Any way you try and slice it, Sunday’s performance from the Pittsburgh Steelers against the San Francisco 49ers at Acrisure Stadium was, in a word, terrible.
If you get that reference, then kudos. If not, just move along…
Anyway, Pittsburgh was manhandled throughout the matchup against the 49ers and after tackling quite well in the preseason, the Steelers were very sloppy after spending all week talking about the emphasis on tackling in space against such a dangerous San Francisco offense.
In the loss to San Francisco, the Steelers missed nine tackles. One of those misses resulted in six points, which simply can’t happen. Let’s take a look at the Week One missed tackles report.
Total Missed Tackles vs. 49ers — 9
Elandon Roberts – 2
Cole Holcomb – 2
Damontae Kazee – 1
Patrick Peterson – 1
Keanu Neal – 1
Levi Wallace – 1
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
A lot of new faces on that list missing a handful of tackles in the first regular season game of the year.
That’s a bit frustrating, especially after the new faces defensively were quite good in that area throughout training camp and the preseason. New linebackers Elandon Roberts and Cole Holcomb combined for four of the nine missed tackles in the loss, all four of which came against the run.
Pittsburgh knew that San Francisco loved to run that toss play over and over again, getting the football in the hands of Christian McCaffrey on the move to let him hit the corner and work through space. You can see the Steelers knew it was coming at the snap, too.
Roberts fires downhill in a hurry, working across the formation while gaining ground. He does everything right above the neck; he’s just a step slow when it comes to reaching McCaffrey. Due to being a step slow, Roberts can’t be his usual physical self at the point of contact and has to go diving at ankles, missing McCaffrey in space.
The Niners’ star running back is able to easily pick up another eight yards on the play, moving the chains in the process on third down.
Veteran safety Keanu Neal was brought in to provide a physical presence in the box as an extra defender. For the most part he played well on Sunday. But he missed a tackle in the first half on a 2nd and 10 run play that allowed McCaffrey to move the chains.
Neal does a good job initially of reading run and working across the formation to try and fill the lane. He works off the block from the tight end and is able to get into the play, but as he closes in on McCaffrey in the hole he doesn’t bring his feet with him.
That causes him to slide off of McCaffrey, allowing the running back to step through his tackle attempt, gain another five yards and move the chains.
The veteran safety has to be much more physical at the point of attack in instances like this, especially in the box.
Star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick also had a sizable gaffe in the loss, failing to sack Brock Purdy on a free rush into the backfield in the loss, allowing Purdy to spin out and make a play.
The Steelers schemed it up well defensively, disguising the pressure off the left side with Purdy looking right initially reading the slant route to running back Elijah Mitchell. Outside linebacker Markus Golden covered it well, taking the read away, which gave Fitzpatrick plenty of time to gain ground on the rush and get to Purdy.
Except, Fitzpatrick wasn’t able to get to Purdy because he took an awful angle and gave the second-year quarterback an escape route. Always go as deep as the back shoulder as the rush defender, especially against a mobile quarterback. Instead, Fitzpatrick got caught too far inside, allowing Purdy to spin out of it and then reset and make a throw to Deebo Samuel, moving the chains and setting up another San Francisco score.
Fitzpatrick said after the game that the Steelers just didn’t execute. He’s right. He didn’t execute here on a play drawn up and called perfectly for him to make an impact play.
Finally, there was the woeful attempt from veteran cornerback Levi Wallace on McCaffrey in the hole early in his 65-yard touchdown run.
You cannot come downhill that passively filling the lane. Wallace came downhill slowly and didn’t bring any force, and in the process he scraped too far over, losing his leverage on McCaffrey. The star running back was able to see that and spin out of it and then was off to the races, putting the game away for good.
Wallace was right there to make the play. Get the guy on the ground and live to fight another down. They talked about it all week long. It was a massive point of emphasis, and then two plays after coming out of the locker room with some momentum, the game was over.
While the Steelers really struggled to tackle defensively on Sunday and were largely a mess offensively, Pittsburgh did force 12 missed tackles on San Francisco, winning the tackle battle by a margin of +3, moving to 1-0-0 on the season in the tackling department.
Total Forced Missed Tackles vs. 49ers — 12
Calvin Austin III – 4
Jaylen Warren – 3
Najee Harris – 2
George Pickens – 1
Allen Robinson II – 1
Diontae Johnson – 1
On the second play from scrimmage offensively Sunday, second-year receiver Calvin Austin III forced three missed tackles on a failed jet sweep, showing just how dynamic he is with the football in his hands. He was able to get back to the line of scrimmage, which is rather remarkable.
The play was failed from the start. Woeful blocking, bad design against that defensive look, and a flashing red light that it was coming with Austin in motion across the formation.
Kudos to Austin for fighting on the play and trying to create something, rather than taking the loss and regrouping. Though the Steelers went three and out on the drive, the fact that he got back to the line of scrimmage on this play is truly incredible. If the Steelers can scheme him up touches to get into space, look out.
Outside of Austin, second-year running back Jaylen Warren fought hard on every touch he had in the loss as well, consistently fighting for that extra yard. He, much like Austin, Najee Harris, Connor Heyward and Allen Robinson II, would not go quietly into the night with the football in their hands in the second half.
This is a failed swing pass into the flat from the start in the red zone, but Warren never shrank from the fight coming his way.
Look at the way the 49ers have three defenders coming downhill at Warren before he even has the football in his hands. Good luck winning in this situation. Warren fought tooth and nail though, forcing two misses on the play to at least get back to the line of scrimmage, forcing a whole host of 49ers defenders to get him to the ground.
Take your hat off and hand it to Warren there.
