I know that some of you are hoping that we can just move on from the debacle that was Sunday’s game against the Baltimore Ravens on the road.
We can move on for good after we take a look at the missed tackles from the Ravens game at M&T Bank Stadium.
While the game offensively for the Steelers was ugly, the defense stood tall throughout the game and turned in a strong performance across the board. However, there were a few missed tackles, including two big ones on Mike Wallace’s 95-yard touchdown that hurt the team.
Let’s take a look.
Total Missed Tackles vs. Ravens — 13
Ryan Shazier — 3
Mike Mitchell — 2
Anthony Chickillo — 2
Artie Burns — 1
William Gay — 1
Robert Golden — 1
James Harrison — 1
Shamarko Thomas — 1 (Special Teams)
Cobi Hamilton — 1 (Special Teams)
Total Missed Tackles in 2016 — 97 (average of 12.125 per game)
Artie Burns — 10
Mike Mitchell — 10
Sean Davis — 9
Ryan Shazier — 9
Stephon Tuitt — 8
William Gay — 8
Vince Williams — 7
Lawrence Timmons — 7
Ross Cockrell — 7
Jarvis Jones — 3
Robert Golden — 3
Anthony Chickillo — 3
Arthur Moats — 1
Cameron Heyward — 1
LJ Fort — 1
Jordan Dangerfield — 1
Ricardo Mathews — 1
Javon Hargrave — 1
Special Teams Missed Tackles in 2016 — 6
Steven Johnson — 1
Sammie Coates — 1
Tyler Matakevich — 1
Justin Gilbert — 1
Shamarko Thomas — 1
Cobi Hamilton — 1
Just looking at the missed tackles from the game itself, Ryan Shazier was an absolute menace in the backfield throughout the game, so some of his missed tackles came when he was shooting into the backfield.
However, on one of his foray’s into the backfield he made a huge hit on Terrance West and popped the ball free. Overall, I thought Shazier had one of the best games of any Steelers defender on the day as he was pretty much everywhere on the field.
That’s encouraging, considering he’s still working his way back from a knee injury.
As for Mike Mitchell … all I can really say is yikes.
For a guy who talks so much smack and prides himself on being a physical presence in the secondary, he came up so small — and so soft — on Sunday, finishing with more missed tackles than he did actual tackles in the loss.
Before the snap, you can see Steve Smith lined up uncovered in the slot, which is weird to begin with for me. It appears as if Mitchell is assigned to Smith despite playing almost 20 yards off the ball.
From there, it’s an easy route for Smith to get into the middle of the field for the easy catch. At that point, Mitchell does a good job of closing the gap quickly, getting downhill fast, but he fails to be aggressive when he needs to be, allowing Smith to throw a weak stiff arm into his face before breaking free for a big 30-yard catch-and-run early in the game.
This was a sign of things to come from Mitchell.
I don’t have much of a problem with Artie Burns getting beaten off the line by Wallace into the middle of the field; it’s something that shouldn’t really allowed to happen when you send an all-out blitz, leaving the middle of the field wide-open, but that’s a growing pain with Burns that you just have to deal with.
What I have a major problem with is the job that Mitchell does on the play.
Once the completion is made from Joe Flacco to Wallace, Mitchell has to come downhill and make the tackle quickly, knowing that he’s the last line of defense.
What he does though is hesitate to react and then takes a poor angle to Wallace, allowing the speedster to get to the boundary with ease before turning on the afterburners to pull away from Mitchell in the open field.
For a guy that wants to be the physical threat in the secondary, he’s very inconsistent in open field tackling, but he’s rather quick to point out when it’s fourth down.
As one of the veteran defenders in a rather green secondary, Mitchell has to be on his A-game every single week. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, he ran at the mouth all week and then came up small on Sunday against the Ravens.
