Steelers vs. Titans Week 15 film study: Forcing turnovers a huge step for Steelers defense
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NFL football analyst Matt Williamson will break down each of the Steelers games this season in the Trib’s Steelers Film Study. Here’s what he saw in the Steelers’ Week 15 win over the Titans.
Even with the Colts winning Saturday night, the Tennessee Titans entered this game in Pittsburgh firmly atop of the AFC South. The Steelers were much more desperate for a victory.
Pittsburgh was the much healthier team, while the Titans’ offense had been a shell of itself without running back Derrick Henry and receiver AJ Brown. What we saw really wasn’t pretty from either team.
Numbers game
Before digging deep into this game, here are the important stats to know from this Steelers victory.
• In the first half of play, Tennessee possessed the ball for 21 minutes, 19 seconds.
• The Titans produced a dozen first downs compared to just five by the Steelers offense.
• Almost all the Titans offensive production came from their stable of running backs. That group carried the ball 11 times for 58 yards with seven catches for 61 yards in the first half. Compare those 129 yards of production against the 9 yards of offense that Steelers rookie running back Najee Harris brought to the table in the first half.
• In the first 30 minutes of play, Ben Roethlisberger completed 9 of 15 pass attempts for 92 yards, but much of that came on the last drive of the half against an extreme prevent Titans defensive scheme.
• When it was all said and done, Tennessee averaged 4.1 yards per play — a very low number — against 3.7 by Pittsburgh’s offense.
• The Steelers only ran 45 plays. Tennessee ran 78 offensive plays.
• As you might guess, the Titans won the time of possession battle 39:08 to 20:52 while creating 10 more first downs than Pittsburgh.
• But in this ugly affair, the stat that mattered most — as it often does — was turnover differential, which Pittsburgh won 4-0.
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Turnover battle
Despite the many areas that didn’t go so great, Pittsburgh’s ability to create turnovers was the difference in this game. The Steelers didn’t turn the ball over, created four turnovers, and stopped the Titans once on fourth down, which is as good as creating a turnover.
Pittsburgh’s defense got its hands on passes at the line of scrimmage, harassed QB Ryan Tannehill consistently when the Titans did decide to throw and collectively flew to the football. And the takeaways put the ailing Steelers offense, often with great starting field position, in position to put a few points on the board.
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Defensive stars shine
As mentioned, Pittsburgh’s pass-rush was a huge component in taking the football away. Outside linebacker T.J. Watt was a force of nature, tormenting tackle David Quessenberry snap after snap. Double teams rarely helped in keeping Watt from making an impact.
Defensive lineman Cameron Heyward was his usual incredible self. The Titans really missed Roger Saffold. His replacement, Aaron Brewer, struggled against all the Steelers interior defenders, but was no match whatsoever against Heyward.
Add safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and defensive back Joe Haden into that equation and Pittsburgh’s best defensive players greatly affected this game. The Titans averaged just 3.3 yards per passing attempt. Fitzpatrick finished this game with a dozen tackles, many of which stopped potentially long runs by the Titans running backs. That being said, you really don’t want your two top safeties finishing a game with 24 combined tackles.
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Welcome back Joe Haden
There was a play early in the game when Haden was smoked by Nick Westbrook-Ikhine on a go route, but other than that, Haden’s return from injury paid off in a big way.
Of course, the play that stands out was Haden’s great tackle to put the game away for the Steelers in the final minute. Haden is a great communicator on the backend, and his knowledge of the game and experience help this defense more than the numbers can indicate.
Fellow cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon also deserves a shout out for the second straight game. That trade could really pay off for Pittsburgh, and Witherspoon absolutely should be a guy they bring back next year.
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Titans offense sputters
Since Henry’s injury, the Titans’ offense has been one of the least explosive in the league, and that trend kept up on Sunday. Tennessee had little in the way of threats at wide receiver and tight end. Julio Jones is an all-time great, but he was ruled out of this game at halftime and hasn’t played 75% of the Titans offensive snaps since Week 1. Jones was targeted just once on Sunday.
