While the Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t put up a ton of points offensively so far, they’ve been efficient and they’re currently sitting at 3-0 thanks to their strategy on offense. But one way to put up more points is to create more mismatches, and QB Justin Fields said the team is looking to do that more frequently.
“Yeah, if you go back to Week 2 two versus Denver, Darnell [Washington] on the touchdown. Darnell’s on a safety, smaller safety, and that’s a mismatch itself, right there. So, you know, we always want to do that, to put people where we want them on the defensive side of the ball, or getting certain matchups you might like, or a certain run play that we might like versus a certain type of defense. You always want to mix and match those personnels to get the kind of people you want out in the field,” Fields said via transcript provided by the team.
Washington was lined up against S P.J. Locke on his touchdown in Week 2, and Washington alone is a mismatch against pretty much any defensive back due to his size. He can serve as a red zone threat for the Steelers, which we didn’t see much of last season, but we did see in Week 2 and can likely expect going forward.
Another way the Steelers created some mismatches in Week 2 was putting George Pickens in the slot to match him up away from CB Patrick Surtain II, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Pickens continue to get reps in the slot, especially if the Steelers don’t add to their receiver room. It works in the run game too, as the Steelers have used designed QB runs for Fields and utilized play-action to create looks in the passing game and also open up room to run.
Under Arthur Smith, the Steelers have utilized multiple tight ends frequently, which can also help create mismatches in both the running game and the passing game. Washington is a red zone mismatch in the passing game, but he’s also an elite blocking tight end who can open up holes. Using different personnel and more tight ends can confuse a defense and create the looks the Steelers want.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Steelers do anything differently in the next few weeks to look to create more mismatches on offense. What they’ve been doing so far has worked. But if they can add some more wrinkles to create mismatches, Fields and Arthur Smith will look to do so, and the Steelers offense could really start to get going.
