Can the Steelers reboot the same defensive assault on Denver they unleashed on New York?
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On Monday night, the Pittsburgh Steelers defense overwhelmed the New York Giants offense en route to a 26-16 victory. Along the way, the defense held New York star running back Saquon Barkley to just six yards on 15 carries.
So what does that mean for this Sunday’s game at Heinz Field against the Denver Broncos?
Well, the Giants have a Pro Bowl running back in Barkley, a second-year quarterback with a partial season as a starter under his belt (Daniel Jones), a decent core of receivers with an athletic weapon at tight end (Evan Engram) and an offensive line with some questions.
The Broncos have a Pro Bowl running back (Melvin Gordon), a second-year quarterback with a partial season as a starter under his belt (Drew Lock), a decent core of receivers with an athletic weapon at tight end (Noah Fant), and an offensive line with some questions.
So why not just rinse, wash, repeat from what Keith Butler’s defense did in New Jersey Monday night?
Sell out to neutralize Gordon’s impact in the run game. Attack the offensive line in both the run and pass situations. Speed up the clock in Lock’s head the way they did to Jones. Dare the receivers to get open fast enough before that overwhelming pass rush gets home.
Based on what I witnessed Monday, sounds good to me!
But Butler claims that’s easier said than done.
“I think we have to do some things that we haven’t done or haven’t shown in the first ballgame,” Butler said. “There’s going to be some other stuff that we are going to be doing. We’re not going to be doing all the same things that we did last week against the Giants.”
I suppose there are a few reasons why the Steelers can’t just cut and paste last week’s defensive game plan. If Courtland Sutton can play and Jerry Jeudy can hold on to catchable passes when they come his way, the Broncos may possess better weapons at wide receiver than New York. Especially since the Giants played without Golden Tate.
And the Denver offensive line — coached by former Steelers assistant Mike Munchak — should provide more resistance to the Steelers defensive front than New York’s did. Tackles Elijah Wilkinson and Garett Bolles are spotty. However, the Broncos interior three — rookie center Lloyd Cushenberry III between guards Graham Glasgow and Dalton Risner — is stiffer competition for the Steelers defensive line than what they saw at MetLife Stadium.
One thing the Giants managed to do better as the game went along was to throw the ball to Barkley out of the backfield. Gordon has 227 career catches for 1,881 yards. And Lock’s feet are nimble enough to get around in the pocket or scramble out of it.
Screens or rolling Lock on boot action with some run-pass options to Gordon might be a way to counter the maniacal push up the field from the Steelers front seven.
“If we do play action and get out the pocket, and if you weren’t covering the run, you’re going to let up a big one,” Lock said Wednesday. “If I feel like my first two or three reads are taken away, and there’s nothing else left to do, I’m going to run around and try to make a play with my feet. Our guys are good about scramble drill. They do a good job of working to get open and getting free to allow me to make a play outside the pocket.”
Lock has plenty of arm strength. But deep ball accuracy was an issue last week, as he misfired on three downfield attempts.
“There are two ways to throw (deep passes),” Lock said. “There’s one on the line, depending on the type of route they run, whether it’s in the slot or outside. Then there’s the put air under it and let it drop in. If it’s a speed guy, you probably want to get it out there to him. You want to let a guy that can fly down the field run underneath it. If it’s a bigger guy, you can body it up and put it up high to where if he has a smaller corner on him, he can go up and get it. … There are times for both. I just have to be better with the decision on when to throw the different types of balls.”
Maybe I was oversimplifying the similarities of the Broncos and Giants earlier in this story. Or, perhaps, Butler and I are working too hard to find nuisance between them.
Here’s all we need to know. If the Steelers defense executes with the precision and tenacity that it did last week, it’s not going to matter who is on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
Get more insight on the Broncos from Broncos insider Benjamin Allbright (KOA/Broncos Radio Network) in our Friday podcast. He goes more in-depth on the struggles of the offensive line, vulnerabilities of the Broncos defense, and some shade being thrown at Broncos coach Vic Fangio.