It was one of the more interesting games the Pittsburgh Steelers have played all season, featuring a first-half offensive explosion, a terrific run game, and a defense that did its best to bend but not break. The defense held strong, intercepting two passes late, sealing a 23-19 win over the Green Bay Packers in Week 10 at Acrisure Stadium.
Sunday’s game was also the most lopsided missed tackles battle for the Steelers on the season — in a good way.
In the win over the Packers, the Steelers were good defensively, tackling rather well, while dominating offensively forcing Green Bay into a nightmarish performance, which played a key role in the four-point win.
Let’s dive into the Week 10 missed tackles report.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. PACKERS — 6
Elijah Riley – 2 (missed sack) (special teams)
Damontae Kazee – 1
Elandon Roberts – 1
Mark Robinson – 1 (special teams)
Patrick Peterson – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 10 (9 GAMES) — 74 (8.2 MISSES PER GAME)
Keanu Neal – 8 (50 tackles on 58 total attempts, 13.8% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee – 8 (39 tackles on 57 total attempts, 14% miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 7 (41 tackles on 48 total attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Patrick Peterson – 7 (25 tackles on 32 total attempts, 22% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 7 (56 tackles on 63 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 6 (53 tackles on 59 total attempts, 10.1% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (21 tackles on 26 total attempts, 19.2% miss rate)
Cole Holcomb – 4 (54 tackles on 58 total attempts, 6.9% miss rate)
Elijah Riley – 4 (two on sack attempts, one on special teams, six tackles on 10 total attempts, 40% miss rate)
Montravius Adams – 3 (one on sack attempt, 21 tackles on 24 total attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
Levi Wallace – 3 (25 tackles on 28 total attempts, 10.7% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 2 (both on special teams, eight tackles on 10 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 1 (30 tackles on 31 total attempts, 3.2% miss rate)
Markus Golden — 1 (11 tackles on 12 total attempts, 8.3% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew — 1 (special teams, nine tackles on 10 total attempts, 10% miss rate)
Armon Watts – 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Nick Herbig – 1 (special teams, 10 tackles on 11 total attempts, 9.1% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 1 (16 tackles on 17 total attempts, 5.9% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 1 (10 tackles on 11 total attempts, 10% miss rate)
Miles Boykin — 1 (special teams, three tackles on four total attempts, 25% miss rate)
The Steelers had a strong day on Sunday against the Packers in the tackling department, but veteran depth safety Elijah Riley came up short in a couple of instances, which will leave him kicking himself. For the second time this season, Riley missed a sack that would have been game-changing.
On the field late in the fourth quarter in sub-package, Riley was called on to blitz. He shot through with great speed, forcing quarterback Jordan Love to bail out of the pocket quickly.
Riley closed in a hurry on Love and got his hands on Love’s legs, but he wasn’t able to finish off the sack deep in Green Bay’s own territory. By missing the tackle, that allowed Love to get out on the move and try to make a play. Fortunately for Riley, Love threw well behind his intended target coming across the field, resulting in an incompletion.
It could have been a big splash play for the veteran safety and the Steelers’ defense.
Prior to his missed sack, Riley had a missed tackle on special teams on a 49-yard kickoff return by Green Bay’s Keisean Nixon in the first half.
Riley does a very good job of keeping outside contain and staying in his lane, turning Nixon back inside. After that, he gets off the block to try and make a play, but he ducks his head and doesn’t fully wrap up. As he misses the tackle that gives up contain to Nixon, who has a lot of green grass in front of him.
Fortunately for Riley, cornerback James Pierre is eventually able to run him down and keep him from reaching the end zone, but it was great starting field position for the Packers due to Riley’s miss on Nixon. He’s on the team for his abilities on special teams. Riley cannot have misses like this moving forward.
Veteran linebacker Elandon Roberts missed a tackle in the win, too. But his was a high-effort play that actually spilled what should have been a touchdown on a screen pass back inside for rookie defensive tackle Keeanu Benton to clean up.
Roberts reads this rather quickly and does a fantastic job of getting outside leverage on the play, getting across the face of Green Bay’s Jon Runyan Jr., and slipping right under the block to get a hit on running back Aaron Jones. Though Roberts doesn’t get him on the ground, it slows Jones up enough and forces him back inside, allowing Benton to chase down the play for the stop, keeping the Packers off the board.
Great play from Roberts, even if it is a missed tackle.
Offensively, the Steelers had a field day against the Packers. On the day, Pittsburgh forced 13 missed tackles, leading to a +7 margin in the important missed tackles battle in the game within the game. That’s the highest margin of victory in the battle for the Steelers, surpassing the +6 margin from Week Three against the Las Vegas Raiders.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. PACKERS — 13
Jaylen Warren – 10
Calvin Austin III – 1
Najee Harris – 1
Connor Heyward – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 10 (9 GAMES) — 101 (11.2 PER GAME)
Jaylen Warren – 40
Najee Harris – 31
Calvin Austin III – 9 (three on special teams)
Diontae Johnson – 6
George Pickens – 4
Kenny Pickett — 2
Pat Freiermuth – 2
Allen Robinson II – 1
Desmond King II – 1 (special teams)
Connor Heyward – 1
On a day in which he set a career-high with 101 rushing yards and a touchdown on 15 carries, cracking the century mark for the first time in his career on the ground, Jaylen Warren was a force with the football in his hands.
A bowling ball with legs, Warren was nearly impossible to tackle one-on-one for the Packers. The numbers show that, too. Warren forced 10 missed tackles in the win.
He started his day rather quickly with a forced missed tackle on his 16-yard touchdown run.
Granted, that’s a massive lane to run through, but Warren did the rest after great blocking in front of him, bursting through the gap between defenders, running right through an arm tackle to find the end zone, giving the Steelers a 14-7 lead and the first game with back-to-back touchdowns on the first two possessions of a game since the road game against Carolina last season.
That run showed what kind of day it was going to be for Warren. He was fresh and explosive late into the fourth quarter, too, all but putting the game away with a 20-yard run.
He sure knows how to get North in a hurry, and runs very well behind his pads. The pad level is great, too. Contact balance is remarkable with Warren. He might stumble, but he’s not going to lose much speed or power while he regains his footing. His ability to get skinny here late in the rep and rip off another five yards is impressive.
What a running back he’s developed into.
Not to be forgotten, Najee Harris had a great day, too. He finally had a bunch of running room and took advantage, averaging 5.7 yards per carry on 16 carries, finishing with 82 yards and a touchdown on the day.
When he was in traffic, Harris was his usual self, running hard and refusing to go down.
The guy just has a terrific mentality. He won’t go down on first contact, fights for every blade of grass, and leaves it all the field on seemingly every touch.
That’s a wonderful mindset to have, one that carries over to the rest of his teammates. It showed on Sunday against the Packers, too.
