Entering the Week Six bye week with some real concerns regarding tackling, averaging roughly 9.0 misses in the first five games of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers made it a point of emphasis.
The players responded in a big way in Week Seven on the road against the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium.
In a 24-17 come-from-behind win over the Rams, the Steelers missed just five tackles on the day — the second-lowest number of the season — turning in a sterling performance in a key department to move to 4-2 on the season.
Let’s take a look at the Week Seven missed tackles report against the Rams.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT RAMS — 5
Joey Porter Jr. – 2
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
Damontae Kazee – 1
Kwon Alexander – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 7 (6 GAMES) — 50 (8.33 MISSES PER GAME)
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 6 (52 tackles on 58 total attempts, 10.3% miss rate)
Patrick Peterson – 6 (18 tackles on 24 total attempts, 25% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 5 (34 tackles on 39 total attempts, 12.8% miss rate)
Keanu Neal – 5 (28 tackles on 33 total attempts, 15.1% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 4 (nine tackles on 13 total attempts, 30.7% miss rate)
Cole Holcomb – 4 (42 tackles on 46 total attempts, 8.7% miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 4 (36 tackles on 40 total attempts, 10% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee – 3 (25 tackles on 28 total attempts, 10.7% miss rate)
Montravius Adams – 3 (one on sack attempt) (17 tackles on 20 total attempts, 15% miss rate)
Levi Wallace – 3 (24 tackles on 27 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Elijah Riley – 2 (one on sack attempt) (three tackles on five total attempts, 40% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 1 (16 tackles on 17 total attempts, 5.8% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 1 (special teams) (four tackles on five total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Markus Golden — 1 (seven tackles on eight total attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew — 1 (special teams) (six tackles on seven total attempts, 14.3% miss rate)
Though the missed tackles numbers were low against the Rams, there were some concerns coming out of the win, especially with rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr.
Seeing his first legitimate extended playing time on the season, 53 snaps (78%) against the Rams, Porter’s tackling concerns were on full display. The rookie second-round pick missed two tackles in the win, both in the third quarter, raising his missed tackles rate to 30.7% on the year.
Not great!
Porter recorded his first miss of the game on a short throw to Los Angeles rookie Puka Nacua, a play that was nominated for Week Seven “Angry Runs” on Good Morning Football.
Porter does a nice job of keeping eyes on quarterback Matthew Stafford and breaking downhill quickly on the throw to Nacua on the crossing route, but he drops his head and doesn’t bring his feet.
That’s a recipe for disaster, something Porter found out the hard way. Nacua ran right through him, bouncing Porter to the turf. After running through Porter, Nacua picked up another 11 yards, going from the 18-yard line at the point of contact down to the 7-yard line.
Two plays later, Los Angeles took the lead.
On Los Angeles’ next drive, Porter had a rough rep against the run, short-arming a tackle attempt of running back Royce Freeman in the hole.
Porter has to be able to make these plays to play on this defense.
That’s a rep that plenty of cornerbacks before him have finished. It’s not as if Porter is a soft player. He was quite physical coming out of Penn State and wasn’t hesitant at the point of contact like he’s been in the NFL. He’ll get it cleaned up, but this was ugly from him.
That’s simply too soft between the hash marks, and he knows it. It allowed Freeman to rip off another 10 yards or so, keeping the drive going for the Rams.
Porter wasn’t the only one that had some bad misses in the box.
Linebacker Kwon Alexander had a miss in the box in the first half, failing to bring his feet with him and going for a fly-by arm tackle on Freeman.
Alexander is a physical linebacker. He needs to stay on his feet in the hole and run through the tackle, rather than trying to go from the side and arm tackle. It’s not going to work consistently in the NFL, especially against those thicker, lower-to-the-ground running backs like Freeman.
Offensively, the Steelers did a great job forcing the Rams to miss tackles and do so in big spots.
On the day, the Steelers forced 10 missed tackles, leading to Pittsburgh winning the all-important tackles battle with a mark of plus-five. That moves the Steelers’ record for the game within the game to 4-1-1 on the season.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT RAMS — 10
Najee Harris – 5
Diontae Johnson – 3
Jaylen Warren – 1
Kenny Pickett – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 7 (6 GAMES) — 61 (10.16 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 24
Jaylen Warren – 21
Calvin Austin III – 6 (two on special teams)
Diontae Johnson – 4
Kenny Pickett — 2
Pat Freiermuth – 2
George Pickens – 2
Allen Robinson II – 1
Desmond King II – 1 (special teams)
Welcome back, Diontae Johnson!
His ability to make plays after the catch was sorely missed on an offense that struggled to create after the catch unless it was George Pickens playing hero ball.
Quickly against the Rams, and then again in a big spot, Johnson showed just what’s been missing from the offense. Opening up the fourth quarter, Johnson showed of his great route-running ability to create separation and then made a big play after the catch, forcing three missed tackles on the play to rip off his 39-yard catch-and-run.
Just look at that route from Johnson. Spectacular!
Then, with the football in his hands he was able to pick up additional yardage thanks to his open-field vision and abilities to make defenders miss. He did it in a phone booth, too.
Outside of Johnson’s impressive forced missed tackles, running backs Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren played with a real edge once again and fought for every single inch.
Harris’ play on the second-down reception from Kenny Pickett just two plays after T.J. Watt’s interception won’t look like much in the stat book as it was just a gain of a few yards, but it meant a great deal to the Steelers.
He was able to force a missed tackle immediately at the catch point and then leaped over another defender, coming down at the 1-yard line to set up Pickett’s QB sneak for a touchdown. Without Harris’ effort getting to the 1-yard line on the play, who knows how that drive ends after Watt’s interception.
Earlier in the game, Warren showed just what mentality the Steelers’ running backs bring to the table.
This toss shouldn’t have gone for anything. Instead, Warren fought tooth and nail just to gain a few yards.
He ran his face right into the defensive tackle that came free off Mason Cole’s block. Instead of eating a loss on the play and living to fight another down, Warren does a fantastic job of refusing to go down, spinning out of the tackle attempt and dragging defenders for another few yards, making something out of nothing.
That’s what the Steelers’ running backs have done all season. Doesn’t make it any less impressive when they do it week after week.
