The Pittsburgh Steelers faced arguably the best pure runner in the NFL in the second game of the season when they hosted the Cleveland Browns. At least, they dealt with him for about a half before RB Nick Chubb suffered a severe injury, ending his season.
Yet not a great deal has changed since then. The Browns have gone 5-2 without him. While the run game took an initial backslide the first two weeks without him, it regrouped after the bye and has been averaging about 150 rushing yards per game over the past five weeks.
The Steelers’ run defense, unfortunately, hasn’t changed much either. They allowed the Browns nearly 200 yards in that game. They’ve allowed over 100 in six consecutive games, though they have kept it under 120 yards in the past three weeks. Still, not good enough.
“We’re still a work in progress”, defensive coordinator Teryl Austin conceded, since the first Browns game, via audio provided by the team’s media relations department. “We gave up a big chunk last week that probably didn’t need to be a big chunk. Until we get those knocked completely out of our game, I’m gonna say, no, we’re not where we need to be”.
Surrendering 116 rushing yards last Sunday to the Green Bay Packers, the defense gave up a 40-yard run to RB A.J. Dillon. Yet outside of that one run, they largely held their own. Dillon rushed for only 30 yards on his other eight attempts. Aaron Jones was held to only 35 yards on 13 attempts. Minus the one explosive run, Green Bay only averaged 3.6 yards per attempt at the running back position. Of course, the Steelers gave up almost 300 passing yards and two touchdowns there as well.
“Too many chunk plays, pass and run, for us”, Austin said. “If we take those out of our game, and that’s what we’ve got to work to do, if we take those out of our game, we’ll be much better. Until we do, we’re gonna be in dogfights like we’ve been in every week.”
As you may have guessed, the drive on which the Packers picked up a 40-yard run also happened to be one of the drives on which they scored a touchdown. Dillon’s gain put them on Pittsburgh’s 29-yard line, yet T.J. Watt got the team’s one and only sack on the next play. The next pass went incomplete.
And then they allowed a 35-yard touchdown on 3rd and 16. So that’s another thing that they have to clean up, aside from all of the chunk plays. It’s also simply winning the downs that should be gimmes. Your stop rate on 3rd and 17 should really be as close to 100 percent as possible.
Meanwhile, the Browns still present a fearsome challenge on the ground, even without Chubb, and even with some of that offensive line banged up. They still have arguably the best pair of run-blocking guards in the NFL in Joel Bitonio and Wyatt Teller. Right tackle Dawand Jones is trending in the right direction on the injury report. And credit to RBs Kareem Hunt and Jerome Ford, who’ve stepped up to keep things going.
