Six days after missing a season-high 20 tackles against the Philadelphia Eagles, which also marked the highest number of misses in a single game in my six years tracking it for Steelers Depot, the Pittsburgh Steelers turned right around and promptly had another horrendous showing.
In their 34-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers missed 16 tackles, giving them 36 misses across two games. Prior to the Week 15 showing against the Eagles, the Steelers had missed just 87 tackles in 13 games. They’re falling apart from a tackling perspective at the worst time of the year.
It’s an issue that head coach Mike Tomlin has lamented the last two weeks, but there’s not much practice time to truly work on it ahead of Christmas Day against the visiting Kansas City Chiefs.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT RAVENS — 16
Patrick Queen – 2
T.J. Watt – 2
Nick Herbig – 2 (one on special teams)
Keeanu Benton – 1
Beanie Bishop Jr. – 1
Cory Trice Jr. – 1
Payton Wilson – 1
James Pierre – 1
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
Damontae Kazee – 1
Montravius Adams – 1
Elandon Roberts – 1
Dean Lowry – 1
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 16 WEEKS (15 GAMES) — 123 (8.2 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 20 (117 tackles on 137 total attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 13 (missed sack, three on special teams) (20 tackles on 33 total attempts, 39.4% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 12 (34 tackles on 46total attempts, 26.1% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 11 (four on special teams) (64 tackles on 75 total attempts, 14.6% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 10 (41 tackles on 51 total attempts, 19.6% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 8 (64 tackles on 72 total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick — 7 (86 tackles on 93 total attempts, 7.5% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 7 (29 tackles on 36 total attempts, 19.4% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 7 (58 tackles on 65 total attempts, 10.8% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 5 (45 tackles on 50 total attempts, 10% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi — 4 (37 tackles on 41 total attempts, 9.8% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 4 (one on special teams) (16 tackles on 20 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Cameron Heyward — 4 (66 tackles on 70 total attempts, 5.7% miss rate)
Cameron Sutton — 3 (six tackles on nine total attempts, 33.3% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee — 2 (31 tackles on 33 total attempts, 6.1% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 2 (11 tackles on 13 total attempts, 15.4% miss rate)
Preston Smith — 2 (11 tackles on 13 total attempts, 15.4% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (34 tackles on 35 total attempts, 2.9% 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)
Dean Lowry — 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Cory Trice Jr. — 1 (seven tackles on eight total attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
James Pierre — 1 (22 tackles on 23 total attempts, 4.3% miss rate)
What a mess. There’s no other way around it right now.
Yes, the Steelers are banged up defensively and are missing key pieces in safety DeShon Elliott, cornerback Donte Jackson and defensive lineman Larry Ogunjobi, but that’s no real excuse for the tackling issues as a whole, especially with key guys like linebacker Patrick Queen, safety Minkah Fitzpatrick and outside linebacker T.J. Watt dotting the missed tackles report the last two weeks.
Ravens running back Derrick Henry had a historic day Saturday, his 162 rushing yards the most by a Ravens running back against the Steelers in franchise history. He did so by forcing 10 missed tackles on the ground and through the air.
Oftentimes, the Steelers were in good position, but they just didn’t make the play.
Here, reserve defensive lineman Dean Lowry plays the read-option well and is right there in the hole to attempt to stop Henry.
He’s too high, though, and doesn’t bring his feet with him, allowing Henry to easily step out of the tackle attempt. Queen tries to follow up for the stop, but he’s also too high and going for an arm tackle, one that Henry easily knocks aside.
This is also the play on which cornerback Joey Porter Jr. injured his leg. It was an awkward tackle attempt, but it shouldn’t have been needed had Lowry made the play at the line of scrimmage.
Once again, the Steelers have this played relatively well against Henry.
But a missed tackle from T.J. Watt allows Henry to get through the hole, and then from there things fall apart. Linebacker Payton Wilson goes for a bit of a ride and ultimately falls off, resulting in a miss. Safety Damontae Kazee comes downhill out of control and whiffs on Henry’s spin move.
Finally, it was linebacker Elandon Roberts and Fitzpatrick who missed in space on a Henry 11-yard catch in the third quarter, really illustrating some of the struggles in the tackling department.
Roberts does a good job of shooting downhill to get into the flat, but he’s out of control while closing in on Henry. That is largely due to his late reaction to Henry swinging into the flat.
Once there, he’s tossed aside by Henry, who then causes Fitzpatrick to miss in space after getting caught flat-footed. Fortunately, Fitzpatrick was able to get back into the play and help get Henry on the ground, but it was an ugly rep overall from the Black and Gold.
While the Steelers’ defense was a mess in the tackling department, the offense had some success forcing missed tackles. Against the Ravens, the Steelers forced 10 missed tackles. However, they lost the tackles battle by a mark of -6, falling to 11-4 on the season in the tackles battle.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT RAVENS — 10
Jaylen Warren – 7
Najee Harris – 3
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 16 WEEKS (15 GAMES) — 173 (11.53 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 73
Jaylen Warren – 32
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
Playing a majority of the running backs snaps against the Ravens, Jaylen Warren had quite a bit of success forcing missed tackles. Warren led the Steelers with seven forced missed tackles, doing so as a runner and out of the backfield as a receiver.
How this wasn’t a facemask penalty on the Ravens was rather shocking, and the defense of the non-call from FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira was rather hilarious. But it shows just how dynamic Warren is in space.
Later in the game, Warren ran hard between the tackles.
Good vision here to hit the cutback lane. Then he shows off his contact balance and strength by running through the initial tackle attempt from Ravens linebacker Malik Harrison, getting to the second level and forcing a host of Ravens to try bring him down.
While Warren had a strong day, so too did Najee Harris. Though he played just 17 snaps and got just nine touches, Harris was very effective.
This isn’t blocked all that well, but the run shows how Harris can create something out of nothing due to his strength as a runner.
He’s able to step through a Roquan Smith tackle attempt and then steps through Harrison’s tackle attempt, too. It went as just a 9-yard run, but it was in large part due to Harris’ ability to fight through contact and create.
