3 Things To Keep an Eye on: Last Week in Review

By: CJ Lester, @CJLester58

SteelerNation.com

Week 4 for the Pittsburgh Steelers has become a bye week due to a coronavirus outbreak within the Tennessee Titans' organization. Last week, the Steelers defeated the Houston Texans 28-21 at home. With the bye week being this week due to circumstances, the Steelers’ next opponent will be the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 5. We will hold off on looking at what to watch for during next week’s matchup, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at the three things I noted to look for during last week’s matchup against the Texans.

Last week in review

The three things I noted that we should keep an eye on last week were:

1. TJ Watt vs. JJ Watt: Who wreaks more havoc?

The battle we were all waiting for finally unfolded last week. JJ Watt was pretty much neutralized during the game. Chukwuma Okorafor had an impressive showing against the All-Pro defensive end. The Texans’ Watt was held to just 4 tackles, 0 sacks, 0 tackles for loss, 0 QB hits, and 0 passes defensed. On the Pittsburgh side of the Watt family tree, TJ Watt played well. He finished the game with 4 tackles (all solo tackles), 1 sack, 2 tackles for loss, 4 QB hits, and 0 passes defensed. If you watched the game, you could obviously tell that TJ Watt definitely had a bigger impact on last Sunday’s game. To answer last week’s question, TJ Watt wreaked more havoc than older brother JJ and added to his impressive September numbers to be crowned AFC Defensive Player of the Month. Check out this breakdown video from Brian Baldinger. He shows what offenses have to do to try to contain the Steelers' Defensive Player of the Year candidate!

2. Will the Texans Offensive Line Continue to Struggle Against the Steelers’ Pressure?

The Steelers were able to get to Texans’ QB Deshaun Watson a total of 5 times last week. To better outline the amount of pressure Watson was under the entire game, the Steelers totaled 12 QB hits. Needless to say, the Texans’ offensive line was not able to step up against this great Steelers’ defense and their insurmountable pressure. The Steelers’ pass rush continued to prove their worth against the Texans.

3. Can the Steelers’ defense clean up the penalties?

I wanted to focus on if the Steelers were able to clean up the penalties last week against the Texans, because the week prior there was an awful amount of penalties called against the team. Against the Denver Broncos, the defense struggled to get off the field on 3^rd down due to committing a high number of penalties. Against the Broncos, the team committed a total of 10 penalties for 89 yards. Following that game, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin elected to bring in NFL officials during the week of practice leading up to the Week 3 matchup against the Texans in an effort to clean those penalties up. Did the emphasis on playing more disciplined help against the Texans last week? Absolutely, it helped! Against the Texans, the Steelers only committed two penalties for a total of 14 yards.

Are there any specific matchups you are looking ahead to against the Eagles in Week 5? Sound off in the comment section below, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!

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