While the Pittsburgh Steelers hit a bit of a bump in the road in December in the tackling department, missing 36 tackles over two games, their defense finished the season strong in that category. In the process, the Steelers also cleaned up the communication issues in Week 18, turning in a solid performance against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Though Pittsburgh came up short, there are some positives to take away from the loss, particularly on defense. The Steelers held the Bengals to just 19 points, forced two turnovers (one on special teams) and tackled very well.
In the 19-17 loss Saturday night, the Steelers missed just four tackles, marking the second straight game the Black and Gold had just four misses. Of those four misses, just two occurred on defense.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES VS. BENGALS — 4
Patrick Queen – 1
Minkah Fitzpatrick – 1
Ben Skowronek – 1 (special teams)
Miles Killebrew – 1 (special teams)
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 18 WEEKS (17 GAMES) — 131 (7.7 PER GAME)
Patrick Queen – 21 (129 tackles on 150 total attempts, 14% miss rate)
Nick Herbig — 13 (missed sack, three on special teams) (22 tackles on 35 total attempts, 37.1% miss rate)
Donte Jackson — 12 (38 tackles on 50 total attempts, 24% miss rate)
Payton Wilson — 12 (four on special teams) (78 tackles on 90 total attempts, 13.3% miss rate)
Elandon Roberts – 10 (46 tackles on 56 total attempts, 17.9% miss rate)
Minkah Fitzpatrick — 9 (96 tackles on 105 total attempts, 8.6% miss rate)
Joey Porter Jr. – 8 (70 tackles on 78 total attempts, 10.3% miss rate)
Keeanu Benton — 7 (36 tackles on 43 total attempts, 16.3% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 7 (61 tackles on 68 total attempts, 10.3% miss rate)
Beanie Bishop Jr. — 5 (45 tackles on 50 total attempts, 10% miss rate)
Larry Ogunjobi — 4 (41 tackles on 45 total attempts, 8.8% miss rate)
Isaiahh Loudermilk — 4 (one on special teams) (17 tackles on 21 total attempts, 19.1% miss rate)
Cameron Heyward — 4 (71 tackles on 75 total attempts, 5.3% miss rate)
Cameron Sutton — 3 (15 tackles on 18 total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Ben Skowronek — 2 (special teams) (seven tackles on nine total attempts, 22.2% miss rate)
Damontae Kazee — 2 (31 tackles on 33 total attempts, 6.1% miss rate)
Montravius Adams — 2 (14 tackles on 16 total attempts, 12.5% miss rate)
Preston Smith — 2 (13 tackles on 15 total attempts, 13.3% miss rate)
Connor Heyward — 2 (special teams) (eight tackles on 10 total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith — 1 (missed sack) (45 tackles on 46 total attempts, 2.2% miss rate)
DeShon Elliott — 1 (108 tackles on 109 total attempts, 0.9% miss rate)
Tyler Matakevich — 1 (special teams) (four tackles on five total attempts, 20% miss rate)
Dean Lowry — 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Cory Trice Jr. — 1 (21 tackles on 22 total attempts, 4.5% miss rate)
James Pierre — 1 (23 tackles on 24 total attempts, 4.2% miss rate)
Mark Robinson — 1 (special teams)(six tackles on seven total attempts, 14.3% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew — 1 (special teams) (13 tackles on 14 total attempts, 7.1% miss rate)
A nice, clean night for the Steelers in the tackling department when they were on the field for 71 plays defensively and nearly 40 minutes.
The misses from linebacker Patrick Queen and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick weren’t all that egregious, either, as they only resulted in limited yards gained by the Bengals in the process.
Before we dive into highlighting the missed tackles, I wanted to give a shoutout to veteran safety DeShon Elliott for his work in the tackling department on the year. After signing a two-year deal with the Steelers in free agency last March, Elliott proceeded to step right into the defense and be its best tackler.
On the season, Elliott had just one missed tackle in 109 attempts. He finished with 108 tackles and had a missed tackles rate of just 0.9%, marking the lowest single-season missed tackles rate in the six years I’ve tracked the statistic here at Steelers Depot.
What a player.
Onto the missed tackles in the loss to the Bengals.
On a short checkdown to running back Khalil Herbert, Queen missed his 21st tackle of the season.
Queen was in great position at the catch point, but he went too high, slipping right over the top of Herbert. These types of misses were common with Queen this season. He’d go too high and wasn’t strong enough to wrangle the ball carrier to the ground.
It’s all about technique in these instances, and at times Queen’s deteriorates quickly, leading to misses like this one. Fortunately, defensive tackle Montravius Adams was able to rally and get Herbert on the ground after a short gain, limiting the damage from Queen’s miss.
Then, there’s Fitzpatrick’s miss on Bengals TE Tanner Hudson on a broken play.
The Steelers do a really nice job getting pressure on Joe Burrow here, causing the play to break down immediately. I didn’t give Queen a miss here on Burrow in the pocket because he’s still engaged with TE Drew Sample.
Hudson does a nice job of leaking out on the play and Burrow is fantastic in the pocket. Keeping his eyes downfield, he is able to flip the ball to Hudson. Fitzpatrick reads it well, but he comes downhill out of control and takes a bad angle, allowing Hudson to slip right by him.
Rookie linebacker Payton Wilson chased down Hudson and limited him to just an 11-yard gain, but it was a tough miss from Fitzpatrick in space.
Finally, on a kickoff, the Steelers missed two tackles on Isaiah Williams’ 39-yard return, and the two misses came from special teams standouts Miles Killebrew and Ben Skowronek.
Skowronek has good hustle to the play, but he isn’t able to finish it with a tackle. At the same time, Killebrew overshoots and slips off Williams, allowing the Bengals’ return man to get into space.
It was a sign of things to come from the coverage team. Williams later had a 43-yard return, setting up the Bengals in great field position after a Steelers field goal.
While the Steelers’ defense tackled well, the offense didn’t do much of anything from a forced missed tackles perspective. The Steelers’ offense and special teams forced just four missed tackles, meaning the all-important tackle battle within the game ended in a tie, moving the Steelers’ season record to 12-4-1 on the season.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES VS. BENGALS — 4
Najee Harris – 2
Jaylen Warren – 1
Cordarrelle Patterson – 1
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES THROUGH 18 WEEKS (17 GAMES) — 185 (10.88 PER GAME)
Najee Harris – 76
Jaylen Warren – 40
Justin Fields – 12
George Pickens – 11
Cordarrelle Patterson — 12 (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
In what could have been likely his final game at Acrisure Stadium as a Steeler, RB Najee Harris had a solid night, even if his usage was limited after a strong start.
Harris finished with just 36 yards and a touchdown on the ground on 12 carries, with 34 yards and the score coming on eight carries on the second drive of the game. After that, his workload was limited. Harris added 20 receiving yards on four receptions, and on a 12-yard catch and run, Harris forced two missed tackles, giving him 76 forced missed tackles this season.
Heck of an effort here from Harris with the Steelers down 19-7 midway through the fourth quarter.
Things didn’t go well at all for the Steelers’ offense on the night, but Harris never quit and fought his tail off for every blade of grass.
This summed up his Steelers tenure well, if this is it. Shake off a defender rather quickly once he has the football in his hands, find himself surrounded by a number of defenders, and having a never-say-die attitude, making a defender miss and finishing the run with force.
He took an ugly head-to-head hit from Bengals LB Germaine Pratt, too, which caused him to exit the game before returning. It should have been a penalty on Pratt. Hopefully Harris shows now worse for the wear this week leading up to the playoff matchup against the Ravens.
