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On a Sunday where the offense was almost non-existent, the Pittsburgh Steelers held on late, on the back of Joe Haden’s stick, to beat the Tennessee Titans 19-13. The season trend continues, the Steelers’ offense was held to just a field goal for almost a full 3 quarters, until a Ben Roethlisberger quarterback sneak for a touchdown with about 2 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Roethlisberger finished with an underwhelming 148 yards on 16 of 25 passing. Najee Harris and company finished with a collective 17 of 35 yards on the ground. The biggest story of the game was the welcome back parade Haden threw himself on the defensive side of the ball. Not only did he save the day with a clutch 4th down stonewall tackle, the cornerback also captured 1 of 4 turnovers the Steelers’ defense collected on the day. The Steelers defense held the Titans’ offense scoreless in the 2nd half. On a day where the offense fell short of 200 yards total on the day, the Steelers’ defense stood tall! The Steelers move to 7-6-1 on the season and are back on the road to take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at 4:25pm ET. Can the Steelers keep their playoff hopes alive again this week? Backs are still against the wall and the Steelers’ hold the ticket to their own destiny! Before we talk more about this week’s matchup, let’s discuss a little bit more about last week’s win against the Titans.
1) More Hurry Up, Please!
I wanted to see the Steelers’ offense hand the keys to Big Ben and run a little bit of hurry- up offense earlier in the game to see if the team could get a spark earlier on offense. It just wasn’t the case again this week and the Steelers didn’t really get any offense going until late in the 3rd quarter again, in which the team used a little bit of no huddle on that drive. So why, Matt Canada? Why can’t we run a tad bit of no-huddle offense in the beginning of games? This offense needs something to get off to an earlier start!
2) The Defense has to figure out a way to stop the run
If you’re looking for improvement from week to week, the Steelers’ defense was able to improve against the room from a week ago. Sadly, that’s because they gave up 242 yards on the ground a week ago against the Minnesota Vikings. So yea, the defense did improve, but still gave up 201 yards on the ground to the Titans’ rushing attack on the day. D’Onta Foreman led the way with 22 carries and 108 yards. That was how the Titans wanted to attack the Steelers and it was a well-executed plan, but it just didn’t put up points in the second half. The Steelers’ defense may have bent against the run again on Sunday, but it sure as hell didn’t break!
3) Don’t Bite on Tannehill’s play action!
The Steeler’s pass rush was able to get to Tannehill early and often. The Steelers’ collected 4 sacks total on Sunday, with Defensive Player of the Year front-runner T.J. Watt collecting 1.5 of those to take over the Steelers’ single-season sack record at 17.5. The Steelers’ defense was able to hold the Titan’s passing attack to shorter and intermediate routes. Ryan Tannehill completed 23 of 32 passes for 153 yards and a pick. That is a 4.8 yards per completion average! The Steelers did well in covering the Titan’s offensive weapons downfield and got lucky a time or two as well!
1) Playing to the level of the opponent works in our favor this week!
Especially, under HC Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have been notorious to play to the level of competition. I know it’s the NFL and every team has professional football players on each roster, but this has been a trend since Tomlin took over. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Mike T fan, just an observation on my end. In a year that the Steelers were able to capture wins over the Titans (in a game they are playing for sole possession of the AFC’s number 1 seed) and the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 and then later on that team ties the Detroit Lions; this sentiment is just as true this season as any other. The Steelers take on the heavily-talented Chiefs on Sunday. The Chiefs (10-4) are currently the number 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture and the Steelers tend to respond well with their backs against the wall and they are currently in a playoff mindset. I predict the Steelers play a close game on Sunday with the Chiefs. The Chiefs are down a few key players that should aide the Steelers to hold a high-powered capable Chiefs’ offense. It’s time for the offense to score points earlier in games. This could be my optimism speaking, but look for an early successful Steelers’ offensive drive to produce first half points for the first time in years it feels like.
2) Tall task for the Steelers’ Defensive Reserves, again
The Steelers take on the Chiefs offense. The Steelers’ defense will be without ILBs Devin Bush and Marcus Allen due to the Reserve/COVID-19 list and Buddy Johnson has been ruled out due to a foot injury. We will probably see a lot more of Robert Spillane this week with Ulysses Gilbert III to come in to spell Joe Schobert or Spillane. Look for the Steelers to figure out ways to avoid getting stuck with Spillane one-on-one against mismatches, you may see Minkah Fitzpatrick to play more of a robber role on Sunday as well.
3) Chasing Strahan!
