By Matthew Marczi
Even though LaMarr Woodley returned from injury last week, Jason Worilds remained on the left side at outside linebacker for nearly the entire game. He’d clearly played so well on the other side that the Steelers didn’t want to tweak what was already working, so they left him over there.
And once again, he put together another solid game, earning his team-leading seventh sack of the season and continuing to play more consistently against the run than he had on either side earlier in his career.
This first play is a great example of that. Here, he fought off a cut block by tight end Dion Sims by keeping his arms out in front of him and pushing off the diving attempt. He followed it up by making a diving tackle at the ankles on Lamar Miller after just a gain of one yard as the Dolphins were threatening to score.
On the next play—which was third down—Worilds pushed right tackle Tyson Clabo back into the pocket and pushed off as he saw Ryan Tannehill extend his dropback, registering a hit on the quarterback and forcing an early release, which wound up gaining all of zero yards and forced the Dolphins to settle for a field goal.
Late in the first half, after the Dolphins blocked a punt, they took over on Pittsburgh’s own 42. Thanks to good coverage and strong inside pressure by Jarvis Jones, Tannehill was left with nowhere to go, and as he attempted to escape through the right side, Worilds was there to pressure him, bringing him down as he threw an errant pass.
At last, in the fourth quarter, Worilds finally got a rush home on Tannehill, as he registered his lone sack of the game. Once again, he beat Clabo on the right side.
First, he used his bull rush and forced Clabo to the outside, and once he had the angle, he pulled the inside spin move to get through into the pocket and brought Tannehill down for the sack.
Had the coverage not been there, it may not have happened, as it forced Tannehill to pull the ball down. Never the less, the sack forced the Dolphins to punt the ball with the Steelers up at that point. Unfortunately the offense went stagnant from there on out, while a pair of unfortunate missed tackles by the secondary helped lead to the game-winning touchdown not long after.
