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Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin talks to players on the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Seattle. The Steelers won 30-23.
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Steelers film room: Where Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin's plans failed miserably in the playoffs

Associated Press

Steelers film room: Where Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin's plans failed miserably in the playoffs

Personnel decisions and schematic oddities allowed Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry to run all over the defense

The Steelers defense allowed 299 rushing yards to the Ravens in their 28-14 playoff loss Saturday at M&T Bank Stadium, the most rushing yards allowed in a playoff game in team history.

It wasn’t just the Ravens’ Derrick Henry who crushed the Steelers; it was offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s scheme that combined Henry with Lamar Jackson in quarterback read options that ultimately broke the Steelers defense.

But what compounded with the Ravens’ talent was the Steelers’ approach from Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin’s defense to combat the run. The Steelers needed to have a better plan in place to counter that part of the Ravens’ game plan and force Jackson into more difficult passing situations throughout the game.

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Combine that with a key weakness that opened up major problems in the secondary, and you have the disaster that was Saturday night.

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Why was this the plan?

The Steelers needed to know that the Ravens’ offensive plan without Pro Bowl receiver Zay Flowers would force them to run the ball more. That meant the Steelers needed to put an emphasis to load the box, stuff the run and force Jackson to hit receivers against tight man-to-man coverage.

That means the Steelers needed to invest their personnel to overrun the Ravens offensive line and not allow that aspect of the Ravens offense to be a controlling factor of the game.

“The Ravens present a unique challenge in terms of their run game,” Tomlin said during his Tuesday press conference at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “You’ve got to play 11-on-11 football, and at times we could have performed better schematically and at times we could have performed better as individuals.”

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When Tomlin references “11-on-11 football,” he means the extra component in the Ravens’ run game that includes Jackson as a factor to consider, whereas most teams don’t have to factor the quarterback in their run game. When the Ravens called for quarterback options, it forced a player to account for Jackson.

The Steelers saw the Ravens use that concept more in their 34-17 loss to the Ravens on Dec. 21 but didn’t have the a game plan to properly account for that in their playoff matchup.

“Particularly the last two games that we played them,” Tomlin continued, “we didn't do a good enough job of controlling that component of the game. And that leads to possession-down play and situational play, and we didn't have them in enough one-dimensional circumstances to create the type of negativity that's been a calling card of us winning those games with consistency.”

From the Ravens’ first drive, the quarterback read option was a problem for the Steelers. On the Ravens’ first attempt on third down, the Ravens knew they had an advantage over the Steelers.

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Typically when facing the option, defenses must have nine of their players account for gaps across the line of scrimmage and any receivers. The final two defenders must be responsible for the quarterback who has the ball and the running back who might get the handoff.

For the Steelers, it looked as though Tomlin and Austin planned to make those two final defenders an edge rusher on the strong side of the offense and the deep safety. The Steelers appeared to assign their edge rusher to take on the running back, while the deep safety had responsibility for Jackson.

On the Ravens’ first attempt on third down, that forced Minkah Fitzpatrick to have to cover 20 yards of ground to come up and defend Jackson on 3rd-and-2. The result was a 4-yard gain for Jackson.

That plan hurt the Steelers on several key plays that softened up the defense. Later in the same drive, Jackson did the same option play when he kept the ball on 3rd-and-1 and this time gained 5 yards against Damontae Kazee, who again came from 20 yards downfield to have to make the stop.

A typical defense normally keeps a deep safety as a layer of protection for a team’s cornerbacks when they’re playing press man coverage. But Jackson, Henry and the Ravens presented an offensive plan that needed the Steelers to be atypical and fully commit to stopping the option run by bringing that extra defender close to the line of scrimmage and trusting the cornerbacks to win against the Ravens’ limited receiver unit.

Eventually, Jackson’s choices to keep the ball on run options wore the Steelers down and players started missing their gaps in attempts to account for the Steelers’ schematic failings to stop Jackson.

On Henry’s 44-yard touchdown run in the third quarter, the Steelers inside linebackers jumped out of their interior gaps and were out of position as Henry cut outside of Alex Highsmith’s rush, then back inside against the Steelers defense for the rushing lane.

The plan against the Ravens’ run game left the Steelers at a disadvantage and opened up problems for the Steelers. But where Austin was supposed to help more with the Steelers defense was from his roots as a defensive backs coach.

