Last Saturday was not only one of the best offensive performances the Pittsburgh Steelers have seen in the last three years or so, it was also a sterling defensive performance in the 34-11 win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Acrisure Stadium.
While backup quarterback Mason Rudolph stole headlines just two days before Christmas with his impressive play against the Bengals, the defense was outstanding as well. It generated three interceptions, two turnovers on downs and held the Bengals to just one touchdown.
Oh, and the Steelers also played very well from a tackling perspective despite working in some new faces defensively. Heck of a day. Let’s take a look at the missed tackles report from the Week 16 matchup against the Bengals.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. BENGALS — 6
Eric Rowe – 3
Myles Jack – 1
Joey Porter Jr. – 1
Larry Ogunjobi – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 16 (15 GAMES) — 124 (8.26 MISSES PER GAME)
Damontae Kazee – 12 (61 tackles on 73 attempts, 16.4% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 12 (one on sack attempt, 100 tackles on 112 attempts, 10.7% miss rate)
Patrick Peterson – 9 (38 tackles on 47 attempts, 19.1% miss rate)
Keanu Neal – 8 (50 tackles on 58 attempts, 13.8% miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 7 (41 tackles on 48 attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 7 (64 tackles on 71 attempts, 9.8% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 6 (42 tackles on 48 attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi – 4 (39 tackles on 43 attempts, 9.3% miss rate)
Mykal Walker — 4 (30 tackles on 34 attempts, 11.7% miss rate)
Cole Holcomb – 4 (54 tackles on 58 attempts, 6.9% miss rate)
Levi Wallace – 4 (36 tackles on 40 attempts, 10% miss rate)
Elijah Riley – 4 (two on sack attempts, one on special teams, 10 tackles on 14 attempts, 28.6% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 4 (58 tackles on 62 attempts, 6.5% miss rate)
Nick Herbig – 4 (one on special teams, 26 tackles on 30 attempts, 13.3% miss rate)
Eric Rowe – 3 (seven tackles on 10 attempts, 30% miss rate)
Trenton Thompson – 3 (22 tackles on 25 total attempts, 12% miss rate)
Montravius Adams – 3 (one on sack attempt, 24 tackles on 27 attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 2 (33 tackles on 35 attempts, 5.7% miss rate)
Chandon Sullivan — 2 (sack attempt, 19 tackles on 21 attempts, 9.5% miss rate)
Miles Boykin — 2 (special teams, five tackles on seven attempts, 28.6% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew — 2 (both special teams, 18 tackles on 20 attempts, 10% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 2 (both on special teams, 23 tackles on 25 attempts, 8% miss rate)
Markus Golden — 2 (16 tackles on 18 attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Armon Watts – 1 (14 tackles on 15 attempts, 6.6% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 1 (14 tackles on 15 attempts, 6.6% miss rate)
Connor Heyward – 1 (special teams, two tackles on three attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
Cameron Heyward — 1 (30 tackles on 31 attempts, 3.3% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (54 tackles on 55 attempts, 1.8% miss rate)
DeMarvin Leal — 1 (15 tackles on 16 attempts, 6.25% miss rate)
Myles Jack — 1 (six tackles on seven attempts, 14.3% miss rate)
Though Eric Rowe and Myles Jack made some big plays coming off the couch in the win over the Bengals, they were a bit rusty in the tackling department.
That is understandable. There’s nothing like hitting in-game. You can’t prepare for contact and tackling in a practice setting anymore, especially in-season, so live reps are required. They certainly got those and took advantage of them, but they did miss four combined tackles on the evening out of the six total from the Steelers.
Jack’s miss came on a run play with the Bengals backed up deep in their own end after a solid Pressley Harvin III punt. Jack came into the game right after Elandon Roberts injured his pectoral muscle and had the chance to make a splash play.
He’s just a tick slow to read it and then doesn’t take the best angle downhill against speedy Cincinnati running back Chase Brown. Brown is able to step out of Jack’s diving tackle attempt and pick up a few additional yards to give the Bengals a more manageable situation.
One drive later, Rowe — who had already recorded an interception at this point — recorded his first missed tackle, which led to an explosive play for the Bengals.
Nothing too fancy here from the Bengals, just exploiting space against zone coverage with Tyler Boyd out of the slot.
Boyd does a nice job of decelerating into the space to give Browning a window, and credit to Browning for putting a dot on him. But this is a play Rowe has to make in space. You can’t just expect a big hit to knock a guy over in today’s game. Rowe doesn’t even make an attempt at wrapping up against Boyd, and the Bengals receiver easily bounces off the hit and picks up a chunk of yards, giving Cincinnati a major spark.
Then, early in the second half Rowe takes a bad angle on Tee Higgins on a slant route, resulting in an 81-yard touchdown.
It’s a bad play in coverage from linebacker Mykal Walker, who gets completely turned around and lost on the play, but Rowe cannot take a bad angle like that, especially as the last line of defense.
His initial steps put him at a disadvantage and that’s all she wrote. Higgins is a burner in space, and nobody was catching him after Rowe missed on a shoe-string tackle attempt.
Offensively, the Steelers — though they had a monster day from a points and yardage perspective — didn’t do much in the forced missed tackles department. Of course, they didn’t need to force a bunch of misses to generate yards with how they were chewing up the Bengals. On the day, the Steelers forced just four missed tackles, losing the battle by a mark of -2.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. BENGALS — 4
George Pickens – 3
Jaylen Warren – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 16 (15 GAMES) — 150 (10.0 PER GAME)
Jaylen Warren – 56
Najee Harris – 47
Calvin Austin III – 10 (four on special teams)
George Pickens – 8
Diontae Johnson – 8
Godwin Igwebuike – 5 (special teams)
Connor Heyward – 3
Pat Freiermuth – 3
Kenny Pickett — 2
Allen Robinson II – 1
Desmond King II – 1 (special teams)
Darnell Washington — 1
Mitch Trubisky — 1
George Pickens was obviously under serious fire leading up to the matchup against the Bengals for his poor effort against the Colts and then his tone-deaf comments to the media a few days later. But he did what anyone should be asked to do: respond on the field.
Pickens had a career day, hauling in four passes for 195 yards and two touchdowns. Scoring on plays of 86 and 66 yards, he added a 44-yard reception late in the second quarter, setting up a Chris Boswell field goal.
The 86-yarder on the Steelers’ second offensive play of the game was his best rep.
He creates great separation at the top of his stem on the slant route by utilizing some physicality, giving rookie cornerback DJ Turner a little shove to gain separation. From there, Pickens has plenty of space and takes a strong throw from Rudolph in stride.
After the catch, Pickens is able to break the safety’s angle and then runs through Turner’s attempt at an arm tackle, leading to the 86-yard touchdown, igniting the home crowd.
