The Pittsburgh Steelers had a rather solid night defensively against the New York Jets in the 37-15 win, picking off Aaron Rodgers twice, forcing a turnover on downs thanks to a batted pass at the line of scrimmage, and blocking a field goal. But for many, at least at the moment, the defense was playing terribly, thanks to some ugly missed tackles.
Fortunately, the Steelers cleaned things up, particularly in the second half, and rolled on that side of the football.
The Steelers missed just eight tackles on the night, which was much lower than I anticipated coming into the film review after watching the game live. That’s a credit to the Steelers for settling down and making the plays there.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. JETS — 8
Donte Jackson – 2
Payton Wilson – 2 (one on special teams)
Patrick Queen – 1
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
Isaiahh Loudermilk – 1
Elandon Roberts – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH SEVEN WEEKS (7 GAMES) — 47 (6.71 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 10 (47 tackles on 57 total attempts, 17.5% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 7 (20 tackles on 27 total attempts, 26% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 5 (24 tackles on 29 total attempts, 17.2% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 5 (two on special teams) (36 tackles on 41 total attempts, 12.2% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 5 (17 tackles on 22 total attempts, 22.7% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 4 (26 tackles on 30 total attempts, 13.3% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 3 (14 tackles on 17 total attempts, 17.6% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 3 (20 tackles on 23 total attempts, 13% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 2 (missed sack) (eight tackles on 10 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (15 tackles on 16 total attempts, 6.25% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 1 (eight tackles on nine total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick — 1 (43 tackles on 44 total attempts, 2.3% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Early on, things look abysmal for the Steelers’ defense from a tackling perspective. They were a mess, and it looked like it would be a long night as the Steelers’ defense seemingly needed to warm up to the action in primetime, which was concerning in its own right.
But, going back through the film and watching, the missed tackles only showed up on a few plays. Granted, those misses were big plays for the Jets, but the Steelers — for the most part — limited the damage.
The problem is that the damage started early, and it came in the form of Jets running back Breece Hall.
Hall was a weapon in the Jets’ passing game and really carved up the Steelers underneath, in large part due to missed tackles.
In the first quarter, Hall takes a short dump-off from Aaron Rodgers and has three Steelers defenders closing in on him in space.
He turned this into an 18-yard gain due to a terrible angle from linebacker Patrick Queen, who was on ice skates in the open field here.
To top it off, rookie linebacker Payton Wilson also missed the tackle on a diving effort, and Hall was off into the second level.
Plays like this simply can’t happen in space. Unfortunately, there was more to come in that aspect from Hall.
Again, another check down from Rodgers getting the ball out quickly to Hall in space.
It resulted in a 57-yard gain, thanks to a missed tackle from linebacker Elandon Roberts, who came downhill out of control and proceeded to take out Queen and outside linebacker T.J. Watt on the tackle attempt, putting Hall into the second level in the blink of an eye.
Then, it was cornerback Donte Jackson’s turn to have a brutal missed tackle in space. That’s a big whiff, and likely the play where he re-injured his shoulder in the process. To be fair, it’s not the greatest attempt at a tackle there.
Fortunately, Minkah Fitzpatrick ran him down to save a touchdown.
Finally, Hall had an impact on a run play, too. The Steelers missed a tackle on his 13-yard touchdown run and saw a rookie linebacker struggle to get off of a block, leading to Hall getting into the end zone.
Isaiahh Loudermilk doesn’t play many snaps defensively, but he needs to be efficient and effective when he does. He was neither on the touchdown run, getting pushed out of his gap and then missing the tackle on Hall, allowing the Jets’ running back to run by into space for the score. Bad rep from Payton Wilson, too, and even Joey Porter Jr. gets caught inside, too, giving Hall the corner.
In the second half, though, the Steelers cleaned things up very well and had just one missed tackle in the second half defensively—props to the defense.
While the Steelers were blowing out the Jets on the scoreboard, they also won handily in the tackling battle within the game. Offensively, the Steelers forced 12 missed tackles against the Jets, winning the tackles battle by a mark of +4, moving to 6-1-0 on the season in that battle.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. JETS — 12
Najee Harris – 8
Jaylen Warren – 2
Pat Freiermuth – 1
Darnell Washington – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH SEVEN WEEKS (7 GAMES) — 80 (11.43 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 35
Justin Fields – 12
Calvin Austin III – 8 (seven on special teams)
Cordarrelle Patterson — 5
Pat Freiermuth — 5
Jaylen Warren – 4
Darnell Washington — 3
Scotty Miller — 2
Van Jefferson — 2
George Pickens – 2
Aaron Shampklin — 2 (one on special teams)
Jonathan Ward — 1
Another week, another master class from Najee Harris on the ground.
For the second straight week, Harris eclipsed 100 yards and looked great, running hard downhill, showing off some nimble footwork, and consistently making defenders miss in space. He’s feeling it.
He showed that on his second touch of the game.
He did a nice job of bouncing this one outside without slowing down or losing steam. When he gets to the corner, he makes the Jets’ defender miss in space, allowing him to get around the corner and upfield.
From there, Harris stops on a dime, and forces another missed tackle, and then, for added salt in the wound, Harris forced that same Jets’ defender who missed earlier in the rep in space to miss again.
Impressive 18-yard run from Harris.
This one only goes into the stats sheet as a 10-yard touchdown, but man, it was impressive.
Harris showed off the footwork to avoid the traffic immediately after taking the handoff, jump-cutting to his left and then running through an arm tackle to get into the end zone and put the cherry on top of the game. It’s concerning that Broderick Jones was blown up like that, but looked at the blocking on the left side of the line.
Great job from Ryan McCollum, Isaac Seumalo, and Dan Moore Jr. to create a crease for a walk-in touchdown.
