It was a bit nerve-wracking in the fourth quarter Monday night, but the Pittsburgh Steelers ultimately did what they normally do: make plays late to win the game.
That resulted in a 26-18 win over the New York Giants to get to 6-2 on the season and enter the Week 9 bye week on a high.
In that win over the Giants, though, the Steelers had trouble against the run, Pittsburgh tackled relatively well and made plays in big-time moments on the defensive side of the football, putting together another strong showing.
Against the Giants, the Steelers missed just six tackles, with three coming on one play.
Let’s check out the Week 8 missed tackles report from Steelers-Giants.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. GIANTS — 6
Patrick Queen – 1
DeShon Elliott – 1
Donte Jackson – 1
Payton Wilson – 1
Keeanu Benton – 1
Larry Ogunjobi – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH EIGHT WEEKS (8 GAMES) — 53 (6.63 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 11 (55 tackles on 66 total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 8 (24 tackles on 32 total attempts, 25% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 6 (two on special teams) (39 tackles on 45 total attempts, 13.3% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (32 tackles on 37 total attempts, 13.5% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 5 (20 tackles on 25 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 4 (33 tackles on 37 total attempts, 10.8% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 4 (16 tackles on 20 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 3 (25 tackles on 28 total attempts, 10.7% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 2 (missed sack) (eight tackles on 10 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (19 tackles on 20 total attempts, 5% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 1 (eight tackles on nine total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick — 1 (47 tackles on 48 total attempts, 2.1% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 1 (six tackles on seven total attempts, 14.3% miss rate)
DeShon Elliott — 1 (58 tackles on 59 total attempts, 1.7% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi — 1 (22 tackles on 23 total attempts, 4.3% miss rate)
Once again, it was a bunch of familiar names for the Steelers on the missed tackles report. That’s becoming a bit frustrating, but at least some of the problems are contained when it comes to tackling.
Patrick Queen, Donte Jackson and Payton Wilson are becoming regulars on the missed tackles report. You deal with some of the misses, especially with the linebackers due to their range, athleticism and ability to get to the football, but it would be nice if they cleaned it up some.
As for Jackson, he’s fallen off in recent weeks from a tackling perspective. It’s fair to wonder if the shoulder injury he has been battling is more of an issue than he’s letting on.
Against the Giants, four of the six misses were confined to one play, and it was a 17-yard Tyrone Tracy Jr. run in the fourth quarter that saw standout safety DeShon Elliott miss his first tackle of the season.
Ugly rep here from the Steelers against Tracy, resulting in missed tackles from Keeanu Benton, Queen, Larry Ogunjobi and Elliott.
Tracy isn’t known as a big, strong running back, but he ran hard here and gave the Steelers fits.
Benton is the first one to arrive and isn’t able to get Tracy on the ground. Queen is there in support, and he can’t finish either, leading to Ogunjobi and Elliott coming in to try and help. Shockingly, Elliott and Ogunjobi can’t get Tracy down either, allowing the rookie running back to churn out a handful of extra yards in the fourth quarter.
It was a surprising display of tackling ineptitude from the Steelers, and the fact that it came in the fourth quarter was a bit frustrating. Fortunately, it didn’t cost them. But it sure raised eyebrows seeing Tracy run like that through tackle attempts.
Earlier in the game, Jackson missed in space after giving up an explosive reception to Giants wide receiver Darius Slayton.
Not only is giving up the explosive reception a problem, Jackson then tries to go high on the tackle attempt to get Slayton on the ground.
He misses in ugly fashion, going flying right over the top and barely even slowing down Slayton. Elliott and Minkah Fitzpatrick were able to backtrack though and get to the football to make the play.
Overall, it was a solid day in the tackling department for the Black and Gold. They limited the issues from a missed tackles perspective, which helped them win the game in the end.
Offensively, the Steelers had a great day in the missed tackles department. Against the Giants, the Steelers forced 16 missed tackles, meaning they won the battle within the game with a mark of +16, moving to 7-1 on the season. Impressive stuff.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. GIANTS — 16
Najee Harris – 6
Jaylen Warren – 4
George Pickens – 2
Van Jefferson – 2
Russell Wilson – 1
Darnell Washington – 1
Calvin Austin III – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH EIGHT WEEKS (8 GAMES) — 96 (12.0 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 41
Justin Fields – 12
Calvin Austin III – 9 (eight on special teams)
Jaylen Warren – 8
Cordarrelle Patterson — 5
Pat Freiermuth — 5
Van Jefferson — 4
George Pickens – 4
Darnell Washington — 4
Scotty Miller — 2
Aaron Shampklin — 2 (one on special teams)
Jonathan Ward — 1
Steelers running back Najee Harris remains on a heater, putting up his third straight 100-yard rushing performance. In the career-high 119-yard performance against the Giants, Harris was a menace forcing missed tackles.
He even went “Air Najee” on the Giants.
At this point in Harris’ career, if you as a defender don’t know that he likes to hurdle and looks for those opportunities, then shame on you. Harris caught Giants cornerback Deonte Banks slipping on the quick toss (side note: I despise the quick toss out of gun, especially with Harris).
The Steelers blocked it well and left Harris one-on-one against Banks on the perimeter. Banks went low and ducked his head, and Harris went up and over and gained 14 yards.
Easy work.
George Pickens also got going in the forced missed tackles department, doing so in rather interesting fashion.
He’s developed quite well in that area, and showed it against the Giants on a quick throw from Russell Wilson early in the game.
Pickens stepped out of the initial tackle attempt, and then was able to slip around a second tackle attempt after maintaining his balance. For good measure he spun out of bounds to add some flair to the play.
Everything is seemingly coming up positive for the Steelers right now. It’s fun to watch when they’re rolling like this. Hopefully it carries over from the bye week.