While the Steelers’ schematics made sense against the pass, their usage of personnel did not back it up.

A major weakness

The Steelers offseason acquisition of Cam Sutton brought back a player who had been a reliable asset to the secondary in his six years with the team, when he played everywhere in the secondary from slot cornerback to outside cornerback and safety.

But Sutton was not the same player in 2024 that he used to be when he nabbed three interceptions and broke up 15 passes for the Steelers in 2022. Despite missing half the season due to suspension, Sutton tied Donte Jackson with the most touchdowns allowed by a Steelers cornerback, according to Pro Football Focus.

Even if Sutton wasn’t the same player in man coverage he used to be even just a couple years ago, his savviness in the secondary was supposed to be an asset, as he used to be interchangeable between positions. Sutton used to play a critical role — and on defenses coached by Austin — as a player who could switch between assignments mid-play in designed efforts to confuse quarterbacks into mistakes.

On the Ravens’ first touchdown of the game, Sutton was put in position to be that player — and failed miserably.

The Steelers had backed the Ravens up to 3rd-and-13 on their opening drive and knew Jackson needed a deep pass to score or keep the drive from going to 4th-and-long. So Austin dialed up a man two-under scheme that tasked the Steelers’ coverage with man-to-man across the board and had both Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott as the deep safeties who each covered half the field.

The Ravens had receiver Tylan Wallace run a crossing pattern from the slot, where Sutton lined up against him, while Rashon Bateman ran a post pattern against Donte Jackson just outside of Wallace.

The play was designed to give Bateman the space to beat Jackson and occupy Fitzpatrick with Wallace so no help could come to Jackson.

But it appeared the Steelers did have a counterplan for that. As Sutton broke off from Wallace’s crossing pattern and passed Wallace off to Fitzpatrick in coverage, Sutton then backed up into the end zone to effectively replace Fitzpatrick as a de facto deep safety.

The problem came when Sutton just wasn’t athletic enough to get back deep enough to actually play his role, and Bateman was open for the 15-yard touchdown.

In addition to Sutton’s mistake, not having Joey Porter Jr. on Bateman routinely throughout the game seemed like a missed opportunity for the Steelers to keep their best cornerback on the Ravens’ most skilled remaining receiver.

Sutton was a problem for the Steelers defense throughout the game — as well as throughout the second half of the season. Whether in zone or man coverage, he offered little to combat the Ravens’ plans in the passing attack.

On the Ravens’ final drive of the second quarter, they got a 19-yard gain from tight end Isaiah Likely against Sutton that set up an eventual touchdown to go up 21-0 just before halftime. Sutton played backed-off coverage and still couldn’t keep up with Likely on the play as the Steelers went into a Cover 1 man scheme.

Patrick Queen didn’t help on the play much either, as he didn’t move from his spot as the underneath zone defender to help guard the middle of the field. While his reported flu could’ve played a factor, it’s still another example of the Steelers’ coverage unit being picked apart by an MVP quarterback without his top receiving option.

The Steelers can easily move on from a player like Sutton, who was on a prove-it deal. But the questions for the defense will require a harder look at how the defense is both retooled and deployed. Austin’s speciality had been to provide more complex coverage packages to confuse quarterbacks into mistakes, which typically has worked. The Steelers led the NFL in interceptions in his first year as defensive coordinator in 2022 and had the third most this season.

But those machinations were not combined with a complex plan up front. The Post-Gazette showed months ago that teams were starting to scheme up ways to slow down T.J. Watt and the Steelers could benefit from moving him around more in the defense. While that did happen at times, Watt didn’t once move from his normal spot on the left side of the defense during the Steelers’ five-game losing streak that closed out the season.

If Tomlin and Austin can’t find the right personnel to match the complex coverage schemes they want to use, they need to at least be able to scheme up better ways to use the advantages the team has in their defensive front like Watt, Highsmith and Cam Heyward.

When Keith Butler was the Steelers defensive coordinator, it was the team’s front that had the more sophisticated plans to confuse offensive lines and quarterbacks into mistakes while the secondary would be less complex. But where Tomlin must find — with or without Austin in 2025 — is the medium between both parts of the defense to make the scheme complex and sharp from top to bottom.

First Published: January 15, 2025, 7:51 p.m.

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