Friday Football Footnotes: Steelers scripting plays; teams countering T.J. Watt; Najee Harris vs. Travis Etienne
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For this week’s “Friday Football Footnotes,” we look at some of the big questions hanging over Sunday’s Steelers-Jaguars game at Acrisure Stadium.
One of them should be, “Is this the first of two rounds this season between the teams?” Don’t be stunned to see the Jags win the AFC South, and the Steelers make the playoffs as at least a wild card.
If the playoffs started today, this would be a first-round matchup.
They don’t, of course. The postseason won’t start for another three months. But after six years without a playoff victory around here (thanks in part to Jacksonville in 2017-18), dream big.
Can the Steelers finally score a few points early?
By now you’ve probably seen some of the hideous stats surrounding the Steelers offense early in games.
• Zero points scored on their opening drive of games this year.
• Just 35 total offensive points in the first half, good for 28th in the NFL.
• The Steelers average 2.3 points per first quarter.
Yet head coach Mike Tomlin did admit this week that the Steelers script plays.
“There is a script. We’re not completely married to it. And no, it’s not always trying to hit a home run,” Tomlin said Tuesday. “Sometimes it’s information gathering. Sometimes it’s personnel exchanges to see how they match personnel or logistically how they deal with personnel exchanges, who’s matching up with who, what are good matchups, what are they doing versus certain approaches to football. So, there are many agendas that you’re trying to get done at the early stages of the game from a scripting perspective.”
Maybe the agenda should just be try harder to score points early and worry less about getting the defense to tip its hand so you can cash in 45 minutes later.
Hey, I get it. What the Steelers have gotten defenses to show in the first quarter has become information they use late in games. It’s part of the reason why Kenny Pickett seems to flourish in the fourth quarter.
At the same time, though, maybe it’s just best to script plays that strictly benefit the offense regardless of what “tells” they expose, so that in the fourth quarter, you may actually be playing with a lead.
“Obviously, we’re trying to score every possession,” offensive coordinator Matt Canada said Thursday. “It’s always about trying to find the best plays. There is some probing — how they’re going to play a certain look or a certain personnel group. But we’re always trying to score, we’re trying to move the ball, and we just have to continue to find ways to be better at it early in the game.”
I’d suggest one way to accomplish that is to worry less about scripting plays that may pay off in the fourth quarter and script plays that are likely to pay off in the opening 15 minutes.
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How can the Steelers combat the tactics against T.J. Watt?
For all of T.J. Watt’s dominance this year, he has just seven tackles in his last five games. In two of his last three, the Houston Texans and Los Angeles Rams managed to keep Watt without a sack and limited him to just three tackles.
Even against the Baltimore Ravens, those two big sacks he had were his only two tackles of the game.
Part of the reason for that is that teams are forcing Watt wide on virtually all of his pass rushes. Opposing right tackles are setting at wider splits with a tight end lined up next to them. So Watt is forced to rush the passer at a wider angle.
“He moves wide, because if he stays there tight, the guy has an outside angle to chip him down and that limits his effectiveness as a rusher. So it’s our job to try to get him in the best positions,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said Thursday.
So what’s the answer? Austin and company dropped Watt in coverage a few more times Sunday. That worked. He got an interception.
TJ Watt INT!
: #PITvsLAR on FOX
: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/iTs8HMaXlh pic.twitter.com/3MYOvdoM6R— NFL (@NFL) October 22, 2023
They also lined him up on the right side occasionally.
“We wanted to try to move T.J. because he gets chipped, double teamed, all kinds of things every play,” Austin said. “It’s easy if everybody knows where you are all the time. Sometimes if you set your protection, you come out, you set the formation, protections go with the formations and he’s on the other side, you may not be able to get all those bodies to him.”
Or they could occasionally loop him inside to a gap for a more interior pass rush route. Or blitz him standing up inside once in awhile.
Regardless, the Steelers seem to be aware that Watt banging his head against the wall against all these chips and double teams is not the way to go on every snap. How they counter-to-the counter of Watt’s dominance throughout a game will be interesting.
Who burns the Steelers this time?
Last week, the Steelers defended well Cooper Kupp, but Puka Nacua went off.
In Week 1, Deebo Samuel was held to 55 yards, but Brandon Aiyuk had a banner day for San Francisco.
In Las Vegas, both Jakobi Meyers and Davante Adams had big days. So did Amari Cooper in Week 2 for Cleveland.
It seems like, for the Steelers, there is a willingness on defense to sacrifice stats in one area so long as star players elsewhere on the opposing offense don’t kill you.
Sometimes this year that’s worked out for the Steelers, sometimes it hasn’t.
How that plays out against Jacksonville will be interesting. The Steelers generally have been good against the tight end the last few years. But Evan Engram leads Jacksonville in receptions with 51.
Christian Kirk isn’t considered to be a game-changing receiver. But he’s good, and he leads the Jags in targets, yards and touchdown passes.
Then there is Calvin Ridley who could be a cornerstone for this Jags passing game. But that has rarely manifested this year. He’s averaging 52.5 yards per game.
I’ll be really interested to see who the Steelers designate as Jacksonville’s No.1 target, and how Austin and Tomlin attempt to take that player away.
Who wins the ‘Battle of the Backs’
Running back Najee Harris was drafted by Pittsburgh with the 24th pick in the first round of the 2021 draft out of Alabama.
Travis Etienne went one pick later to Jacksonville at No. 25 out of Clemson.
“He can really explode,” Austin said of Etienne. “He’s got tremendous speed, and for not a real big guy in terms of how some of the running backs are in the league, he runs behind his pads, and he’ll run through arm tackles in a heartbeat. The guy is impressive.”
In their rookie seasons, Harris eclipsed 1,000 yards rushing and proved valuable in the passing game. During the Jaguars’ second preseason game, Etienne suffered a Lisfranc injury and was lost for the year.
In 2022, Etienne outgained Harris in yards from scrimmage 1,441 to 1,263. This year, Etienne has 700 yards from scrimmage, and Harris is at 352.
So the tide has turned. I’m eager to watch how both players do on the same field Sunday.