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What’s ailing the Steelers defense? It starts on 1st down
Steelers fans are uncomfortably familiar with the misery the team has suffered the past few weeks. In games against Super Bowl contenders Philadelphia, Baltimore and Kansas City, they were out-classed and out-played, losing all three to the collective tune of 90-40. The offense certainly struggled, particularly at the quarterback position, which I chronicled last week in the article below. The struggles of the defense, however, seemed both surprising and glaring.
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The Steelers entered that three-game stretch ranked in the Top 10 in the league in most defensive metrics. They had faltered on occasion, yielding 38 points to Joe Burrow and the Bengals in a shootout win in November, and playing poorly against Joe Flacco and the Colts in Week 4. But they’d been the typical bend-but-don’t-break unit we’ve come to expect from Teryl Austin, disguising coverages well, pressuring opposing quarterbacks and creating timely turnovers. A stretch where they’d face Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes in the span of eleven days was certainly a challenge, but one where many expected them to hold their own.
They didn’t. In fact, the opposite occurred. The defense collapsed. They surrendered an average of 28 points and 403 yards per game. The past two weeks, against Baltimore and Kansas City, were especially glaring. They generated just one sack and one turnover. With so much of Pittsburgh’s philosophy based upon creating pressure off the edge with their elite pass rushers, and using that pressure to generate turnovers, the scheme suffered when those rushers didn’t get home.
There was something else, though, the effects of which were stark. The Chiefs and Ravens absolutely torched the Steelers on 1st downs. Baltimore ran 29 1st-down plays for 212 yards for an average of 7.3 yards per play. Kansas City had 26 1st-down snaps and gained 173 yards for a 6.6 average. Collectively, the Steelers surrendered 385 yards on 55 1st-down snaps, an average of seven yards per play. It doesn’t take Vince Lombardi to understand that when you give up seven yards per play on 1st down, you make life tough on yourself.
The interesting thing about those numbers is how each team arrived at them. Baltimore smashed the football down Pittsburgh’s throat with their run game. The Ravens had 21 1st-down runs for 150 yards. Derek Henry rushed for 133 of his 162 yards on 1st down. The Ravens created the matchups they wanted on 1st downs by using their 11-personnel grouping with three receivers on the field. This prompted the Steelers to remove a defensive lineman in favor of a nickel defender. With smaller personnel on defense, and a lighter box, Henry had plenty of room to run. He was often untouched through the line, where linebackers and defensive backs had the thankless task of trying to bring him to the ground.
Kansas City took the opposite approach. Patrick Mahomes diced up the Pittsburgh secondary, completing 13-16 passes on 1st down for 144 yards. Mahomes hit one chunk play for 49 yards, but mostly he carved up the Steelers with quick throws into the open areas of their zones. When Pittsburgh played man coverage, the Chiefs freed their receivers on pick and rub routes. Mahomes had 1st-down completions of 4, 6, 6, 7, 5, 4, 5, and 7 yards, all of which set Kansas City up with manageable 2nd-downs that allowed Andy Reid to work from an open playbook. Mahomes was especially effective with RPOs, consistently making Pittsburgh defenders wrong with his decision to pull the football and throw. The Steelers often seemed baffled when he did, gesturing at each other after the play about who should have been where. Their preparedness for defending these concepts was not ideal, to say the least.
The common denominator in these two contests was how well both teams were able to do what they wanted on 1st down. The Ravens prevented Pittsburgh from stacking the box by using lighter personnel so they could create space for Henry. The Chiefs knew exactly what coverages the Steelers were playing and dialed up concepts to beat them. Both teams, it seemed, had a good feel for what Austin intended to do and schemed up effective responses. They did a nice job of mitigating Pittsburgh’s pass rush by constantly chipping and doubling T.J. Watt and they used the width of the field in their passing game to stretch Pittsburgh’s zone coverage. But they really stifled the pressure by staying out of 2nd-and-long situations where the Steelers could get aggressive. Their success on 1st downs was basically the equivalent of having another blocker on the field.
Pittsburgh will face another talented offense this week when Joe Burrow and the Bengals come to town. Burrow torched the Steelers for 309 passing yards and three touchdowns in their first meeting, and has had plenty of time to study film of that encounter since. The Steelers will need to break some tendencies on defense to keep Cincinnati from teeing off on them the way Baltimore and Kansas City did, particularly on 1st down. They may need to blitz more frequently, or create new coverage disguises. Whatever they do, getting Burrow into 2nd-and-long, where they can unleash their pass rush, is paramount. If not, they’ll find themselves in the same boat they’ve been in the past few weeks. And that could make for an uncomfortable season finale as they head towards the playoffs.
Follow me on Twitter @KTSmithFFSN.
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