LikeLike

Thanks, and thank you for reading!

LikeLike

LikeLike

Interesting you should say that about the man coverage, because last week, I think it was, PFF did an article about who plays man vs. zone, and the Steelers are dead last in the league, using man only about 10% of the time. I’m not convinced they actually want to play more man – I think they like what zone is doing for them when the front seven are doing their job…

LikeLike

The Steelers will want to be sure stay disciplined on their run defense because Abdullah and Riddick are shifty cut back runners who can exploit over-aggressive pursuit, but these guys aren’t exactly Jordan Howard or Leondard Fournette. It will be interesting to see how they do against Matt Stafford too, who is the 2nd best QB we’ve faced this year and has a much stronger arm than Cassell to squeeze the ball into zone coverage. We’ve talked a lot about using more man coverage, but we’ve still been a primarily zone team so far this season I think. We might see more man coverage this game, especially considering Detroit’s OL probably won’t give receivers a lot of time to get open on double moves.

Offensively, we should be able to take advantage of Detroit’s struggles on offense to stick with the run even if the Lions are committed to stopping it. The Lions secondary will give up yards, partly due to having faced much better QB’s than we have, so we can take our shots when we want them, but they also have 9 interceptions in 6 games. They’ll try like the Jags did to lure us into a high volume passing game by offering one on one matchups with receivers because they know that if we go pass heavy it’s just a matter of time until they come down with the ball. We’ll need to be willing to work to establish the run game and throw the ball away rather than risk interceptions; willing to punt and win a war of attrition based on field position and field goals if need be.

LikeLike