With Brown, a true No. 1 receiver, also sidelined, that left Westbrook-Ikhene as Tennessee’s top wide out. Westbrook-Ikhene played 71 snaps and led the team with 35 routes run. Cody Hollister’s 22 routes was the second most. Folks, this was a very easy group of pass catchers to play against.
More Steelers ‘D’ highlights
Inside linebacker Devin Bush is improving. He isn’t making massive strides, but there is improvement there. Bush should have had an interception, and his coverage was good overall. He put himself in better position in this game to make plays and was much more aggressive overall.
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Defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk continues to improve as well, which is encouraging. Fellow lineman Chris Wormley would still be better served playing fewer snaps — he played 56 in this game — but 2021 has been a success for him, particularly as a pass-rusher. When Wormley left this game, the drop-off was significant.
Outside linebacker Alex Highsmith has a bright future, but he continues to take too much of an inside path, which leaves too much room to his outside against the run. But Highsmith was a force rushing the passer against a quality left tackle, Taylor Lewan.
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There is also now more clarity at slot cornerback. That job belongs to Arthur Maulet, who logged 44 snaps against a team that hesitates to bring a third wide receiver on the field. Maulet showed a lot of physicality near the line of scrimmage.
Run defense still not up to stuff
By no means is the Steelers run defense fixed after allowing another 200-yard day on the ground. The Titans averaged 4.8 yards per rushing attempt even without having dangerous explosive playmakers at tight end or wide receiver. D’Onta Foreman led the way with 108 yards on the ground and another 27 as a receiver, but Dontrell Hilliard and Jeremy McNichols chipped in with another 110 yards from scrimmage.
Of the Titans’ 318 offensive yards, 77% of that production came from the running back position. While Foreman certainly isn’t the Vikings’ Dalvin Cook from an explosiveness and big-play perspective, he is a big, talented guy in his own right and generated 3.5 yards per carry after first contact. Foreman also generated eight first downs on his carries. He isn’t a pushover. Short passes to the Titans running backs did give Pittsburgh’s linebackers trouble.
Will the run defense improve going forward? Honestly, probably not.
The Steelers wisely left their cornerbacks on islands quite a bit and stacked the line of scrimmage. It really didn’t matter.
They mixed and matched personnel groupings. It really didn’t matter.
In fact, 17 different Steelers defenders played 15 snaps or more. This group just doesn’t control gaps well enough, and most teams they face aren’t nearly as weak at wide receiver and tight end as the team the Steelers faced on Sunday.
Not so special teams
Special teams from this game must be addressed. Let’s start with the bad. Punter Pressley Harvin remains remarkably inconsistent. Punter isn’t a position that takes much time to adjust to the NFL. You can either punt well and consistently or not. Harvin is not. The punt team almost cost the Steelers this game. There was a three series stretch when Harvin had a poor punt, then the Titans had a big return on Harvin’s next punt and then the rookie punter had another poor punt. This unit was really terrible on that three-drive sample size.
But how about the good? Well, that of course centers around kicker Chris Boswell, as usual. He is a rock of consistency and outside of Justin Tucker, is there a better kicker right now in the NFL than Boswell?
Limited movement for offense
Let’s flip it over to the offense…an offense that produced just 168 yards. This group started with four straight punts. The offense really only had one impressive drive in this game, and that drive was greatly aided by Titans penalties.
Pittsburgh came out passing on six of its first seven plays, which made sense against a Tennessee defense that is far superior defending the run than pass. But obviously Pittsburgh’s offense wasn’t executing well and really wasn’t very threatening no matter what approach it took. Of the first 37 yards the Steelers gained, receiver Diontae Johnson was responsible for 36 of them.
Pittsburgh’s offense was only on the field for 49 snaps in total, but the personnel usage was interesting. Tackle Zach Banner got one snap, and fullback Derek Watt was on the field six times, but really, Pittsburgh used just 13 players on this side of the ball.
There were more motions and shifts in this game, and Pittsburgh had some success handing the ball to their wide receivers. But there also was zero identity or anything for the offense hang its hat on. As usual, everything looked hard.
The Steelers, and QB Ben Roethlisberger, are just far too reliant on RPOs, and every defense they face knows it. RPOs are a great way to create some cheap yardage here and there, but they can’t be the foundation of any NFL offense, as you never really establish either a running or passing identity. The best offenses in the league are good at something and establish concepts off those strengths. The Steelers have none of that now. There is no foundation.
