Tim Benz: Don’t kid yourself. Steelers never could’ve done what Titans did to Patriots
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Yeah. It crossed my mind, too.
Watching the New England Patriots crumble at home against the Tennessee Titans in the first round of the AFC playoffs.
Could this have been the year? What if the Steelers didn’t fall apart down the stretch and had managed to scratch their way past the Titans into the conference’s sixth playoff slot?
Could they have done to the Patriots what the Titans did?
In a great twist of irony, after so many failures against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick in Foxborough over the last 18 years, would this have finally been the year they beat them both on the same day in Massachusetts?
In the playoffs, no less?!
Nope. It wouldn’t have happened.
As withered as the Patriots may have looked, as badly as they limped down the stretch, the Steelers never would’ve won a playoff game in Gillette Stadium last Saturday.
You could’ve played that game 100 times, and the Patriots would’ve found a way to win 101. That never would’ve been Joe Haden or Minkah Fitzpatrick waltzing into the end zone, intercepting Brady’s potential last pass as a Patriot like Logan Ryan did.
AND TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF pic.twitter.com/xWKS5HSqaE
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) January 5, 2020
You may be asking, “Why not? The Steelers’ defense is even better than Tennessee’s. The Titans won by only completing nine passes for 71 yards. Geez! Even Devlin Hodges or Paxton Lynch could’ve done that.”
That all may be true. Unfortunately, there’s one thing the Titans can do that the Steelers can’t.
The Titans can run the football.
Tennessee rushed for 138 yards per game, third best in the NFL. The team’s star running back, Derrick Henry, won the NFL rushing title. He averaged 5.4 yards per carry, totaling 182 yards on 34 attempts Saturday against the Patriots.
Not only is that good because of the obvious statistical benefits. It’s good because it prevented quarterback Ryan Tannehill from having to throw into the teeth of New England’s second-ranked pass defense with its league-high 25 interceptions. He was also only sacked once in 16 drop backs.
It was also good because the Titans won the time-of-possession battle. Plus, if you subtract New England’s one drive that started near midfield after a Tannehill interception, the Patriots’ other nine possessions began at an average of their own 19-yard line.
So Henry and the offensive line — along with a Pro Bowl punter in Brett Kern — aided in field position, too.
This is our @brettkern6 appreciation post. #TENvsNE pic.twitter.com/4fToPe7GDt
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) January 5, 2020
The Steelers never could’ve done any of that. They rated 29th in the NFL when it came to rushing offense at a putrid 90.4 yards per game. Their backs don’t run the ball well enough. Their linemen, tight ends and receivers don’t block well enough. They don’t commit to the run. And, let’s be honest, they still prefer to throw.
It’s in their DNA now.
Counting sacks and quarterback scrambles as passing plays, the Steelers only tried 57 rushes as opposed to 115 passes over their last three games. That’s with the weak combination of Hodges and Mason Rudolph at quarterback.
That mentality and that lack of a run-game skillset would’ve flopped in New England just as so many other incarnations of the Black-and-Gold offense have done since 2001.
Would the Steelers have been more inclined to run if they had Henry and Tennessee’s blockers instead of their makeshift band of running backs and aging offensive line?
Of course.
As a starter, James Conner isn’t in Henry’s class in terms of talent or durability. Henry had 1,540 yards this year. Conner has 1,581 in his career.
Conner has 363 career carries. Henry had 303 this season alone. Henry has played in 62 of 64 regular season games over the last four years. Conner has missed 11 of 48 in three seasons.
Meanwhile Benny Snell is an unpolished, between-the-tackles rookie. Trey Edmunds is a special teamer. Jaylen Samuels is a pass catcher.
But they should’ve leaned more on what they had available on the ground anyway. Because it was better than the passing alternatives that we saw down the stretch, especially in tight, close losses against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets in December.
They would’ve abandoned the run quickly again in Foxborough. And “Duck” soup would’ve replaced clam chowder at Gillette Stadium.
Sure. It’s a cozy thought. A notion that it could’ve been the Steelers — of all teams — potentially closing the coffin on the Patriots dynasty in Foxborough.
But for many of the reasons the Steelers weren’t there in the first place, they never would’ve seized the opportunity the Titans were given.
Don’t kid yourselves the same way the Steelers offense did the last month of the season.