As weird as it is to admit, it is safe to say the Pittsburgh Steelers are officially in “spoiler” mode for the rest of the 2022 season. Their bleak playoff hopes were extinguished last week against the Baltimore Ravens and all they can ask for are meaningless wins at this point of the season.
Looking ahead to this week’s matchup against the Carolina Panthers, the casual fan could presume an easy road victory for the Steelers in Charlotte on Sunday afternoon. However, the Steelers' defense was exposed against a strong Ravens’ rush attack and displayed the blueprint for the Panthers of how to beat them. For the sake of the Steelers, they’re going to face a unique Carolina run package they’ve never seen before, and they’re going to need to be ready for it.
Steelers' Alex Highsmith (#56) and Minkah Fitzpatrick (#39) prepare for the Baltimore Ravens' rushing attack in Pittsburgh, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
David Newton, who is the Panthers’ ESPN staff writer, highlighted the special run-based package they’ve rolled out after the termination of former Head Coach Matt Rhule. Newton described it earlier this week.
“The Panthers used an eight-offensive lineman front called their Arby's package for the first time this season in the first quarter of Sunday's win at Seattle. As guard Brady Christensen said, we've got the meats.' They've gone with more jumbo packages (six-plus linemen) 56 times for 185 yards this season to rank third in the NFL in such sets behind Cleveland and Detroit, per ESPN Stats and Information. That's a dedication to the run by interim coach Steve Wilks.”
As Newton alluded, interim Head Coach Wilks is committed to the run. If we look to last Sunday, the Ravens, like the Panthers, were strongly committed to the run. It seemed as though everyone in the stadium knew the Ravens were going to hand the ball off, yet the Steelers’ defense simply had no answer to the ball being force-fed down their throats. So, what has to change this week?
Steelers’ Alex Highsmith Talks Failed Approach Against The Ravens And Looking Ahead
Steelers' Alex Highsmith (#56) gets ready for the Baltimore Ravens in Pittsburgh, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
Highsmith has been a consistent anchor along the defensive front for the season. When T.J. Watt missed time due to injury, Highsmith kept it down on the outside and has had the best season of his professional career. As a result, Highsmith has grown into a leader on defense and knows what the group needs to do to prevent what we saw against the Ravens from happening again.
“We weren’t able to stay in our gaps and make the pile fall back. You know, tackling guys, and so, we didn’t do that enough last game and so that’s going to be a point of emphasis with this game because they (the Panthers) got a really good running game. A really good division of backs and so, that’s just really going to be a key to this game," Highsmith said.
Let’s take a dive into what Highsmith is explaining. First, the Panthers, under Wilks, are clearly and obviously a run-first team, fairly similar to what we saw in the Atlanta Falcons. Since Wilks took over, the Panthers average over 32 rush attempts per game while averaging over 146 yards per game on the ground. If we look at the last four games, they’ve had a pair of games with over 200 rushing yards and one with over 180 yards.
Just looking at their last three games from a play-call perspective, they’ve run the ball over 57 percent of the time on offense. That leads the entire NFL with the next closest being the Falcons at 55.9 percent. Needless to say, the Arby’s package is doing wonders for the Panthers’ playoff hopes.
As I mentioned, the Steelers’ rush defense has recently fallen off the wagon a bit. After holding the likes of Alvin Kamara to 26 yards, Jonathan Taylor to 86 yards and Leonard Fournette to 63 yards (all of which resulted in Steelers' wins), they’ve hit a wall in their last six quarters of football (the second half of the Falcons games plus the entire game versus the Ravens). They're allowing an average of over 155 yards per game on the ground and are in need of a quick remedy. Head Coach Mike Tomlin explained earlier this week about the schematics they’ll need to work on this week in preparation for the Panthers.
"We very much could be in that style of game again this week with the way Carolina is playing," Tomlin said. "We got some schematic work ahead of us. We got some physical work ahead of us. The pile needs to fall the direction in which we desire it to fall. And outside of that attrition component of discussion, you got to win the weighty downs. You win the weighty downs, good defenses spend a lot of time on the sideline, not playing plays. And so that's kind of the discussion regarding the attrition component what transpired last week."
Steelers' T.J. Watt (#90) lines up across from New Orleans Saints' Alvin Kamara (#41) in Pittsburgh, PA. | Photo Credit: Jordan Schofield/SteelerNation (JSKO_PHOTO Twitter)
Tomlin went on to explain why the defense has given up more yards in the last game-and-a-half compared to the rest of the season.
"We played two run-centric teams with quarterback mobility," Tomlin stated. "So, you play two teams like you're going to have somebody ringing up yards on you in the running game. If we played two teams that featured the passing game, you could be talking about six quarters of passing yards. I'm not desensitive to it, I just understand it's the nature of the style of ball we've been playing of late, and we got another game that could be very similar this week. So, it does have our attention."
As of where we sit in this week’s preparation, it seems as though the Steelers have a tough task against a team who hasn’t beaten them since 1996. With the Panthers in tight contention for the NFC South title, the Steelers will need to play spoiler and shut down the rush attack. It is just a matter of sustaining that same formula they used in November for all 60 minutes this time around.
What are you looking for in practice this week? What should the defense be focused on heading into Charlotte on Sunday? Let us know in the comments below!
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