Pittsburgh Steelers DL Cameron Heyward welcomes the Los Angeles Chargers as guests this weekend, enjoying their model of soccer. It’s a Steelers model of soccer, prioritizing nice protection and a stout operating recreation. The Chargers could have Justin Herbert at quarterback, however they had been operating the ball down your throat this yr.
“It’s enjoyable. It’s old-school soccer”, Heyward stated of Sunday’s Steelers-Chargers recreation through the crew’s web site. “When you’re nervous about having your dime bundle prepared this week, you picked the fallacious week. We’re gonna have some large our bodies on the sector, and it ought to be enjoyable to get after it”.
Up to now this season, the Steelers have spent ever so barely greater than half their time in sub-packages. That features 16 snaps in dime, a greater than 13 p.c utilization price. Notably, almost all these dime snaps—all however one-came this previous Sunday towards the Denver Broncos. They solely performed one snap of dime within the opener towards the Atlanta Falcons on the primary third down of the sport.
When the Steelers used their dime protection, Cory Trice Jr. grew to become the sixth defender. In case you’re questioning, that solely consists of 4 snaps missed by Donte Jackson of their final recreation. The Steelers really use Damontae Kazee slightly than DeShon Elliott at security once they play dime. Don’t ask me why. They simply do. Possibly to justify the $3 million they’re paying him.
Defenses use a dime protection—six defensive backs on the sector—when going through apparent passing conditions. That’s, long-odds down-and-distance conditions and when an offense is trailing on the scoreboard. The Steelers and Chargers have the lowest-scoring defenses within the league this yr, although.
And never solely do the Steelers and Chargers rank on the high in scoring protection, they’re two of six groups with not less than 70 dashing makes an attempt on the season. The Steelers have essentially the most within the NFL at 77. Additionally they each like their additional tight ends, operating with two 45 p.c of the time. in truth, they use 22 personnel greater than anyone else within the league up to now this season.
The Steelers have finished effectively to cease the run the previous two weeks, however they know the Chargers will likely be an issue. For apparent causes, they make use of a run-game system harking back to current Baltimore Ravens groups. Jim Harbaugh has imported his youthful brother’s offensive coordinator and two of his former high operating backs. The trio of Greg Roman, J.Okay. Dobbins, and Gus Edwards is off to an excellent begin this yr.
Whereas the Chargers nonetheless use 11 personnel 53 p.c of the time, they rank within the backside 10 within the league by proportion. The Steelers rank even decrease than that, so, as Heyward stated, we’ll see some large our bodies on this recreation. One wonders if the Steelers will use Broderick Jones as a tackle-eligible this week. The Chargers use DL Scott Matlock in a twin position, enjoying fullback and tight finish on offense.
