The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their eighth game of the 2023 regular season on Thursday night, and this week it will be a home contest against the Tennessee Titans. This week the Steelers will enter their game as slight home favorites as well. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium to come away with their fifth win of the 2023 season.
Oh Henry! – As usual, the Steelers defense can probably expect a heavy dose of RB Derrick Henry on Thursday night and especially with Titans rookie QB Will Levis making just his second NFL start. In Week Eight, Henry touched the football 26 times for a total of 122 yards from scrimmage. Four of those touches came in the passing game with the other 22 coming on various runs, some of which were tosses. While Henry’s longest run in Week Eight was just 14 yards, only two of his carries resulted in no gain.
The previous and only two times the Steelers have faced Henry their defense handled him well for the most part. Even so, we’re talking about just 27 total carries overall in those two previous meetings. Controlling Henry on Thursday night, and especially when it comes to preventing a big run, would go a long way in helping the Steelers beat the Titans at home. Henry is the type of running back that can wear defenses down and then take over a game in the fourth quarter if it’s close. He only has three explosive runs of 20 yards or longer for the season and the Steelers defense can’t let him add to that total on Thursday night.
Be Habitual Line Steppers – While the Titans offensive line played well overall in Week Eight, the unit still should be considered one of the worst in the NFL when it comes to pass blocking. To make matters worse on Thursday night, the Titans will be without starting right tackle Chris Hubbard as he’ll miss the contest with a concussion. That should result in Nicholas Petit-Frere needing to play right tackle and Andre Dillard getting the start at left tackle. That’s a clear advantage for the Steelers outside linebacker duo of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith. Watt will obviously receive a lot of attention Thursday night. Even so, he should still be able to get to Levis a few times and the same goes for Highsmith, who could be on tap for one of the best games of his career.
The Steelers should also have defensive tackle Cameron Heyward back Thursday night as he’s now been activated from the Reserve/Injured list. Heyward should be fresh and ready to wreak havoc against Titans left guard Peter Skoronski and center Aaron Brewer. On top of everything else, Steelers rookie DT Keeanu Benton figures to have a nice Thursday night game ahead of him. In short, the Steelers defensive front should be expected to get after Levis Thursday night. Pressuring Levis heavily should rattle the rookie quarterback on the road.
Control Titan Deep Thoughts – While Levis did play well overall in his NFL debut in Week Eight, 141 of his 238 total passing yards and three of his four touchdowns came via deep passes with at least 33 air yards. Two of those three had 43 air yards and WR Deandre Hopkins was on the receiving end of both of those. Levis was not afraid to air it out deep in his NFL debut and you can expect him to take more deep shots Thursday night against the Steelers defense.
Overall, the Steelers defense has defended deep pass attempts well through Week Eight. In fact, their defense has allowed just two completions on 14 total attempts that included air yards of 25 yards or more. The defense, however, won’t have S Minkah Fitzpatrick on Thursday night and that’s going to be a huge loss. If the defense can avoid giving up the deep home run attempts by Levis, the rookie quarterback might have a tough night throwing the football for any considerable yardage.
Full On Fulton – Titans CB Kristian Fulton has had a rough first half of the 2023 season. Pro Football Focus has his overall grade at 50.9 and his coverage grade at 51.6. Fulton’s run defense grade is even worse at 48.8. The Titans really don’t move their cornerbacks around much so expect to see Fulton on the right side Thursday night. Tennessee also plays a lot of zone defense but like all teams, will occasionally play some man coverage in certain situations.
Regardless of the type of coverage or defense, the Steelers offense needs to pick on Fulton Thursday night. Run at him and throw at him as much as possible. The Titans are likely going to cloud Steelers WR George Pickens quite a bit Thursday night and that should lead to some tasty reps for WR Diontae Johnson against Fulton. Pickens, however, should also have an occasional one-on-one shot against Fulton Thursday night as well and when that happens, Steelers QB Kenny Pickett needs to recognize it and attack it. Fulton is the weak link on the Titans defense and thus he needs to be exploited as much as possible Thursday night.
Be Possessively Possessed – The Steelers offense has struggled in time of possession in single games for quite a few seasons now and especially with Matt Canada overseeing that unit. In fact, the Steelers enter Thursday night ranked last in the NFL for 2023 in time of possession at 26:54. As a raw stat since 2019, teams are 735-374 (66.3 percent) overall when they win the time of possession battle outright in non-overtime games. When it comes to Thursday games, specifically, however, teams are 54-18 (75 percent) overall when they win the time of possession battle outright in non-overtime games.
To win the time of possession game on Thursday night against the Titans, the Steelers offense must start by cutting down their three-and-outs. Additionally, running the football better will obviously also help. It really is that simple when it comes to this offense they have right now. These short weeks are tough on teams and thus keeping the Steelers defense off the field on Thursday night as much as possible should produce a win for Pittsburgh.