Watt just collected another 1.5 sacks this past Sunday against the Titans. The Defensive Player of the Year front-runner is now just 5 sacks away from tying New York Giants legend, Michael Strahan. Watt has three games to do so and in a week the Steelers defense needs to put insurmountable pressure on Patrick Mahomes. The quarterback has looked human this year and has shown he can be forced into mistakes with 13 interceptions thrown this year and another 2 lost fumbles. I predict Watt getting to Mahomes twice on Sunday to put his sack total to 19.5!
What do you think, Steeler Nation? What should we watch for against the Chiefs? Sound off in the comment section below on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
Last week in review
The 3 things I noted to keep an eye on last week were:
1) More Hurry Up, Please!
I wanted to see the Steelers’ offense hand the keys to Big Ben and run a little bit of hurry- up offense earlier in the game to see if the team could get a spark earlier on offense. It just wasn’t the case again this week and the Steelers didn’t really get any offense going until late in the 3rd quarter again, in which the team used a little bit of no huddle on that drive. So why, Matt Canada? Why can’t we run a tad bit of no-huddle offense in the beginning of games? This offense needs something to get off to an earlier start!
2) The Defense has to figure out a way to stop the run
If you’re looking for improvement from week to week, the Steelers’ defense was able to improve against the room from a week ago. Sadly, that’s because they gave up 242 yards on the ground a week ago against the Minnesota Vikings. So yea, the defense did improve, but still gave up 201 yards on the ground to the Titans’ rushing attack on the day. D’Onta Foreman led the way with 22 carries and 108 yards. That was how the Titans wanted to attack the Steelers and it was a well-executed plan, but it just didn’t put up points in the second half. The Steelers’ defense may have bent against the run again on Sunday, but it sure as hell didn’t break!
3) Don’t Bite on Tannehill’s play action!
The Steeler’s pass rush was able to get to Tannehill early and often. The Steelers’ collected 4 sacks total on Sunday, with Defensive Player of the Year front-runner T.J. Watt collecting 1.5 of those to take over the Steelers’ single-season sack record at 17.5. The Steelers’ defense was able to hold the Titan’s passing attack to shorter and intermediate routes. Ryan Tannehill completed 23 of 32 passes for 153 yards and a pick. That is a 4.8 yards per completion average! The Steelers did well in covering the Titan’s offensive weapons downfield and got lucky a time or two as well!
Let’s take a look at 3 things we should watch for against the Chiefs:
1) Playing to the level of the opponent works in our favor this week!
Especially, under HC Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have been notorious to play to the level of competition. I know it’s the NFL and every team has professional football players on each roster, but this has been a trend since Tomlin took over. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big Mike T fan, just an observation on my end. In a year that the Steelers were able to capture wins over the Titans (in a game they are playing for sole possession of the AFC’s number 1 seed) and the Buffalo Bills in Week 1 and then later on that team ties the Detroit Lions; this sentiment is just as true this season as any other. The Steelers take on the heavily-talented Chiefs on Sunday. The Chiefs (10-4) are currently the number 1 seed in the AFC playoff picture and the Steelers tend to respond well with their backs against the wall and they are currently in a playoff mindset. I predict the Steelers play a close game on Sunday with the Chiefs. The Chiefs are down a few key players that should aide the Steelers to hold a high-powered capable Chiefs’ offense. It’s time for the offense to score points earlier in games. This could be my optimism speaking, but look for an early successful Steelers’ offensive drive to produce first half points for the first time in years it feels like.
2) Tall task for the Steelers’ Defensive Reserves, again
The Steelers take on the Chiefs offense. The Steelers’ defense will be without ILBs Devin Bush and Marcus Allen due to the Reserve/COVID-19 list and Buddy Johnson has been ruled out due to a foot injury. We will probably see a lot more of Robert Spillane this week with Ulysses Gilbert III to come in to spell Joe Schobert or Spillane. Look for the Steelers to figure out ways to avoid getting stuck with Spillane one-on-one against mismatches, you may see Minkah Fitzpatrick to play more of a robber role on Sunday as well.
3) Chasing Strahan!
Watt just collected another 1.5 sacks this past Sunday against the Titans. The Defensive Player of the Year front-runner is now just 5 sacks away from tying New York Giants legend, Michael Strahan. Watt has three games to do so and in a week the Steelers defense needs to put insurmountable pressure on Patrick Mahomes. The quarterback has looked human this year and has shown he can be forced into mistakes with 13 interceptions thrown this year and another 2 lost fumbles. I predict Watt getting to Mahomes twice on Sunday to put his sack total to 19.5!
What do you think, Steeler Nation? What should we watch for against the Chiefs? Sound off in the comment section below on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram!
Support SteelerNation by clicking here to read the story..
