When the Pittsburgh Steelers face off against the Cleveland Browns tonight (Thursday night), it will be a matchup of premier pass rushers in the NFL. On the Steelers side, you have LB T.J. Watt flanked by LB Nick Herbig and DL Cam Heyward. On the Browns side, you have DE Myles Garrett.
And former NFL WR Harry Douglas thinks that the Steelers are going to have a field day getting after Browns QB Jameis Winston.
On ESPN’s Get Up on Thursday morning, Douglas was asked about his big prediction for Thursday night’s game.
“I’m gonna go with the Pittsburgh Steelers having six sacks or more,” said Douglas. “This is a defense that is relentless when you look at those outside linebackers. But also an offensive line of the Cleveland Browns that gave up six sacks in a game previous this season. So it’s not like it’s not doable. I’m looking for that defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers to be relentless and also sack Jameis Winston multiple times tonight.”
Now that would be an incredible feat by the Steelers’ defense. Watt and company can really get after the quarterback. But they’ve only gotten 24 sacks this season. So six (or more) sacks would represent a quarter of their output for the whole season.
But as Douglas pointed out, the Browns are no stranger to giving up that many sacks. They just did it two weeks ago when the Los Angeles Chargers sacked Winston six times. In his three starts this season (the last three Browns games), defenses have sacked Watson at least twice.
So the Browns offensive line is struggling to protect Winston. They’ve given up 41 pressures on 162 dropbacks this year per Pro Football Focus. That means defenses are pressuring Winston on 25.3 percent of all his dropbacks. And it’s not like defenses are blitzing Winston into oblivion, either. PFF says defenses are blitzing him on 22.8 percent of his dropbacks.
When defenses don’t blitz, they’re still getting pressure on Winston on 24.8 of his dropbacks. And in terms of sacks, defenses are bringing him down on 29 percent of all pressures when not blitzed versus 30 percent of his blitz pressures. So defenses are sacking him at darn near the same rate when he’s pressured, blitzed or not.
That’s great news for the Steelers who prior to Sunday’s win over the Baltimore Ravens only blitzed 28.1 percent of the time. The Steelers will have an opportunity to get home with just their normal pass rush packages.
What could hamper the chances of the Steelers having a standout night getting after Winston is the weather. The weather is not going to be good in Cleveland for the game. So both teams could be focusing more on running the ball rather than airing it out.
But if the Browns have to throw the ball, the Steelers will have the opportunity to get after Jameis Winston. And stats show that can translate to a lot of sacks.
