The Pittsburgh Steelers will play their fifth game of the 2024 regular season on Sunday night at home against the Dallas Cowboys. They’ll enter that contest listed as a slight favorite once again. Below are five key things that I believe the Steelers will need to do in that home game on Sunday night to come away with their fourth win of the 2024 season.
Keep Your Options Open – If you watched the Cowboys Week 3 game against the Baltimore Ravens then you saw the Dallas defense get annihilated by the several read-option plays that were run against them. According to Fantasy Points, the Ravens ran a version of the read-option 17 times against the Cowboys in Week 3 for 122 yards with one touchdown. Obviously, the Ravens having QB Lamar Jackson and RB Derrick Henry make their offense perfect for such a play. Even so, the Cowboys reportedly had 25 read-options ran against them through Week 4 for 143 yards and a touchdown, according to Fantasy Points. Steelers QB Justin Fields is very capable of running the read-option. The Steelers have reportedly run it 14 times so far this season for 55 yards. However, Fields has kept it on those read-options just five times for 10 yards and a touchdown.
The Cowboys will be without two key defensive players on Sunday night as both LB Micah Parsons and DE DeMarcus Lawrence are sidelined with injuries. Because of that, the Steelers offense should run the read option early in the Sunday night game to see how the edge players on the Cowboys’ defense respond to it. At the very least, if the Dallas edge players attempt to defend against Fields keeping the football, Harris, or whichever other running back should be in the game at the time, should be able to have success on the ground and between the tackles. The Cowboys’ run defense hasn’t been particularly good so far this season and so some read-option plays from the Steelers offense should be able to make their mark Sunday night.
Silence The Lamb – The Cowboys won’t have one of their wide receivers on Sunday night as Brandin Cooks will miss the contest against the Steelers with a knee issue. Even so, the Cowboys will still have their top receiving target for QB Dak Prescott to throw to in CeeDee Lamb, who enters Week 5 with 20 receptions for 316 yards and two touchdowns. Four of those 20 receptions that Lamb has registered so far this season have resulted in gains of 20 yards or longer and two of those went for touchdowns as well. Lamb is also used in the Dallas running game as well as he has six carries for 33 yards on the season. The Cowboys have registered just four runs of 10 yards or longer so far this season and surprisingly lamb has three of those.
For his NFL career to date, the Cowboys are 12-2 in regular season games that Lamb has registered at least eight catches in. Because of that, and because he is so good at gaining yardage after the catch, keeping his receptions on Sunday night below eight would likely go a long way in helping the Steelers come out with the win. Steelers CB Joey Porter Jr. is likely to cover Lamb quite a bit on Sunday especially whenever he lines up on the outside. However, Lamb will be moved around and that includes lining up in the slot. 11 of his receptions for 161 yards and one touchdown have come with Lamb lined up in the slot and that’s important to note. Will Porter follow Lamb into the slot on Sunday night? Probably not often, if any at all. We’ll certainly see. Whatever the coverage plan for Lamb is, the Steelers’ defense better be ready to be up for the task that Lamb presents as he can easily take over a game.
100 Extra Wattage Under The Lights Needed – Against the Colts last Sunday, Steelers OLB T.J. Watt didn’t make huge marks on the stat sheet as he was only credited with two total tackles in that contest with both being of the assisted variety While Watt didn’t play bad against the Colts, he certainly wasn’t allowed to get close to the quarterback often. Indianapolis did an excellent job of giving extra attention to Watt last Sunday and even through the use of some holds that weren’t called. You can bet Watt will be looking to get back on track against the Cowboys on Sunday night and specifically against Dallas T Terence Steele, who has allowed two sacks so far this season.
Watt is looking for his 100th career sack Sunday night and the Steelers defense could certainly use one of those attended game-wrecking performances from him. To date, Watt has 22.5 sacks in regular season night games that start after 7:00 p.m. ET. Since entering the NFL in 2017, Watt leads all players with 99.5 sacks in 108 games played. With a half sack against the Cowboys on Sunday night, Watt will surpass DeMarcus Ware (113 games) as the second-fastest player to reach 100 career sacks since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic. Only the late Reggie White (96 games) reached the milestone in fewer games. Watt can also become the fourth player since 1982 with at least 100 sacks in his first eight career seasons, joining White (124 sacks) and Ware (111) as well as Jared Allen (105).
Better Communicate The Communication – Through their first four games of the 2024 regular season, we have witnessed several communication issues from the Steelers on both sides of the football. Everything from bad center/quarterback exchanges on offense to not knowing what the coverage was on defense. At least two of these specific issues happened last Sunday during the team’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts. The blown coverage communication on defense in Week 4 resulted in a touchdown on third down while the mistimed snap on offense late in that contest essentially blew a legitimate chance to ultimately win the game.
Communication errors around the NFL certainly aren’t uncommon on a week-to-week basis especially when it comes to early-season games. Even so, this 2024 Steelers team, especially when it comes to their offense, isn’t built with the ability to overcome them frequently. We must stop having the need to talk about bad center/quarterback exchanges on a near-weekly basis as we enter Week 5 as that battery has been in place now for four consecutive weeks. As for the defense, the quarterback of that unit, ILB Patrick Queen, is now entering his fifth game with the controls of that unit. He has to get better and make sure the other 10 players on the field with him know what the play is.
First Drive/Quarter Matters – Through four regular season games played the Steelers have produced all of 10 points in the first quarter and zero in their last two games. The last time the Steelers had an opening-drive possession that resulted in a touchdown was in Week 16 of the 2023 regular season against the Cincinnati Bengals. The team was 3-0 last season in games that they registered an opening-drive touchdown in.
The Cowboys have allowed two of their four opponents to score opening-drive touchdowns in their first four games. In their other two games, they allowed opening-drive field goals. That means that every opponent they have faced so far has come away with points of some kind on opening drives against them. Even if it’s just a field goal, the Steelers offense needs to make sure to keep that Dallas streak alive on Sunday night.
