It’s obvious enough to know the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense was out of sync in yesterday’s terrible loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Kenny Pickett and company struggled to move the ball, failing to pick up even a first down until there was 90 seconds left in the half.
By the day’s end, the offense scored just seven points. The run game was nonexistent and the passing game was limited to short throws that hardly tested the 49ers’ stingy defense. Speaking to reporters Monday, WR George Pickens shed light on why the passing game was so inept. What the Steelers were expecting versus what they got were two different things.
“They were for sure playing Cover 3. Cover 4 in the red zone,” Pickens told reporters via freelance writer Amanda Godsey. “Every time. We was thinking they were going to come out in Cover 4 in open grass. But it was straight Cover 3.”
In a three-deep shell, each cornerback is responsible for their deep-third of the field with a single-high safety in the middle to take away vertical shots between the hashmarks. This also allowed the 49ers to play with their strong safety in the box, an eight-man front, to take away the Steelers’ running game. With the cornerbacks playing off and taking away anything over the top, offenses have to find other ways to win. Usually that’s over the middle of the field or short and to the outside on curls and comebacks.
It took Pittsburgh out of its rhythm and game plan. The Steelers couldn’t move the ball deep downfield through the air with just two explosive receptions on the day, Diontae Johnson and Allen Robinson II settling against zone coverage underneath and doing damage after the catch.
And as Pickens noted, the 49ers played Cover 4 in the red zone. In that scheme, the safeties play closer to the line to stop the run while every defensive back, the outside corners and the safeties, are responsible for only one-quarter of the field. It’s the coverage they used on a Steelers’ failed fourth and 4, one we were critical of this morning.
As Pickens summarized, the Steelers planned for a different scheme that what they saw. It’s a knock on the coaching staff for not having an optimal game plan, though any adjustments and changes the team made throughout the game clearly didn’t work. Aside from a lone two-minute drill, Pittsburgh couldn’t move the ball, and Pickens said the 49ers used a different coverage – Cover 2 – in that situation.
If there is any grace to give, Week One is a hard week to prepare for. No team fully tips its hand in the preseason and each side is trying to feel out what the other will do. There isn’t a mountain of tape to review like there is come Week Eight. And the 49ers had a coordinator change, losing DeMeco Ryans to Houston and replacing him with Steve Wilks.
Still, the 49ers faced the same Week One challenge with the additional difficulty of being a West Coast team coming to town. And clearly, they had no issue carving up Pittsburgh’s defense. The beginning of every season is about each team executing its own philosophy and carrying out its own identity. It’s obvious the 49ers are far more comfortable with who they are than where Pittsburgh is right now.
