With the Pittsburgh Steelers enjoying their bye week, it gives the players a chance to take a little break and get their minds right before attacking practice ahead of the Los Angeles Rams game. It also gives the coaching staff a chance to pore over the first five weeks of the season.
Then the coaching staff gets to talk with the media about what’s happened and what needs to be done differently. Secondary coach Grady Brown spent time with the media on Thursday and shared some of his thoughts, as captured by the Steelers for their YouTube channel. Understandably, he was asked about rookie CB Joey Porter Jr. a lot, fresh off the rookie grabbing an interception from Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson. One of the questions was about what Porter needs to improve, but Brown quickly took it in the direction of the entire secondary.
“We all need to tackle better,” Brown said. “That’s not just a Joey issue, that’s a secondary issue. We all have to tackle better. So right now, it’s my goal to put us in a position where we are tackling better, particularly open-field tackles.”
Brown is right, of course. Missed tackles have been an issue at all levels of the defense, but it’s when the secondary is missing tackles that big plays can turn into huge plays. Steeler Depot’s Josh Carney put out his Missed Tackles Report after the Steelers’ win over the Baltimore Ravens this past Sunday, and a few things jump out secondary-wise.
Of six missed tackles against the Ravens, four were charged to the secondary. CB Patrick Peterson missed two, fellow CB Levi Wallace missed one, and S Minkah Fitzpatrick missed one as well. For the season, Peterson leads the team with six missed tackles on 21 tackle attempts, a 28.5% miss rate.
S Keanu Neal and Fitzpatrick each have missed five tackles, but Neal has attempted 29 tackles to Fitzpatrick’s 46. So Neal has a 17.2% miss rate while Fitzpatrick has a 10.8% rate. Wallace has missed three tackles on 24 attempts for a 12.5% miss rate. S Elijah Riley, S Damontae Kazee, and Porter all have two missed tackles. Riley has only attempted five tackles, so he has a 40% miss rate. Kazee has attempted 20 tackles to give him a 10% miss rate, and Porter has attempted eight tackles for a 25% miss rate.
In all, the Steelers have missed 45 tackles, and 25 of those are from defensive backs. So Brown understandably wants to cut down on the misses. How does he intend to do that?
“We have to take accountability,” Brown said. “We have to talk about missed tackles when we see it on film. Two, we have to come to the practice field. We have to work on angles. We have to work on fitting guys up, putting our bodies on guys…When you get to the game, it’s a mindset. It’s a mindset that when you get an opportunity to tackle, you’re gonna make it.”
Typically, players in the secondary are giving up some measure of weight to the opponent they’re trying to tackle. So as Brown alludes to, it’s about how badly you want to and think you will tackle the opponent, whether it’s a wide receiver, a tight end, or a running back coming downhill.
If the secondary can make some solid improvement in the tackling department, it can elevate the defense even further to help the team stick at the top of the AFC North standings.
