One week after recording 11 missed tackles for the second time in the year against the Cleveland Browns, the Pittsburgh Steelers turned in a nightmare performing in the tackling department in a blowout loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Steelers went into Philadelphia looking for their first win there since 1965 and, in the end, made their own history—in a bad way. Against the Eagles, the Steelers missed 20 tackles, nearly double the season-worst performance of 11 misses against the Browns in Weeks 12 and 14. It was the most missed tackles in a single game that I’ve charted in the six years I’ve been doing so here for Steelers Depot.
What a mess. Let’s try to sort through it in this week’s missed tackles report.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT EAGLES — 20
Patrick Queen – 3
Payton Wilson – 3 (one on special teams)
Nick Herbig – 3 (two on special teams)
Joey Porter Jr. – 2
Donte Jackson – 2
Keeanu Benton – 1
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
Isaiahh Loudermilk – 1
Damontae Kazee – 1
Cameron Sutton – 1
Elandon Roberts – 1
Cameron Heyward – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 15 WEEKS (14 GAMES) — 107 (7.64 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 18 (109 tackles on 127 total attempts, 14.2% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 12 (34 tackles on 46total attempts, 26.1% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 11 (missed sack, two on special teams) (19 tackles on 30 total attempts, 36.6% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 10 (four on special teams) (61 tackles on 71 total attempts, 14.1% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 9 (39 tackles on 48 total attempts, 18.7% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 8 (61 tackles on 69 total attempts, 11.6% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick — 6 (80 tackles on 86 total attempts, 7% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 6 (27 tackles on 33 total attempts, 18.2% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 5 (54 tackles on 59 total attempts, 8.5% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi — 4 (37 tackles on 41 total attempts, 9.8% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 4 (44 tackles on 48 total attempts, 8.3% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 4 (one on special teams) (12 tackles on 16 total attempts, 25% miss rate)
Cameron Heyward — 4 (60 tackles on 64 total attempts, 6.25% miss rate)
Cameron Sutton — 3 (six tackles on nine total attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
Preston Smith — 2 (10 tackles on 12 total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (30 tackles on 31 total attempts, 3.2% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 1 (10 tackles on 11 total attempts, 9.1% miss rate)
DeShon Elliott — 1 (96 tackles on 97 total attempts, 1.0% miss rate)
Connor Heyward — 1 (special teams) (six tackles on seven total attempts, 14.3% miss rate)
Tyler Matakevich — 1 (special teams) (four tackles on five total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Ben Skowronek — 1 (special teams) (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee — 1 (24 tackles on 25 total attempts, 4% miss rate)
Things started off very poorly for the Steelers against the Eagles, and they snowballed from there, particularly in the tackling department. The Steelers really struggled to get off the field in weighty moments, and it was in large part due to the missed tackles that key defensive pieces like Patrick Queen, Joey Porter Jr., and Donte Jackson had in space, not to mention Minkah Fitzpatrick.
When your top guys are missing tackles in a game at the rate the Steelers had on Sunday, it’s a recipe for disaster, and boy, was it one for the Black and Gold.
It started early, too.
Donte Jackson had maybe the worst miss of the game, getting made to look quite bad in space against Eagles’ RB Kenneth Gainwell.
Easy check-down in space on a 3rd and 4 from Jalen Hurts to Gainwell, and Jackson closes quickly downhill and puts himself in a good position, staying square to Gainwell. But then Gainwell busts out a great spin move and drops Jackson to his knees, causing him to whiff in space in a bad way.
That’s one heck of a move from Gainwell in space on a veteran cornerback. Jackson has been a mess in the tackling department since Week 6. From Week 6 against the Las Vegas Raiders to now, Jackson has missed 10 of his 12 missed tackles on the season.
Maybe some of that is due to the shoulder and back injuries he’s been dealing with, but after starting the season as a very good tackler in space, Jackson has fallen way off and has been a liability in the department.
Queen has been no better, either. He missed three tackles Sunday against the Eagles and really looked poor in space.
Here, on a read-option with Hurts, the Eagles’ QB reads it perfectly and gets T.J. Watt caught in between, giving Hurts the edge to get into the second level against Queen one-on-one in space. Advantage Hurts.
A slide head fake causes Queen to freeze in space and flail at air as Hurts slips by. After leaving Queen in the dust, he added seven yards on the play.
It got worse for Queen.
On a 3rd and 9 in the second half, the Eagles again turned to Gainwell on a swing route out of the backfield. He delivered once again with a 14-yard gain, splitting Queen and cornerback Joey Porter Jr. to force two misses, setting up another Eagles’ TD.
It wasn’t scheme, it wasn’t the Eagles just being better, it was all about execution in the tackling department. The Steelers were quite bad at it, as Mike Tomlin lamented after the game and on Monday in his press conference.
The Steelers didn’t execute in weighty moments. The play was right there to make for two key defensive pieces, and they both just missed. Queen has to get a better shot on Gainwell in space there, and Porter needs to squeeze down further and play off of Queen better.
Credit to Gainwell for splitting the pair and moving the chains on 3rd and 9. But the Steelers were just poor on this play.
Minkah Fitzpatrick had a miss in space on Sunday, too, missing against Eagles’ RB Saquon Barkley during his longest run of the day, which went for 22 yards.
It’s a great call by the Eagles, spreading the Steelers out and gashing them.
However, Fitzpatrick needs to be better coming downhill here to support the run. He’s playing deep on the play, so he has a lot of ground to cover, but he only comes down about 4 yards from where he was aligned pre-snap, giving Barkley quite the runway.
He then gets caught flat-footed and only gets a leg wrapped up of Barkley’s, which isn’t going to bring him to the ground. Barkley easily stepped through the tackle attempt and added another eight yards on the play, getting to the 5-yard line to set up an Eagles touchdown.
While the Steelers missed 20 tackles in the game, the offense and special teams did next to nothing in the forced missed tackles department. Against the Eagles, the Steelers forced just three missed tackles by the Eagles, losing the tackles battle by a franchise-worst -17, dropping to 11-3 on the season in the tackling battle within the games.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT EAGLES — 3
Cordarrelle Patterson – 2 (one on special teams)
Najee Harris – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 15 WEEKS (14 GAMES) — 163 (11.64 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 70
Jaylen Warren – 25
Justin Fields – 12
George Pickens – 11
Cordarrelle Patterson — 11 (one on special teams)
Calvin Austin III – 10 (eight on special teams)
Darnell Washington — 6
Pat Freiermuth — 6
Van Jefferson — 4
Russell Wilson — 3
Scotty Miller — 2
Aaron Shampklin — 2 (one on special teams)
Jonathan Ward — 1
MyCole Pruitt — 1
There’s not much to write home about here. The Eagles played very, very well in all three phases, tackling well, especially on defense, and suffocating the Steelers. The only real positive to take from here is that Cordarrelle Patterson looked a bit more explosive in the return game, recording returns of 33 and 31 yards in the loss.
