The Pittsburgh Steelers’ game plan on Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons involved possessing the ball, taking a few shots when called upon and leaning on the run game. While Smith usually likes utilizing the middle of the field in the passing game, it wasn’t something the Steelers did on Sunday, and Smith said that it was his decision to make sure Falcons S Jessie Bates didn’t take over the game, per The Pat McAfee Show’s Mark Kaboly.
“Our Jason Bourne — T.J. Watt — wrecked the game; theirs didn’t,” Smith said via Kaboly.
Smith said that Bates nearly won Atlanta’s Week 1 matchup by himself last year, which played a part in the team looking to avoid him.
“That was my respect to Jessie Bates. Don’t let their best player wreck the game. We had a couple other things for Jessie. I don’t know why more people don’t know about him, but he’s arguably one of the top players in the league, and he wrecked Week 1. If you watched Week 1 last year, he damn near won it by himself. Two picks, almost got a third, fumble, forced fumble late. And the way the game was going, it allowed us to stay ahead and it allowed us to not try to let him affect it,” Smith said on Bates via 93.7 The Fan.
If you look at Justin Fields’ passing chart, per NextGenStats, it’s clear the Steelers avoided the middle of the field entirely in the passing game. That wasn’t due to Fields not looking there though, and just Smith’s instructions to make sure Bates didn’t take over the game.
Bates finished third in the league with six interceptions last season, his first in Atlanta, and with Smith being the head coach of the Falcons last season, he’s quite familiar with what Bates brings to the table. He’s been a ball hawk throughout his career, with 20 career interceptions and the Steelers know what he’s capable of, given that he spent his first five NFL seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. Pittsburgh has historically been good at not letting Bates take over games, as he hasn’t recorded an interception in 11 career games against the Steelers.
But he’s a talented player, and Smith called him a “game-wrecker,” and he didn’t want to let Bates wreck the game against Pittsburgh.
“I got so much respect for Jessie Bates. That guy is a game-wrecker… (We were) just trying to neutralize him, which I thought we did,” Smith said via Mike DeFabo of The Athletic.
Smith did say that Fields made a bad throw on a 3rd and 2 screen pass to WR Van Jefferson, and should have put the ball in a different spot.
“Credit to A.J. [Terrell] and Jesse[Bates],” Smith said via a team-provided transcript. “That ball never should go out there. So, if he doesn’t lose inside, that’s irrelevant. The problem is we caught that ball on the numbers right into them. So, that’s about timing and details.”
Jefferson only gained one yard on the play after WR Calvin Austin III got blown off his block and WR George Pickens didn’t make the best attempt at a block. Had the throw not gone on the numbers and went more inside, it could’ve been a first down or a touchdown.
The plan to avoid the middle of the field might have been the same with Russell Wilson under center, but with Fields having accuracy/turnover issues in the past, it made even more sense for the Steelers to be a little bit cautious and ensure that someone like Bates couldn’t make a play. His safety partner in Justin Simmons is a talented player, too, and the Steelers didn’t want to put themselves in a position for one of them to make a play and turn the tide of the game.
The Steelers avoided turning the ball over while forcing three Atlanta turnovers, and that was one of the biggest differences in the game. If Pittsburgh had taken more shots over the middle with a quarterback starting on short notice, it could’ve been a different story. While the Steelers will need to eventually use the middle of the field in the passing game to be successful this season, Smith made a good plan to avoid it with Bates lurking and Fields under center, and it worked out for the Steelers.
