Short week, two teams coming off rather physical games and already short-handed defensively. It wasn’t much of a surprise that Thursday night’s matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Tennessee Titans was a rather sloppy one.
There were a ton of penalty flags that took some rhythm out of the game, and the tackling was quite poor, too.
Against the Titans, the Steelers missed 12 tackles, tying for their second-highest number of misses in a game dating back to Week Two against the Cleveland Browns, again in primetime at Acrisure Stadium. Pittsburgh’s season-high for missed tackles in a game remains 14, which occurred at Houston in Week Four.
Let’s get to the missed tackles report for Week Nine against the Titans.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. TITANS — 12
Damontae Kazee – 3
Kwon Alexander -2
Alex Highsmith – 1
Elandon Roberts – 1
Isaiahh Loudermilk – 1
Keeanu Benton – 1
Joey Porter Jr. – 1
Keanu Neal – 1
Miles Boykin – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 9 (8 GAMES) — 68 (8.5 MISSES PER GAME)
Keanu Neal – 8 (42 tackles on 50 total attempts, 16% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee – 7 (34 tackles on 41 total attempts, 17.1% miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 7 (41 tackles on 48 total attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 6 (53 tackles on 59 total attempts, 10.1% miss rate)
Patrick Peterson – 6 (23 tackles on 29 total attempts, 20.7% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 6 (48 tackles on 54 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (17 tackles on 22 total attempts, 22.7% miss rate)
Cole Holcomb – 4 (54 tackles on 58 total attempts, 6.9% miss rate)
Montravius Adams – 3 (one on sack attempt, 21 tackles on 24 total attempts, 12.5% 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 (22 tackles on 23 total attempts, 4.3% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 1 (special teams, five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% 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 (eight tackles on nine total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Miles Boykin — 1 (special teams, two tackles on three total attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
It was a rather ugly night for veteran safety Damontae Kazee in the tackling department. Kazee, who came into the game with just four misses over the first seven games of the season, missed three tackles in extended action with standout safety Minkah Fitzpatrick out. Kazee was largely a mess throughout the night in the tackling department.
However, it is worth noting that his open-field tackle on Titans running back Derrick Henry late in the third quarter may have saved the game for the Steelers. If Kazee doesn’t make the stop, Henry is still running.
But some of Kazee’s misses were frustrating.
They weren’t as bad as some others though that I’m going to highlight here.
On the Titans’ first drive of the game, Tennessee tries some trickery in Pittsburgh territory, calling for a double pass to DeAndre Hopkins. Pittsburgh covers it well on the back end, taking the trick play away. Up front though, things break down quickly as Pittsburgh’s Isaiahh Loudermilk missed a free shot at Hopkins, allowing the veteran receiver to reverse field, leading to two more misses from Steelers defenders.
This is a play Loudermilk has to make in space. He’s right there. That’s a bad angle and he loses leverage, allowing Hopkins to get around him into space.
From there, linebacker Elandon Roberts does a good job of getting across the field to cut off Hopkins, turning him back inside, but he misses the tackle in the process, and then outside linebacker Alex Highsmith misses late on the rep, too, going for the big hit in space rather than just focusing on getting Hopkins on the ground.
It was an ugly rep, but the Steelers held the Titans to a field goal after limiting Hopkins to a 5-yard gain.
Early in the second quarter, rookie cornerback Joey Porter Jr. had another rough rep from a tackling perspective in space, this time against Hopkins.
That is the only reception Porter allowed to Hopkins on the day, which is fine. It’s a good route from Hopkins and Porter just loses track late in the stop route, giving up the easy completion. After that though, he’s got to tackle the catch.
He doesn’t, allowing Hopkins to turn upfield and get around him. Then, veteran linebacker Kwon Alexander misses one of his two tackles on the night, running right past Hopkins into the Titans’ bench as the Tennessee receiver hits the brakes. He then gets around Porter again, too, before the rookie gets him on the ground after a gain of 17 yards.
Porter has to be more aggressive in these situations as a tackler. He plays too passive, and it hurts him.
Finally, late on the same drive from the Titans, Alexander and safety Keanu Neal miss on running back Derrick Henry before Kazee is able to get him on the ground.
This is a play Alexander has to make against the run. He gets off the block and gets a shot at Henry, but it’s an arm-tackle attempt. That’s just not going to cut it against King Henry.
As Henry easily runs through the arm tackle, Neal takes a woeful angle coming downhill, allowing Henry to break the angle, forcing Neal to go for an arm tackle down low on the big running back. Again, that’s not going to work.
Neal is on pace to break the single-season missed tackles record of Minkah Fitzpatrick in 2021 with 19. That record dates back since I’ve been tracking missed tackles for the site for six seasons. Not great from the veteran free agent addition.
Though the Steelers were a mess in the tackling department, so too were the Titans. Tennessee missed 14 tackles, meaning the Steelers won the all-important tackles battle with a mark of plus-two, pushing their season-long record to 6-1-1 in the department. That’s pretty remarkable.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. TITANS — 14
Jaylen Warren – 7
Najee Harris – 5
Diontae Johnson – 1
Calvin Austin III – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 9 (8 GAMES) — 82 (10.25 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 30
Jaylen Warren – 30
Calvin Austin III – 8 (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)
For everyone that watched the game, it’s no surprise to see Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris have such high forced missed-tackles numbers. They ran with aggression, refused to go down on first contact and flat out took over the game at times against the Titans. The duo was simply dominant.
Warren was the better player though, full stop. He changed the game for the Steelers’ offense.
Every time he touched the football, he was making magic happen.
This was his first big run of the night, and it came because of his ability to run through arm tackles and maintain good contact balance.
He’s able to sprint right through this arm tackle from a Titans defender and still has the burst to cut through the heart of the defense, ripping off a chunk of yardage in the process. That was a sign of things to come.
When he had the football in his hands Thursday night, he was a blur and really stressed the Tennessee defense.
Speed isn’t his own calling card, though.
Titans cornerback Elijah Molden found that out the hard way.
What a run! That has to be up for consideration for Week Nine’s “Angry Runs” segment with Kyle Brandt on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football.
Warren lulled the Titans to sleep with his speed and finesse early in the game. Then when he had an opportunity, he exploded through Molden, rocking the Titans defensive back to the turf, picking up a handful of extra yards.
Best part about the run? Teammates Broderick Jones and George Pickens letting Molden, while lying on his back on the turf, know what just happened in front of a prime-time audience on the North Shore.
