A week after Myles Garrett wrecked the Steelers’ china shop, Trey Hendrickson was escorted quietly through for a brief tour. The NFL’s leading sacker, Hendrickson was a virtual no-show in the Bengals’ loss to the Steelers on Sunday. LT Dan Moore Jr. credits the team’s strategy against him, though he didn’t elaborate.
“It’s a credit to all the guys. It’s a credit to Russ [Wilson] getting the ball out and staying on schedule, playing good team ball”, Moore said about how the Steelers’ offensive line neutralized Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals’ pass rush, via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“We had a good plan against them”, Moore added, then referenced Hendrickson specifically. “Definitely eliminated that guy”. That’s not an insignificant component of Sunday’s game for multiple reasons. For one, Hendrickson is really good and underrated because of where he plays. And for another, the Steelers had just let a really good pass rusher wreck their game plan.
A week ago, Dan Moore was saying of Myles Garrett that the Steelers’ plan to defend him “just wasn’t great”. They had a good plan against Trey Hendrickson, and it worked. Of course, judging the quality of the plan by the results, that is easy enough to conclude independently.
Officially, Hendrickson was credited with one assisted tackle against the Steelers. Pro Football Reference granted him one quarterback hit and three hurries but also charged him with a missed tackle a part of a 55.9 overall grade.
Hendrickson continues to lead the NFL with 11.5 sacks. He has 32 tackles with 12 for loss, 25 quarterback hits, a forced fumble, and five passes defensed. By any measure, he is having an excellent season. But you wouldn’t have known it by the way he played against the Steelers, which was easily his least impactful game of the season.
Here’s the thing, though. While the Steelers handled Trey Hendrickson, they have to play Myles Garrett again. If Dan Moore and company let the Browns and Garrett do what they did the last time, the Steelers could be looking at the first Cleveland sweep since the 80s.
The Steelers’ offensive line wasn’t supposed to look like this, of course. Broderick Jones was supposed to be at left tackle, Troy Fautanu at right tackle, and James Daniels at right guard. That is 60 percent of the offensive line with either sub-ideal personnel or sub-ideal positioning.
And while the line has its moments, like this past game against Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals, there have been games like Myles Garrett and the Browns, as well. Part of that is the growing pains of a young unit. But sometimes it’s mostly about executing the plan you have in place. Other times, you need a better plan. The next time the Steelers face Garrett, it will have to be both.