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Running game goes nowhere
It starts with the running game, which was just putrid. There wasn’t one play in which Harris had a decent hole to run through. Of course, he ran it just 12 times, and all 18 of his yards were well earned. But 18 rushing yards from your running back position? That is hideous. Pittsburgh averaged 2.1 yards per rush attempt.
It is also a little mind boggling that Harris wasn’t used more in the passing game, even if only as a check down option. He has massive potential as a route runner, but we haven’t seen nearly enough of it yet. Fourteen total touches just aren’t enough for Harris.
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Little used receivers
Roethlisberger consistently threw short of the sticks once again and averaged just 5.8 yards per pass attempt. Wide receivers have lit up the Titans all year, but Roethlisberger targeted his wide receivers just 15 times. That group combined to catch nine passes for 66 yards and no touchdowns.
Give the Titans some credit here for going all out to stop Johnson. Everyone on the planet now realizes that Johnson is Pittsburgh’s top wide receiver, and the Titans game planned accordingly, often using star safety Kevin Byard as a help player on Johnson’s side.
Receiver Ray Ray McCloud is still playing far too many offensive snaps. He was on the field for 33 snaps and ran 22 routes. And is it really a great idea to be throwing fade balls in crucial situations into double coverage to McCloud? McCloud played the second most snaps played amongst the wide receivers, and it was the second most routes run-both behind only Johnson.
Receiver Chase Claypool played 14 more snaps than James Washington and ran a route on six more passing plays. This is the third straight week that Claypool’s participation has been right around 60% of Pittsburgh’s offensive snaps. He was only targeted twice and didn’t catch either; both were catchable balls. As has been the case all year, except for JuJu Smith-Schuster, Pittsburgh’s efforts and effectiveness as blockers is an embarrassment from the wide receiver position.
Johnson aside, tight end Pat Freiermuth was probably the Steelers best offensive weapon in this game. But the rookie tight end left the game with his second concussion in the last three weeks.
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On the line
Pass protection was again an issue for the Steelers overall, but both offensive tackles held up well enough in this game. Chukwuma Okorafor had a tough matchup against Harold Landry and got the better of that battle often enough. The Titans had a lot of success blitzing Elijah Molden from the slot, but the real problem was the interior presence of defensive end Jeffery Simmons, Tennessee’s best defensive player. Pittsburgh’s offensive line was just dominated in the run game though.
Often in third-and-long situations, the Steelers had a tough time converting on the money downs. In fact, they didn’t convert a third down opportunity on five tries in the first half. For the afternoon, the Steelers converted two third downs in 11 tries. Those two conversions came from Tennessee penalties.
Turning over the corner?
Coming into this game, Pittsburgh’s defense had taken the ball away only 13 times. Over the 2019 and 2020 seasons, the Steelers took the ball away 65 times, the most in the NFL over that period. Can the Steelers defense get back to or approach those previous levels? Taking the ball away is unpredictable and not something an NFL team can count on. But it also might be the key to their season.
Overall thoughts
Neither of these teams were impressive on Sunday. The Steelers and Titans didn’t look like contenders or even worthy playoff teams. But that really doesn’t matter in the big picture. Tennessee almost assuredly will win the AFC South, and with Henry and Brown returning, they should be a much different team in the postseason.
As for the Steelers, they are hanging on for dear life and don’t have something on the horizon like Henry and Brown returning to fix their big problems. And with as well as Kansas City, Los Angeles Chargers, Indianapolis, New England and Buffalo are playing, the AFC North is likely to have just one playoff participant this year.
Cincinnati is the best team in the division but has a tough remaining slate (as do all the teams in the division) against the Ravens, Chiefs and Browns.
The Ravens have lost three in a row and are falling apart. The Browns played on Monday with a massively depleted roster and nearly pulled out what would have been a humongous win for them. But instead, they are in last place in the division and travel to Green Bay next week on a short week, come to Pittsburgh on Monday night for Roethlisberger’s likely last game at Heinz Field, and then host the Bengals.
Amazingly, winning the division is not out of the picture for Pittsburgh.
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