While rookie QB Will Levis may be the toast in Tennessee after a four-touchdown performance in his first NFL start, connecting with veteran WR DeAndre Hopkins on three of those scores, those two aren’t the engine that makes the Titans’ offense run.
Pittsburgh is going to want to make Levis throw the ball and throw it often on Thursday night as RB Derrick Henry is priority No. 1 that Pittsburgh needs to focus on stopping, forcing the Titans to become one-dimensional and thus allow their talented pass rushers to put the heat on Levis. S Damontae Kazee was asked about Henry on Tuesday as the media wanted to know how he and the rest of the defense plan on taking a man of that size and strength to the ground throughout the contest.
“Gang tackle man, everybody to the ball at the end of the day,” Kazee said via video from the Steelers’ YouTube channel. “So it’s not just one person tackling, it’s everybody tackling. So, we get in that position when it’s one-on-one, just gotta try to bring him down. It might look ugly, but you still gotta bring him down.”
The 6-3, 247-pound Henry is a certified freight train as a running back, with the size and stature of most edge rushers. He is a tall runner with a thick upper body built to take continual blows to his midsection, fighting through contact with relative ease. He runs hard on contact, looking to be the hammer rather than the nail as he looks to dish out punishment to opposing defenders who attempt to stop him from reaching the end zone.
The Steelers will have to bring their A game on Thursday night, rallying to the ball with the first one on the scene making a concerted effort to wrap up Henry effectively and not rely on diving tackles or arm tackles to try and bring down the big brute. He has made passive tacklers look silly in the past, and Pittsburgh can’t afford to miss many tackles in this contest. The Steelers are averaging eight missed tackles per game according to Steelers Depot’s very own Josh Carney, who tracks that stat on a weekly basis for the site.
The Steelers normally do a decent job of rallying to the football, but that must be an emphasis this week against one of the strongest runners in the league. Henry will home run you if you’re not careful and don’t bring him down before getting to the second level, so the tackling, from the front seven to the secondary, must be on point to neutralize Tennessee’s workhorse back.
