On Sundays we learn who won, but it’s not until Tuesday when the All-22 tape is released that we find out why. Each week I’ll be combing through the coach’s film and highlighting some of what we missed from the broadcast tape.
Where better to start than the first (defensive) play of the game? Isaiah Buggs faded in this contest and ultimately left due to injury, but he had a strong into here. He’s lined up in the A-gap (between the center and a guard, in this case the left guard).
At the snap the line flows to the left in the direction of the jet sweep action. The center is trying to pull out to get into the hole and lead block, but Buggs gets into his body, gets control of him and slows him down. He carries the center all the way upstream, disengages at will to fill the running lane and he ends up sharing a tackle for loss with Cam Heyward.
When tape rolls, Minkah is in single high while Haden and Sutton are shoulder-to-shoulder on the bottom of your screen. At the snap Sutton’s head turns to Haden and you can see him pointing out towards the flat. Haden curls down to #16 in the flat and Sutton starts giving ground. Minkah senses that and assumes Cam will carry the deep route, so he bites on the TE (#81) running a cross. When Sutton also ends up on the same guy at the end of the rep, someone has some ‘splainin’ to do.
By the letter of the law the go route is probably Minkah’s responsibility. It’s important to note the QB’s primary read was to that right side and he had looked away. I’m sure Minkah saw that and figured “there’s no way he’s looking back that way with TJ and Highsmith barking at his heels.” The play doesn’t show up in the box score but you can bet it will be discussed in the film room.
Sticking with the theme of Norwood, he’s the only one in the middle of the field here, running with Tyler Lockett (#16). Sutton is up near the line bluffing a blitz, but at the snap he spins off on Metcalf (#14). Metcalf and Lockett are running man coverage-beating rub routes. The goal there is to get Sutton and Norwood to bump into each other as the receivers cross the middle of the field and “rub” one of them off so his guy can get open.
Sutton disrupts Metcalf and affects the geometry of his route. Metcalf tries to break free by going over the top; he’s instinctively trying to create separation instead of doing his job on the play which is to sacrifice himself to create separation for Lockett. The altered route pulls Sutton out the path of Norwood who is in position to make another good stop.
Chase Claypool is an insane athlete; there’s a list of considerable length of things he’s better at than most other humans. Run blocking – especially against run-stopping linebackers – is not on that list. Here he’s pulling across the formation as a lead blocker, but he’s got a posse. Freiermuth and Okorafor are also on the move. There are three guys who need to be blocked on that side, and they have three lead blockers.
Freiermuth is going to seal the outside edge by going out and getting the CB on that side. Claypool is supposed to hit the hole hard and hit whoever he sees first even harder. Chase doesn’t do much to slow #56 and Okorafor has to clean up Claypool’s mess. As a result Okorafor can’t climb to the third guy who needs blocked; Jamal Adams comes in free and gets a hard shot in on Najee.
It’s been a while (s/o to Stain’d) since Steelers fans saw a QB with this much time to operate. Eugene Smith helped his cause by dancing around back there, but he had 7 seconds before he threw this ball. Now, did the RG get away with a hold on Chris Wormley here? I slowed it down so you can judge for yourself.
The Steelers only brought a four-man rush here, and neither TJ nor Heyward were on the field at the time. Melvin Ingram does a good job holding Smith in the pocket and Highsmith overpowers the LT. Henry Mondeaux was…also there.
CamBlackburnWrites 