figures to be a highly competitive AFC North.General manager Kevin Colbert began addressing the problem from almost the moment the new league year began in March. Pittsburgh splurged in free agency, signing cornerback Steven Nelson and his four interceptions — two more than any Steelers defensive back had last season — to a three-year deal. Barron, a hybrid who can serve as either a linebacker or a third safety, agreed to a two-year contract . The team traded up in the first round to grab inside linebacker Devin Bush with the 10th overall pick, won over by Bush’s speed and inherent aggressiveness.The coaching staff put an emphasis on creating an environment more conducive to turnovers during camp.“Coach Tomlin stays on us, making sure that we’re trying to pick the ball off, strip it,” Kelly said. “Any time it’s an incomplete pass, we’re scooping the ball up like it’s a fumble. Defensive players, we don’t get too much work. We do get work with the ball Dalton Risner Jersey , but not like an offensive player does. We do have to go the extra mile and every single snap make sure we’re ball searching.”When the ball gets in a defender’s hands during practice, he immediately starts racing the other way, often continuing toward the end zone long after the whistle has blown. Sure, it doesn’t count. But it does create a habit the Steelers hope will become second nature.“It’s just a matter of going out there and working,” Barron said. “There’s not one specific drill for it, but we do talk about it in practice. It’s like, ‘When you’re doing this, try to get the ball out, keep that consciousness.’ That’s how it’ll be in a game. You won’t be working a drill. You’ll be playing football, so we try to implement it in our actual play in practice.”There were early signs of progress during the preseason. Pittsburgh finished with a plus-2 turnover differential across four exhibition games, not bad considering backup quarterbacks Mason Rudolph Drew Lock Jersey , Josh Dobbs and Devlin Hodges combined to throw four picks. It means the defense — from the starters to guys long since gone from the 53-man roster — forced opponents to put the ball on the ground frequently.“We’ve got to affect the game when we can, whether it’s tipped balls on quick passes or just not letting them be able to step up,” defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said.There might not be a better litmus test than the one awaiting in New England. Pittsburgh is 0-5 when facing Brady on the road and the Steelers’ next interception of Brady in Foxborough will be its first. Ever.Heyward is well aware of the numbers. Yet he’s encouraged by what he’s seen over the spring and summer. Still, he understands doing it in practice is one thing. Doing it when the only player in NFL history with six Super Bowl rings is standing in the pocket is quite another.“We’ll see,” he said. “We haven’t used all our Jedi mind tricks yet.” ATLANTA (AP) — The idea that experience pays off in the most-pressurized situations sports offer is nothing new. Does it apply to the Super Bowl in general, and this one specifically?Recent history will tell us not really. The Super Bowl thing was something novel for virtually all of the Eagles last year, and they knocked off the perennial contender and frequent AFC champion Patriots.Same thing in the 2014 game when Seattle routed a Peyton Manning-led Broncos team. The Saints with Drew Brees against the Colts, led by — you guessed it — Manning in the 2011 contest, too.Then you can argue that the Patriots benefited greatly from the Falcons‘ lack of familiarity with putting away a championship two years ago. And that Denver — yep, that QB named Peyton again — used the experience edge perfectly against Carolina in 2016.There’s no question which team has the pelts in Super Bowl 53.“I think you get to focus more on football (because of the know-how),” says Patriots receiver Julian Edelman http://www.cardinalscheapstore.com/zach-allen-jersey-cheap , who will match up at times with the Rams’ formidable cornerbacks Aqib Talib and Marcus Peters.“Fortunately, I’ve played in a couple of these and you get to refine your routine and it allows you to think about football. It allows you to think about the Los Angeles Rams and what they’re doing and how they are on defense and special teams and (Johnny) Hekker being a quarterback back there as a punter, that’s what it allows you to do because you have a little experience with that. But that’s it.”Maybe. Or maybe the Rams, who are 2½-point underdogs in their first Super Bowl since the 2001 season — a loss to New England — won’t ever find that comfort zone so necessary at this point.The key just might be if coach Sean McVay, who turned all of 33 last week, keeps pushing the envelope. The only way to beat the Patriots is to remain aggressive for 60 minutes, and possibly beyond. Maybe McVay needs to be a bit outlandish as well. Look up what Doug Pederson did last year in a masterful coaching performance.“So, it’s never too soon to be able to make a big impact in a big-time game,” McVay says. “We certainly have a respect for that experience that the Patriots specifically have. We’ve got some guys on our team that do have that experience, but we’ve also got some really good football players that you feel like no moment is too big for them.“We know that it’s a big-time game, but I think our guys — whether they have played in this game before Andy Isabella Jersey , whether they haven’t — we expect them to play good football. When that ball is kicked off, it’s just like any other game. Certainly, you don’t shy away from the magnitude, but you’re still playing football.”Playing football in February is unique for most of the Rams, old hat for Tom Brady and many of the Patriots. But will that matter?Pro Picks thinks so.PATRIOTS, 31-22