The Steelers run defense has been one of the best in the NFL for most of the season. But on Saturday, it allowed Derrick Henry to rush for 162 yards on 24 carries, the most rushing yards by a Ravens running back against the Steelers in the history of the AFC North rivalry.
Pro Football Focus charted the Steelers to have missed 15 tackles against the Ravens, the most in a game by the Steelers this season. It’s just the third time this season the Steelers have missed 10 or more tackles in a single game; the other two games also resulted in losses to the Browns and the Eagles.
Coach Mike Tomlin addressed the Steelers’ tackling issues during his Sunday press conference at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex and how they can get back to being a good tackling team. On a short week late in December, fixing those tackling issues doesn’t involve more physical practices.
“There's so much that you can do around tackling,” Tomlin said. “You don't necessarily need pads on to improve tackling and to work at it. You work on the approach. You work on the positioning. You work on awareness of others, gap responsibility. And so when I say, ‘Back to the lab,’ it's all-encompassing on fundamental things that may not be tackling directly but really tee up tackling.”
Approach and positioning
Tomlin’s point about how the Steelers can get back to being better against the run is that they need to be in position more often to make plays against the run earlier.
Generally, the Steelers have done that this season. The Steelers’ 102.7 rushing yards allowed per game this season ranks eighth in the NFL. The Steelers have allowed broken and missed tackles at a rate of 8.8% of their opponents’ runs, seventh best in the NFL, according to Sports Information Systems.
On the season, the Steelers have allowed an average of 1.7 rushing yards before contact, which means their defense usually hits a running back before they can get 2 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
One of its best performances at limiting a running back’s yards before contact came a week before the loss to the Ravens. The Steelers limited the NFL’s leading rusher, Saquon Barkley, to just 65 yards on 19 carries, the fourth-fewest amount of yards in Barkley’s career with that many carries.
But the key to that effort was how little Barkley was allowed to run before any defender first contacted him. Only 7 of Barkley’s rushing yards came before contact — an average of 0.37 rushing yards per carry.
Henry’s numbers in the next week were the polar opposite, as 88 of his rushing yards came before contact for an average of 3.7 yards before contact per rush.
One factor that played into that result was how the Ravens consistently won the line of scrimmage against the Steelers interior defensive linemen. Watch this 11-yard gain by Henry early in the first quarter.
The Ravens double-teamed Keeanu Benton to move him out of the hole while Cam Heyward held his position. That led to Elandon Roberts being stuck guarding two gaps, which allowed Henry to pick the right hole and be untouched until he got to the second level.
But just as important as Benton and Heyward’s strength in the trenches is the positioning of the Steelers defenders behind them. Roberts did his best to hold down two gaps, but there’s a question of who should’ve been there to help him.
Patrick Queen had to move out to the right edge of the formation with a motion, while Preston Smith had to honor Lamar Jackson’s threat as a runner on the quarterback option. That leaves Minkah Fitzpatrick as a player who could’ve helped if he had jumped into the gap between Benton and Heyward faster.
Instead, one of the linemen who double-teamed Benton easily chipped to get to Fitzpatrick downfield and Roberts was left alone.
Another 13-yard run in the first quarter again showed a combination of the defensive line losing at the point of attack, as well as the off-ball defenders being blocked at the second level.
While Heyward lost against Tyler Linderbaum, Benton tried to get free but tripped and fell. That allowed the Ravens’ pulling guard to create more space for Henry to run. Benton’s trip also took Nick Herbig out of the play, while Queen tried to guard the left B-gap, the location that the pulling guard suggested the play was designed to attack.
But with Smith again guarding against the threat of Jackson running the ball and Heyward losing at the point of attack, that left Payton Wilson as the lone linebacker to make a play on the back side of the formation. But an offensive tackle that didn’t have to worry about any defensive linemen sealed Wilson inside and allowed for another first-down gain.
The Steelers linebackers and safeties share blame when it comes to the lack of gap integrity, as well. Players on both levels missed opportunities as they appeared to read the wrong keys on a play to determine what the Ravens were doing.
One such play came on a 14-yard run by Henry when the Ravens used fullback Patrick Ricard in motion. The motion caught the attention of Queen, who followed Ricard to the left side of the defense.
But Ricard’s motion was a decoy, as the Ravens pulled both their right guard and right tackle to turn into lead blockers for a counter trap on Heyward and Roberts on the other side of the formation. Typically, a linebacker should read the guards — not a fullback — to determine which direction a play is going.
While Heyward recognized the trap and tried to limit the space that would be created, Queen being on the other side of the formation opened up the opportunity for Henry to run untouched.
Other times, players tried to make plays outside of the design of the Steelers defense and it came back to bite them. On Henry’s 49-yard run in the fourth quarter, the Steelers had the proper alignment, but a bad angle taken by Fitzpatrick opened up a gap in the defense.
Notice how Benton fought to get to the right A-gap while Heyward held onto the B-gap. Henry’s path was a stretch run that went out wide, and Fitzpatrick shot up the A-gap to try to end the play in the backfield. He missed on his tackle, and Henry took it for a long way after.
Had Fitzpatrick played his spot and trusted Benton to protect A-gap, Heyward would’ve kept him clean of blockers so he could take a better attack angle outside of B-gap and limit the big gain.
Fitzpatrick’s effort was to make a play on his own. If he forced a tackle for loss, it would’ve been a very impressive play and potentially a game changer. But had he trusted Benton and Heyward to win those gaps and scraped to B-gap, Fitzpatrick probably gets an easier opportunity to make the play.
That trust factor for teammates to do their jobs was something Heyward discussed in the locker room after the Steelers’ Monday practice at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.
“We’re not trusting,” Heyward said. “Myself included. We have to rely on our fundamentals, our technique and our execution. It’s a mixture of that and remembering that if one guy does his job, then we can rely on everybody doing their job.
“If you watch our last game in particular,” Heyward continued, “I was playing too many blocks and trying to do too much. This defense is made on everyone doing their job.”
If the Steelers can get back to being a team that contacts the runner in the backfield or right at the line of scrimmage, they can probably force the Chiefs to abandon the run earlier in the game and force Patrick Mahomes’ offense to be one-dimensional.
First Published: December 24, 2024, 3:33 p.m.
Updated: December 25, 2024, 2:49 a.m.
