To wrap up our review of the Pittsburgh Steelers Week Two win over the Cleveland Browns, let’s talk a hot button issue from the week. Dan Moore Jr. versus Myles Garrett. I’ll spare you the whole debate about Garrett’s box score compared to his advanced numbers and what all that means. But if you isolate the reps between the two, especially 1v1, you can see Garrett’s success.
Let’s walk through a handful of clips to see how Moore matched up. In all these clips, Moore is the left tackle with Garrett at RDE.
Here, Moore uses independent hands to punch Garrett with his right/outside hand. But Garrett is able to bend and turn the corner, pressuring Pickett and forcing him to his right. That creates additional pressure from No. 54 and results in a throwaway out of bounds.
A clear win for Garrett that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet but results in a clearly positive play for the Browns.
A similar example here. This time, Moore’s punch never even really connects and Garrett is able to dip and rip through him cleanly with his left/inside arm. Moore slightly hooks Garrett before letting him go but the rush doesn’t get home because Kenny Pickett gets the ball out, though this was the pass picked by S Grant Delpit.
Another win for Garrett.
Here, Moore is able to more quickly get to his spot (the two tight ends help slow Garrett down just a little bit) and is able to get his hands into Garrett’s chest. But Garrett counters well and gets leverage under Moore, walking him back. Moore is trying to stall it out but gets pushed back and is helped by LG Isaac Seumalo, who slows Garrett down enough.
In Pittsburgh’s scheme, the guard often gives the tackle help when the center is sliding to that direction. It creates more 1v1 matchups for the center and fewer for the guard. But it helps in moments like this against guys like Garrett. Four hands are needed to slow him down.
Here, Moore attempts to use a two-handed punch on Garrett instead of independent hands. But the results are the same. Garrett is able to turn the corner and bend through the contact, staying flat and getting to QB Kenny Pickett. This came inches away from a sack but Pickett was able to underhandedly flip the ball away for an incompletion instead of a loss of yards.
Again, Seumalo went to help but Garrett won to the outside and there was little Seumalo could do. It also created a gap for No. 94 to run through as he looped over the center, which created additional pressure and didn’t allow Pickett to climb the pocket.
Moore struggled throughout the day but here is one nice rep. A good two-hand punch and Moore is able to seal Garrett, who tries to counter with an inside spin. Moore doesn’t do a good job mirroring and is unable to counter it but he at least takes away Garrett’s initial rush and the ball is out before Garrett can do anything off his counter. I’d call this a win for Moore.
Overall, there are some realities coming out of this game.
1. Myles Garrett didn’t “pop” on the stat sheet but he won plenty of reps and impacted the game beyond the box scores with two pressures that resulted in incomplete passes.
2. Pittsburgh gave Moore plenty of help with chips and slide protection to limit the number of 1v1 matchups. But when Moore and Garrett faced each other 1v1, Garrett won most of the matchups.
3. In moments where the Steelers knew Moore would be 1v1 against Garrett, the ball came out quickly. Protections and route concepts go hand-in-hand. When Pittsburgh wasn’t giving Moore help, they used quick drops and short route concepts (slants, outs, curls) to get the ball out of Kenny Pickett’s hands quickly. That was their counter. And overall, the Steelers did a nice job not allowing Garrett take the game over. He didn’t create the headline splash the way Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt did. That was the difference in this one.
My last thought is that OL Coach Pat Meyer prefers independent hands in most situations. And I think that hurt Moore here. That punch with his right hand softened up his outside shoulder and allowed Garrett to dip through. It happened pretty routinely. To be fair, he also lost once with his two-hand punch but I don’t think Moore did well to secure the edge and the way that he punched had an impact.
Of course, Garrett is a freak of nature and Moore’s difficulties here aren’t new or isolated. Most tackles struggle against him. But that was the reality. Just looking at the matchup and nothing else, Garrett consistently bested Moore Monday night.
