Steelers' Mike Tomlin Downplays Joey Porter Jr.'s Desire For Strong Match-Up In Week 9 Win

The Pittsburgh Steelers escaped Week 9 with another close win, partially due to the team shutting down the Tennessee Titans' best weapon in the passing game. DeAndre Hopkins had four receptions on 11 targets while matched up on Joey Porter Jr. Porter called his shot, and he delivered by locking down a receiver that was coming off of a three-touchdown game the prior week. Despite that, Mike Tomlin downplayed the whole situation in his Tomlin Tuesdays press conference, claiming that there was a lot more that went into that decision than Porter's confidence. 

Tomlin was asked about the confidence he showed in Porter to allow him to match up against Hopkins all game long, and he tried to downplay everything about that battle while also taking a shot at the media in the process.

"It's good that Joey [Porter Jr.] wants an assignment like that, but it has to be good for us, and there were a lot of things that [the media] don't write about that made it advantageous for us. A lot of their run game went away from [DeAndre Hopkins], and so Joey didn't have to worry a lot about a lot of run game fits and dealing with Henry. All of their screens went away from him, and so he didn't have to worry about screen fits. ...There's always a lot of depth to decisions, and oftentimes, it's some other things that are equally as important as some obvious things in terms of decision making, particularly when it comes to matching people up."

Tomlin claimed that Porter's work on Hopkins came because of the Titans' tendencies with the run game, as well as the screen game, as opposed to the actual one-on-one matchup in the passing game. While Porter has clearly been the best cornerback on the team so far in 2023, the Steelers might have had Levi Wallace follow Hopkins around instead if the runs and screens went towards Hopkins' side of the field.

It is true that Porter has some issues with tackling, and he showed them on the defense's first drive of the game. He had trouble wrapping up Tyjae Spears and ended up grabbing his face mask for a brutal 15-yard penalty. While everything does come down to scheme fits depending on how the opponents like to play, going away from match-up fits elsewhere could be costly. 

Tomlin did take a little bit of time to talk about Porter's skills as a coverage corner, but he mentioned that Hopkins being neutralized was just happenstance from the run defense scheme.

"There's a young guy with some natural coverage abilities and skills, and some other components of his game are growing and developing, and just by virtue of travelling with D-Hop, some of those other things got minimized."

While Porter's desire to go one-on-one with Tennessee's best receiver likely had something to do with the decision allowing him to do so, Tomlin won't outright say it. He won't even admit that his coverage abilities were a factor in giving Porter that opportunity. Tomlin just says that keeping Porter away from his weakness is a key reason that he allowed Porter to get his wish. 

Porter has at least earned the full-time starter role, and it is safe to say that he will likely be matched up against the best receivers of each team they play from here on out, whether the run game goes his way or not. While his Week 9 performance was not his best work so far, he still did his job in taking a hot receiver and cooling him off, forcing a sub-50% completion percentage on passes thrown his way.

What do you think about Mike Tomlin's reasons for allowing Joey Porter Jr. to shadow DeAndre Hopkins all game long? Let us know in the comments.

#SteelerNation