For the first time in the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers hit the grass at Acrisure Stadium for a home game in front of the home crowd and certainly didn’t disappoint in a 27-15 win over the visiting Buffalo Bills.
The offense had explosive plays, the starting defense looked rather good in a short showing, and guys continued to make big plays to fight for spots on the backend of the roster.
The Steelers also improved from last week’s preseason opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Saturday night’s matchup with the Bills from a tackling perspective, missing just six tackles in the win, down from eight in Week One.
Let’s dive into this week’s missed tackles report from preseason Week Two.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. BILLS — 6
Trenton Thompson – 2
Kwon Alexander – 1
David Perales – 1
Forrest Rhyne – 1
Jalen Elliott – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH TWO WEEKS (2 Games) — 14 (7.0 misses per game)
Trenton Thompson – 4 (five tackles on nine total attempts, 44.4 percent miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 2 (three tackles on five total attempts, 40 percent miss rate)
David Perales – 2 (three tackle on five total attempts, 40 percent miss rate)
Luq Barcoo – 1 (no tackles on one total attempt, 100 percent miss rate)
Tanner Muse – 1 (two tackles on three total attempts, 33.3 percent miss rate)
Madre Harper – 1 (four tackles on five total attempts, 20 percent miss rate)
Mark Robinson – 1 (nine tackles on 10 total attempts, 10 percent miss rate)
Forrest Rhyne – 1 (one tackle on two total attempts, 50% miss rate)
Jalen Elliott – 1 (four tackles on five total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Through two preseason games, the Pittsburgh Steelers are seemingly doing rather well in the tackling department.
In-stadium at home for the first time with the 2023 team, Pittsburgh had a very solid performance overall in the tackling department, cutting down on the eight misses in the opener on the road against Tampa Bay, recording just six misses at Acrisure Stadium Saturday night against the Buffalo Bills.
In fact, the Steelers missed just one tackle in the first half against the Bills with the Steelers’ starters playing much of the first quarter.
But, with the backups and guys fighting for roster spots and practice squad roles in the game in the second half, the missed tackles racked up a bit with the Steelers finishing with the six misses.
Safety Trenton Thompson, who was signed midway through training camp, recorded two missed tackles for the second straight week and is putting himself in a tough position when it comes to earning a roster spot.
On back-to-back plays in the third quarter Thompson recorded his misses.
Trying to work across the formation to try and clean up the mess that defensive lineman Isaiahh Loudermilk created by being knocked off his feet in the hole, Thompson is a step slow to try and reach Buffalo’s Jordan Mims off left guard and tackle. It’s not the best of angles, either, and Thompson is left diving at Mims’ ankles.
The Bills running back is able to step right through the diving attempt, picking up a handful of yards after the miss from Thompson, moving the chains.
Very next play, Thompson flies in out of control on an out route to wide receiver Andy Isabella, allowing Isabella to cut back inside and force the miss on Thompson. The miss from the safety is very similar to the one he had against Tampa Bay in space against a smaller receiver.
Credit to Thompson for recovering though, getting a big hit on Isabella in the process. But the misses are a real concern for a guy trying to fight for a roster spot.
The only player to miss a tackle in the first half was veteran linebacker Kwon Alexander, and it came on an incredibly wonky play by Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen.
Allen, who is a big, strong, physical quarterback remains many of a young Ben Roethlisberger, tried to create something with his legs on the final play of the first quarter, but ran into trouble. With nothing open, Allen crossed the line of scrimmage and then tried to veer towards the sideline. Alexander did a really good job of closing in and getting hands on Allen, but the Bills’ QB proved to be too strong, shaking Alexander off.
These types of plays could be back-breakers, but the Steelers had great pursuit on the play as Alex Highsmith raced home to get Allen for a 6-yard loss, cleaning up Alexander’s miss.
Offensively, Pittsburgh had another strong week in the forced missed tackles department, forcing nine misses from Buffalo in the win. That means Pittsburgh won the tackling battle by a mark of +3, moving them to 2-0 in that department in the preseason.
FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. BILLS — 9
Anthony McFarland Jr. – 3
Jaylen Warren – 1
Xzavian Valladay – 1
Calvin Austin III – 1 (SPECIAL TEAMS)
Darius Hagans – 1
Greg Bell – 1
Gunner Olszewski – 1
FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH TWO WEEKS (2 Games) — 19 (9.5 misses per game)
Anthony McFarland Jr. – 5
Jaylen Warren – 3
Diontae Johnson – 2
Darius Hagans – 2
Greg Bell – 2
George Pickens – 1
Jordan Byrd – 1 (SPECIAL TEAMS)
Calvin Austin III – 1 (SPECIAL TEAMS)
Gunner Olszewski – 1
Xzavian Valladay – 1
Though the numbers on the stats sheet aren’t all that impressive coming out of Saturday’s game against Buffalo, Anthony McFarland Jr. was a force when it came to forcing defenders to miss tackles.
On 11 touches at home Saturday, McFarland had three forced misses.
Two of them came on this short checkdown on 3rd and 8 from Mitch Trubisky in the first quarter.
Just a fantastic job there by McFarland, fighting for every blade of grass possible.
That’s very good spatial awareness to feel the two defenders coming in, and great lateral agility to force the two misses in a phone booth.
Later in the game, undrafted rookie free agent running back Xzavian Valladay flashed on one of his six touches on the night, taking a swing pass out of the backfield from quarterback Mason Rudolph for 22 yards after forcing a miss at the catch point.
That’s a great job making the one defender he has to beat miss in the open field, turning the short swing pass into an explosive play.
Really good stuff from a guy signed off the street just a few days ago, making a case for a practice squad role in Pittsburgh.
