The Nick Herbig Impact And How Pittsburgh's Mounting Accidents Will Change Its Protection

In relation to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ protection, nobody is extra beneficial than T.J. Watt. Heck, with regards to the Steelers interval, nobody is extra beneficial than him. The uncommon roster the place the MVP isn’t the quarterback. As historical past has proven, with out him, the protection shrinks. However Sunday night time confirmed it might take a step again with out Nick Herbig, too.

Exiting with a hamstring harm late within the third quarter, the Steelers’ protection shifted after that. Whereas Watt remained on the sector, Pittsburgh lacked a risk reverse him. The Cowboys might freely ship all their consideration to Watt, which they had been doing earlier than Herbig left anyway, however with out the fear of the ‘1B man’ beating them.

That’s proven within the numbers. Listed here are QB Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys’ passing sport stats together with the Steelers’ defensive stress figures earlier than and after Herbig’s harm.

In some respects, the numbers aren’t a lot completely different. Dallas had the next completion share and yards per try with Herbig within the lineup than when he was out of the sport. A few of that may be attributed to Pittsburgh enjoying a “safer” protection late within the sport after Herbig received damage, Dallas throwing shorter passes because it marched downfield on two lengthy landing drives.

The highest quantity to key on is the stress price. With Herbig, the protection pressured Prescott one-third of the time. With out him, that quantity was lower by greater than half. Maybe among the shorter passes performed an element however there have been key moments the place Prescott had loads of time within the pocket, together with on each of his landing passes. On his first one, Prescott had over 4.3 seconds within the pocket. On his second, he had 3.5 seconds from snap to throw and will’ve held the ball longer if he wanted to.

When Alex Highsmith was wholesome, he might play Robin to Watt’s Batman. When Highsmith went down, Herbig was in a position to fill an identical function and was dusting Cowboys rookie left deal with Tyler Guyton early earlier than Guyton exited with an harm. As soon as Herbig went down, the workforce was left with DeMarvin Leal and Jeremiah Moon, large downgrades in pass-rush juice. And even Leal was misplaced within the fourth quarter, leaving a really drained Moon and Watt (Moon in his first sport of the season after an ankle harm) to huff and puff via the remainder of the sport.

With Highsmith anticipated to overlook one other week and Herbig not trying prone to play Sunday, the Steelers will want a special sport plan. One which requires them to blitz greater than they’ve all season. Not is the pure “rush 4, drop seven” method going to work till Highsmith and/or Herbig get again. For many of the yr, Pittsburgh’s opted towards blitzing, doing so simply 21 % of the time and even a lot of these had been “inexperienced canine” of linebackers speeding when their assignments stayed in to dam. Evaluate that to final yr when the Steelers blitzed 31.2 % of the time. If that 21-percent quantity had been to carry, it will be 5 factors decrease than their earlier low blitz price of 26 % in 2021. A yr during which Watt tied the NFL single-season sack document and Pittsburgh didn’t have to ship numbers.

For the current, that’s going to have to vary. Dashing 4 and dropping seven can’t be the default sport plan anymore, at the very least not in base type. There are nonetheless methods to ship artistic and “protected” stress with out sending the home. Nonetheless, all that comes with extra dangers and weak factors in protection for a unit struggling to play basic soccer. There’s all the time a trade-off however in Pittsburgh, stress is paramount.

Level is, with out Herbig and even with Watt, this protection has modified, and so will the Steelers’ sport plan till their well being improves.