Keith Butler was in his third season as linebackers coach in 2005 when the Pittsburgh Steelers needed to run the table with four games remaining in order to make the playoffs.

The Steelers did that, of course, and accomplished so much more, rolling to eight consecutive victories en route to the Super Bowl XL championship.

Now in his 19th season with the organization and seventh as defensive coordinator, Butler sees the Steelers faced with similar circumstances. With four games remaining, the 6-6-1 Steelers need to win at least three, if not all four, to return to the postseason.

“I’m not giving up on it at all,” Butler said Thursday. “I think we still have a chance to do that. We have young guys that are playing for us that have to learn to play the game and, hopefully, we’ll have a chance. We’ll see.

“I’m not saying we’re going to do that, I’m saying let’s give ourselves a chance.”

Perhaps more than anybody else, Butler knows the only way for the Steelers to have that chance is for his defense to make a boomerang-like turnaround.

Entering the final month of the schedule, the Steelers have the NFL’s No. 30-ranked run defense. In three of the past five games, the Steelers have yielded at least 198 yards rushing and are coming off a game in which the Minnesota Vikings rolled to 242.

At least in 2005, when the Steelers lost three in a row to fall to 7-5 before their epic run, they had a defense that finished fourth overall and third against the run, allowing 86 yards per game. This year, opponents are gaining 53 more rushing yards per game against Butler’s defense.

Things could get worse Sunday when the Steelers try to get back on track against the 9-4 Tennessee Titans. Despite losing star running back Derrick Henry to a broken foot after eight games, the Titans remain the NFL’s fifth-ranked rushing team, averaging 137.8 yards per game.

“Their commitment has been unwavering,” coach Mike Tomlin said.

Butler expects his defense to be tested by the running back trio of D’Onta Foreman, Dontrell Hilliard and Jeremy McNichols and versatile quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who has 225 yards rushing and six touchdowns.

“If I was looking at us, what would you do?” Butler said. “I’d run the ball, too. We’re probably going to get that as well as some play-action passes.”

The Titans have stayed the course and maintained the top spot in the AFC South while awaiting Henry’s return possibly before the start of the postseason. He still ranks fifth in the NFL in rushing with 937 yards despite missing the past five games.

“We have a belief of how we want to run the football, how we’d like to do things,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “It hasn’t been perfect. Sometimes, Derrick makes up for some mistakes.”

Foreman leads Tennessee’s active rushers with 240 yards and is averaging 4.4 yards per carry. Hilliard, another journeyman runner, had 131 yards in a loss to New England. His emergence helped make Adrian Peterson, signed after Henry’s injury, expendable after three games.

“With Henry, it was just one guy and he obviously could carry the load and the team,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “Everyone has a prescribed job. Foreman is their main back, but they have two others they use in different ways.”

Although Tomlin has vowed to “turn over stones” in an attempt to correct problems such as the porous run defense, it’s not like the cavalry is coming. Butler is missing Stephon Tuitt, Tyson Alualu, Vince Williams and Bud Dupree from a front seven that helped the Steelers finish No. 4 against the run a year ago.

The depth at defensive line was dealt another setback Wednesday when nose tackle Montravius Adams, the starter the past two weeks after being signed from the New Orleans practice squad, was placed on the reserve/covid list. Butler, though, is hoping the return of inside linebacker Robert Spillane will help control the run-game bleeding. Spillane helped hold the Titans to 82 yards rushing last year in a game that featured Henry, and it was a goal-line stop that introduced Spillane to Steeler Nation.

“He’s a very physical player,” Butler said, “and we need that physicality in our defense.”

It’s that physicality, as well as other variables, that have been missing from the Steelers defense this season. Unless that changes over the next few weeks, the Steelers’ season will end Jan. 9 in Baltimore.

“Every game from here on out, we have to have that mindset,” outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “There definitely needs to be a raise in our level of play through these next few games.”

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