There were plenty of things that went wrong for the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday against the San Francisco 49ers. However, the straw that broke the camel’s back was the 65-yard touchdown run by RB Christian McCaffrey to open up the second half of play. Pittsburgh managed to go down the field and score right before halftime, cutting San Francisco’s lead to 20-7. If the Steelers could have held the 49ers to open up the second half, they could have gone down and scored another touchdown, getting them right back into the game.
The Film
However, things didn’t go according to plan in that regard as the Steelers had San Francisco’s most talented offensive player go the distance on them on the second offensive play of the half. The 49ers have the ball on their own 35-yard line on first down, handing the ball off to McCaffrey on a zone run to the left. McCaffrey quickly cuts back inside and runs off the backside of OL Jake Brendal, staying upright as his spins out of one tackle attempt by CB Levi Wallace, who gets put through a spin cycle, falling to the ground.
McCaffrey proceeds to follow a wonderful block by WR Brandon Aiyuk, who lays out S Damontae Kazee, galloping up the sideline as CB Patrick Peterson comes in as the last man who can bring him down. Peterson takes the correct angle to the sideline, but McCaffrey cuts back to the field, picking up a block from WR Ray-Ray McCloud on Peterson. McCaffrey makes his way back toward the sideline again, lunging into the end zone near the 3-yard line as Peterson wraps him up to complete the house call.
When watching the All-22 view of the play, you get frustrated as McCaffrey looked bottled up. DL Montravius Adams did a great job pushing OL Aaron Banks back into the backfield, forcing McCaffrey to cut back inside where there was a host of Steelers defenders around him. Neither OLB T.J. Watt nor LB Kwon Alexander were able to work around their blocks while Wallace got exposed as he fell off the tackle attempt almost instantly. He did not expect the spin move from McCaffrey, who worked away from Wallace’s leverage to get to the sideline, picking up the huge block from Aiyuk to spring him free down the field.
Conclusion
It’s the little things that separate a two-yard gain and a 65-yard touchdown run in the NFL. Getting off blocks, angles of pursuit to the football, and good tackling will make or break any defense’s performance against an opposing running game. Pittsburgh failed to do that on this play after making tackling a huge focus of the week on defense, stating the importance of getting talented runners like McCaffrey down on the ground. Obviously, McCaffrey isn’t your average running back and displays feats of athleticism and balance that most runners don’t have to get out of a traffic jam and go the distance.
Still, it’s the National Football League. You can expect to face talented player like McCaffrey on a weekly basis. Ultimately, if Wallace manages to wrap up McCaffrey here or another one of the multiple defenders in the picture above manages to get off a block, CMC likely doesn’t get into the end zone. Serve this up as a hard lesson for Pittsburgh going forward in regard to finishing on tackles and playing through blocks to cause more disruption in the backfield, keeping a lid on the bottle rather than letting it pop open like it did Sunday afternoon.
