The Week 15 matchup on the road against the Indianapolis Colts was rather ugly for the Pittsburgh Steelers, especially considering they jumped out to an early 13-0 lead, got a big blocked punt on special teams, and had a nice offensive drive in the first quarter.
But then things completely fell apart. The Steelers allowed 30 unanswered points, couldn’t stop the Colts in the run game, and largely folded.
Some good news, though? The Steelers had a strong performance in the tackling department.
In the 30-13 loss, the Steelers missed just five tackles. Of course, it’s not hard to have a strong day in the tackling department when the opposing team has gaping holes to run through over and over again.
I digress. Let’s get to the missed tackles report for Steelers-Colts.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT COLTS — 5
Chandon Sullivan – 1
Cameron Heyward – 1
DeMarvin Leal – 1
Alex Highsmith – 1
Trenton Thompson – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 15 (14 GAMES) — 118 (8.43 MISSES PER GAME)
Damontae Kazee – 12 (61 tackles on 73 total attempts, 16.4% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 12 (one on sack attempt) (95 tackles on 107 total attempts, 11.2% miss rate)
Patrick Peterson – 9 (36 tackles on 45 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Keanu Neal – 8 (50 tackles on 58 total attempts, 13.8% miss rate)
Kwon Alexander – 7 (41 tackles on 48 total attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 7 (64 tackles on 71 total attempts, 9.8% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (40 tackles on 45 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Mykal Walker — 4 (22 tackles on 26 total attempts, 15.4% miss rate)
Cole Holcomb – 4 (54 tackles on 58 total attempts, 6.9% miss rate)
Levi Wallace – 4 (31 tackles on 35 total attempts, 11.4% miss rate)
Elijah Riley – 4 (two on sack attempts, one on special teams, nine tackles on 13 total attempts, 30.7% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 4 (55 tackles on 59 total attempts, 6.8% miss rate)
Nick Herbig – 4 (one on special teams, 23 tackles on 27 total attempts, 14.9% miss rate)
Trenton Thompson – 3 (22 tackles on 25 total attempts, 12% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi – 3 (37 tackles on 40 total attempts, 7.5% miss rate)
Montravius Adams – 3 (one on sack attempt, 24 tackles on 27 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 2 (33 tackles on 35 total attempts, 5.7% miss rate)
Chandon Sullivan — 2 (sack attempt, 16 tackles on 18 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Miles Boykin — 2 (special teams, four tackles on six total attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew — 2 (both special teams, 15 tackles on 17 total attempts, 11.8% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 2 (both on special teams, 21 tackles on 23 total attempts, 8.7% miss rate)
Markus Golden — 2 (14 tackles on 16 total attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
Armon Watts – 1 (13 tackles on 14 total attempts, 7.1% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 1 (14 tackles on 15 total attempts, 6.6% miss rate)
Connor Heyward – 1 (special teams, two tackles on three total attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
Cameron Heyward — 1 (30 tackles on 31 total attempts, 3.3% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (53 tackles on 54 total attempts, 1.9% miss rate)
DeMarvin Leal — 1 (15 tackles on 16 total attempts, 6.25% miss rate)
For the first time all season, Cameron Heyward, Alex Highsmith, and DeMarvin Leal appear on the missed tackles report, thanks to misses Saturday against the Colts at Lucas Oil Stadium, all in the run game.
The three defensive pieces went all season to this point without a miss, but eventually, in the game of football, you’re going to miss a few stops.
Unfortunately for the Steelers, they all came against the run in the 30-13 loss to the Colts, and all in the second half as Indianapolis imposed its will against the Steelers and really took the soul out of Pittsburgh’s defense.
The miss from Heyward occurred on the Colts’ best drive of the game, the one that is well-known at this point. That deflating drive between the third and fourth quarter that saw the Colts run the football 13 times straight and truly just take any fight out of the Steelers.
Heyward missed on one of the first plays of the drive. Matched up against Colts’ All-Pro guard Quenton Nelson, Heyward does a good job of stacking and shedding. But he doesn’t have the lateral agility to make the stop on Sermon.
Sermon is able to get outside of Heyward and get upfield as the Steelers’ standout defensive tackle is left flailing at air.
The miss against Sermon was just the fourth tackle he’s missed over the last two seasons combined. He’s been a pillar of consistency in the tackling department overall. It wasn’t a great miss, though.
Then, later on in the fourth quarter, with the Colts very clearly in control and running the ball at will, Leal and Highsmith missed Sermon on a rather impressive run by the former Ohio State running back.
Leal has barely played in recent weeks and seems to have fallen out of favor a bit in Pittsburgh.
He hasn’t seen the field much, and when he does, he’s not very impactful. It doesn’t help that he’s missing potential tackles for loss, too.
He does a good job here of getting into the backfield quickly at the snap, but he isn’t able to finish against Sermon. That allows the Colts’ running back to get outside and turn the corner.
Credit to Highsmith for his backside pursuit. He has a great motor, and even in a 14-point game late in the fourth quarter, he wasn’t giving up. Steelers need more like him in all three phases of the game.
Though the pursuit here is great from Highsmith, he tries to go high on Sermon and pays the price. That’s an impressive stiff-arm from Sermon against a great player in Highsmith. You rarely see that against a player like 56.
Offensively, the Steelers had a quiet day in the forced missed tackles department, which isn’t all that surprising considering the offensive output the Steelers had in general, racking up just 216 yards of total offense. On the day, the Steelers forced just seven missed tackles, winning the missed tackles battle by a margin of +2.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT COLTS — 7
Najee Harris – 4
Godwin Igwebuike – 2 (special teams)
George Pickens – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH WEEK 15 (14 GAMES) — 146 (10.42 PER GAME)
Jaylen Warren – 55
Najee Harris – 47
Calvin Austin III – 10 (four on special teams)
Diontae Johnson – 8
Godwin Igwebuike – 5 (special teams)
George Pickens – 5
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
It’s been a tough week for wide receiver George Pickens, and rightfully so. There is no defending his effort on the Jaylen Warren run in the first quarter, and there’s no defending his excuses as to why he didn’t block.
Aside from that, Pickens had a decent game, and fittingly, one play before the non-block, he had a key forced missed tackle to set up the 1st and Goal.
It’s not the best effort from Pickens off the ball, as he’s rather lackadaisical with his route. But once the ball comes his way, he’s able to lock in and does a great job of rocking the cornerback into a bit of a lull with the delayed step, then turning the corner, forcing the missed tackle to move the chains and set up the 1st and Goal for a gain of 15 yards.
Then, early in the second quarter, Najee Harris forced a pair of missed tackles with a great effort on a run of 15 yards.
Harris isn’t all that good running out of shotgun, but he did a great job here with good vision, setting up the block of Dan Moore Jr. and then exploding upfield.
Once he’s into the second level, Harris runs through a tackle attempt from a Colts safety and then refuses to go down after first contact, dragging some defenders a few more yards, and setting an early tone.
Unfortunately, that tone didn’t carry over the rest of the game.
