The Pittsburgh Steelers had a calculated game plan last Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons, part of which involved not throwing over the middle of the field to ensure that Falcons S Jessie Bates III didn’t take over the game. Former NFL head coach Matt Patricia praised Smith for taking away Bates and putting QB Justin Fields in position to succeed.
“Arthur does a great job understanding his quarterbacks. What do they do well? Where can they put the ball? What do they read in coverage?” Patricia said on the Coach Podcast with Michael Lombardi and Bill Belichick. “Being able to run the ball to take them off the hook so they don’t have to go throw it on every down. But understanding the defense, like where are their go-to guys or where are their impact players on defense, and how do I get the ball away from those guys like coach mentioned there in that situation. But I think Arthur did a great job.”
Pittsbuugh was very intentional with its game plan, avoiding the middle of the field, using the ground game, and making sure to avoid turnovers to control the clock and wear down the Falcons. Pat Freiermuth said it was evident the Falcons got tired late in the game, and the Steelers made that plan work by being cautious.
While they took shots downfield, they made sure that Bates wouldn’t have many opportunities to make a play on the ball. And with Fields having occasional accuracy issues, including at times on Sunday, it was smart to just avoid the middle of the field entirely.
That might not be a sustainable strategy, but Smith did a good job of making sure that Atlanta’s key playmakers, specifically Bates, didn’t make a huge impact against them while letting Fields do what he does well: using his legs and connecting on a few deep balls. He’s someone who will tailor his plan week to week to attack the opponent’s weaknesses, so what we saw against Atlanta might not be what we see against Denver this weekend, although the general philosophy of establishing the run and wanting to control the football will likely be similar.
Smith is someone who clearly commands a lot of respect around the league, and Lombardi also credited him for avoiding Bates with a game plan he said worked out “really well.” Hopefully, with a full week of having Justin Fields work with the ones, the game plan this week for Denver provides similar results and the Steelers can move to 2-0.
