The Pittsburgh Steelers’ goal every time they step onto the football field is to be the more physically imposing team. Everybody knows this, including their opponents. San Franciso 49ers TE George Kittle made that pretty clear in speaking to reporters yesterday.
“The Steelers are known for playing bullyball”, he said. “They want to out-effort you. They want to out-physical you. They want to kind of hit you, not anything dirty, but they’re gonna let you know that their presence is there”.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Just listen to what Steelers ILB Kwon Alexander said recently regarding the team’s strategy for containing a 49ers defense predicated on getting its playmakers in space and picking up yards after the catch. “Be prepared to hit and make them not move afterwards”, he reportedly said, via 93.7 The Fan.
What makes the comment even a little bit more interesting is the fact that Alexander has been a member of the 49ers. Not for long, granted. In all, he played 13 games for them between the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
He signed with them as a free agent in 2019 on a four-year, $54 million contract, but found himself traded in-season a year and a half later as part of a deal that saw the 49ers acquire Kiko Alonzo from the New Orleans Saints. So perhaps there’s a little bit of resentment there as well.
Then again, I don’t think you really need to give Alexander an excuse to hit somebody. He’ll do it as long as he’s allowed to, and he’ll do it as hard as allowed, too. He already incurred a personal foul penalty for a hit during the preseason last month.
But he’s not the only one who is capable of packing a punch on their hits. The Steelers’ defense is littered with bit hitters, including those who are capable of punching above their weight, like S Damontae Kazee, for example. Then you have a guy like Cameron Heyward, whose punch feels exactly the way you would expect by looking at him. It doesn’t feel good.
Pittsburgh’s best strategy or overcoming this 49ers team may well be to do exactly as Alexander says: hit them and make them not move. Make them not want to move. That was always the model. Hurt your opponent, make them hesitant to run. Everybody gets tired of getting hit in the ribs by the middle of the third quarter.
It will be interesting to see how many shots Alexander will get to take. He is listed as a co-starter at inside linebacker alongside Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb, suggesting that the defensive coaching staff has plans to get all of them involved on the field in some form or fashion. Exactly how that will look remains to be seen. But whoever is out there is going to be able to hit.
