Throughout his coaching career, Mike Tomlin has been all about defense.

The first-year Steelers head coach was defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings last year and was defensive backs coach for five years at Tampa Bay before that.

Now that he's a head coach, it appears Tomlin's not afraid to put his stamp on the offensive side of the ball as well.

In Saturday night's 13-9 preseason loss to Green Bay at Heinz Field, the Steelers worked on a no-hudde offensive package that Tomlin is serious about using this season.

And something else is evident — this guy knows his quarterbacks have arms and he's not afraid to use them.

Though Ben Roethlisberger played less than a quarter and threw only two passes while working with the no-huddle and making reads at the line of scrimmage, Charlie Batch and Brian St. Pierre aired it out quite often.

• Nate Washington laid out for a deep pass down the right sideline in the first quarter and nearly made a spectacular catch.

• Walter Young caught a deep ball over the middle, resulting in a 41-yard touchdown play.

• Santonio Holmes beat triple-coverage to pull down a 41-yard pass, setting up a field goal.

Numerous other deep passes did not connect. Conservative offense no more?

To a degree.

"Our big-play offense got us yardage in huge chunks. I like that,"Tomlin said. "I didn't like what I saw on third and short.

"Three times in the first half, we failed to move the sticks in those situations. That's unacceptable. Good teams get the job done there."

Football is football, after all.

But through just two preseason games, Tomlin has his quarterbacks smiling about the prospect of opening up the offense a bit.

"He is giving us opportunities to look down the field for the deep balls after checking down,"Batch said.

Roethlisberger wanted to play another series or two Saturday night to further work on the no-huddle, but Tomlin said no.

With a purpose in mind.

"No. 7 will have an edge on him going into this week,"the coach said. "He wanted another shot at it (Saturday) and I didn't give it to him. Hopefully, that lit a bit of a fire under him."

We're a long way from knowing how the Steeler offense will look this season. Running back Willie Parker hasn't played a down yet, center Chukky Okobi and guard Alan Faneca didn't suit up Saturday and right tackle Max Starks played on the left side instead of the right.

The result of all that was a number of Steeler quarterback sacks and hurries.

"We do a lot of good things and we are still getting a feel for everybody as a unit so we can go out and execute,"tackle Marvel Smith said.

One thing is certain. Under Tomlin and offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, a lot more responsibility and play-calling will be in the quarterback's hands.

And if the deep pass is there, the football will be headed in that direction.