In their Week 7 win over the New York Jets on Sunday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers came out throwing to try and set up the run under offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. It was a concerted effort with quarterback Russell Wilson under center in his first game to try and get him into a rhythm early.
Though it was shaky for the first quarter or so, Wilson found his groove and the offense took off against a talented defense.
Now, in Week 8 on Monday Night Football against the New York Giants, the Steelers and Smith could have a very similar game plan.
For ESPN’s Mina Kimes, they probably should, because the Steelers have some real matchup advantages against the Giants’ defense, particularly in the secondary.
“Stay out of the drop-back passing game in this one because if you stay out of it — obviously not entirely — but I’m just saying I really think they have some advantages,” Kimes on “The Mina Kimes Show” with DraftKings’ Mike Golic Jr., according to video via the podcast’s YouTube page. “This Giants defense is very bad against the run, and they are dead last in the NFL in EPA and DVOA versus explosives. They’ve given up 11 completions over 20 yards, which is tied for the second worst in the league. So what we saw against the [Jets]: run the ball, under center play-action, bombs away to George Pickens, throw it up to him, he will come down with it.
“I think that’s a great game plan against a Giants defense. It’s funny ’cause in some ways they’re a lot worse than the Jets, certainly on the back end. I think the front is really, really, really strong, but can be mitigated to some degree, and I feel like Arthur Smith is going to be pretty smart about this one.”
The matchup against the Giants’ defensive front is going to be a challenging one for the Steelers, especially with guys like Dexter Lawrence and Brian Burns on the other side of the line of scrimmage.
Head coach Mike Tomlin waxed poetic about Lawrence during his Tuesday press conference and gave the game-wrecking nose tackle (bet you didn’t expect to read those words together) his flowers. He’ll be a tough player to deal with on Monday night, but if the Steelers can throw the football down the field and soften up the defensive front some, it should make it easier to run the football, lean in on play-action passing and really look like how things looked against the Jets
At least, that’s the hope, especially after seeing the Philadelphia Eagles have a field day offensively against the Giants, particularly in the run game.
The Steelers have a competent coordinator in the picture once again, one who knows how to draw up game plans each and every week to attack defenses. So far this season, Smith and the Steelers have had a good deal of success offensively.
That shouldn’t change on Monday night.
