Category: Pittsburgh Steelers

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3-and-Out: Steelers roll out a master class on offense in 44-38 win over the Bengals

In this week’s “3-and-Out” column, we look at how Arthur Smith, Russell Wilson and the Steelers offense dismantled the Bengals in Sunday’s 44-38 victory.

Russ-thlisberger

November 25, 2018.

That’s the last time a Steelers’ quarterback threw for over 400 yards in a football game. Ben Roethlisberger did it that day, accumulating 462 in a 24-17 loss to the Denver Broncos. It had been 102 games since, until Russell Wilson, in just his sixth start in Pittsburgh, lit up the Bengals for 414 yards to lead the Steelers to a wild 44-38 win. Pittsburgh is now 9-3, sits atop the AFC North by a game-and-a-half over the Baltimore Ravens and has assured head coach Mike Tomlin of an NFL record 18th consecutive non-losing season to begin his career.

As Larry David would say, pretty, pretty, good.

Wilson’s day started inauspiciously. On Pittsburgh’s first series, he threw a slant to George Pickens that was intercepted by cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt and returned 51 yards for a Bengals touchdown. Wilson was not at fault on the throw, as Taylor-Britt knocked Pickens to the ground as he made his break. The play could have been flagged as an illegal contact penalty but instead went for a pick-six.

Undeterred, Wilson led the offense to three touchdowns and two field goals on its subsequent five drives. He had a career-best 257 passing yards at the half, and the Steelers scored 27 points, their most in an opening half since 2018 against Carolina.

Wilson’s success was a product of great protection from the offensive line and a scheme that allowed him to exploit Cincinnati’s coverage. The Bengals played their safeties high to guard against Wilson’s prolific “moon” balls, and their backers took deep drops to clog the intermediate zones. So, Wilson continually dinked and dunked the football to his backs, who chewed up ground running after the catch. The trio of Najee Harris, Jaylen Warren and Cordarrelle Patterson had 11 catches for 137 yards in the first half alone.

When Wilson did push the ball down the field, he did so by making great coverage reads. On this 2nd quarter touchdown throw to Calvin Austin III, the Steelers ran a post-dig concept with Austin and Pat Freiermuth. Wilson saw the safety jump the dig from Freiermuth and threw a strike over top of him to Austin for the score:

Wilson even channeled his inner-Roethlisberger by improvising on a 3rd quarter touchdown throw to Freiermuth. Wilson stepped up in the pocket, evaded a rusher, then fired a sidearm dart to Freiermuth down the seam:

Wilson’s most impressive play may have come midway through the 4th quarter. With the Steelers leading 41-31 and trying to stave off a Cincinnati rally, they faced 3rd-and-9 from their own 42-yard line. The Bengals showed an all-out blitz, so Wilson motioned Freiermuth, who was aligned in the right slot, to come down as an extra pass protector. When Freiermuth moved in, so did the defender covering him, which left Van Jefferson one-on-one with rookie corner Josh Newton on the outside. Wilson beat the blitz with a strike to Jefferson, who froze Newton with a head-nod to the boundary before breaking back inside. The catch-and-run gained 43 yards and led to a field goal that put Pittsburgh up by 13 points with 4:46 to play:

That play summarized the level at which Wilson played on Sunday. He recognized the blitz coming from Cincinnati, adjusted the formation to compensate for it, identified Cincinnati’s coverage as a result of the adjustment, and then delivered a perfect throw to exploit a favorable matchup. That’s professional quarterback play, something the Steelers have not gotten consistently since Roethlisberger was in his prime. If Wilson can play anywhere close to this level for the remainder of the season, the Steelers are going to be a difficult team to beat, no matter the opponent.

Well coordinated

Supplementing Wilson’s performance was Arthur Smith, who called one of his finest games as Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator. Smith had Wilson in rhythm in the first half with an array of short throws, and found the right times to pick his spot on deep balls. Wilson’s passing chart for the contest shows how effectively Smith spread the football around. In recent years, Pittsburgh’s coordinators have treated the middle of the field as though it were mined. This, then, is a thing of beauty:

Smith also used pre-snap movement to create advantages and found favorable matchups the Steelers could exploit. On Pittsburgh’s first touchdown, he started in a 3×1 set to the right of the formation, then motioned two players over to create a 3×1 set to the left. Those motion men wound up throwing the key blocks that helped Pickens reach the end zone on a perimeter screen:

Smith also found numerous ways to pick on Newton, the Bengals rookie corner. I showed you the isolation route to Jefferson above. Smith also exploited Newton on the snap that sealed the game. Facing 3rd-and-4 with 1:54 remaining and needing a first down to run out the clock, Smith sent Justin Fields out for just the second time all game. Everyone in the stadium seemed to understand a read-option play was coming, where Fields would read an unblocked defender and give the ball to his back or pull it and run based on the reaction of his read key. Cincinnati needed someone to set the edge away from the back and not allow Fields to escape outside if he pulled the football. Smith set the formation so that someone would be Newton. The rookie bit on the run fake, and Fields beat him outside to seal the victory:

Much like the quarterback position, Steelers’ fans should be elated to have a professional play-caller on the job again. Despite a host of injuries on the offensive line and a limited receiving corps, Smith’s offense has improved significantly over its recent predecessors. He’s demonstrated a penchant for scheming Pittsburgh into favorable situations and has handled the transition from Fields to Wilson at quarterback seamlessly. While the offense won’t regularly produce the way they did on Sunday, they proved they can win a shootout if necessary. That could be useful against some of the potent offenses they’ll face over the final month of the season.

Making a Splash

Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow finished the game with impressive numbers – 28 for 38 passing, 309 yards, three touchdowns and an interception – but those numbers weren’t as impressive in real time as they are on a stat sheet. On Cincinnati’s final two drives, after the Steelers built a 17-point lead and fell back into a soft zone defense, Burrow accumulated 110 yards. Prior to those drives, Pittsburgh harassed and frustrated him by mixing their coverages and blitzes and moving Burrow off of his mark in the pocket.

The Steelers started the game by having corner Joey Porter Jr. shadow receiver Tee Higgins while the team employed a collaborative approach on JaMarr Chase. They used a linebacker – often Patrick Queen – to chip Chase at the line of scrimmage and prevent him from getting a clean release, then made him navigate thick zone coverage to get open. The strategy worked, as Chase was held to four catches for 30 yards before the Steelers loosened up on Cincinnati’s final two drives.

To pressure Burrow, Pittsburgh initially relied on their front, sending four and dropping seven in coverage. This proved effective, as they routinely collapsed the pocket and forced the ball out of Burrow’s hand quickly. In the second half, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin amped up the pressure, sending blitzes more frequently. One was a six-man stunt where Nick Herbig beat left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. cleanly and swatted the ball out of Burrow’s hand from behind. Linebacker Payton Wilson scooped it up and returned it 21 yards for the score that gave Pittsburgh its decisive 41-24 lead:

In all, the Pittsburgh defense finished with four sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception. While the unit did give up 375 yards and 31 points, the splash plays it produced offset Cincinnati’s late offensive production.

And Out…

It was hard not to notice defensive tackle Cam Heyward on Sunday. The 35-year-old terrorized the Bengals all afternoon. Heyward finished the game with five tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss – one of which nearly broke Cincinnati running back Chase Brown in two – and a deflected pass that resulted in a Donte Jackson interception. Heyward, in his 14th season, remains a force on the field and the heart and soul of Pittsburgh’s defense. He has earned the right to retire on his terms, and God willing as a member of the Steelers.

Follow me on Twitter @KTSmithFFSN.

Kevin Smith

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