It wasn’t pretty, but the Pittsburgh Steelers found a way to win an important football game on the road Sunday. They defeated the New York Jets 34-32 in the season opener.
Aaron Rodgers threw for four touchdowns, carrying the team on a day the highest-paid defense in the NFL had no answers for the Jets’ run game. With some of those struggles against the run came missed tackles.
Fortunately, it wasn’t all that bad for the Steelers in the tackling department for a season-opening matchup. Last season against the Atlanta Falcons in the season opener, the Steelers missed 7 tackles in an 18-10 win.
Let’s check out this week’s missed tackles report here at Steelers Depot.
TOTAL MISSED TACKLES AT JETS — 9
Yahya Black – 2 (one on missed sack) (two tackles on four total attempts, 50% miss rate)
Darius Slay – 2 (five tackles on seven total attempts, 28.5% miss rate)
Payton Wilson – 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Alex Highsmith – 1 (eight tackles on nine total attempts, 11.1% miss rate)
T.J. Watt – 1 (five tackles on six total attempts, 16.6% miss rate)
Ben Skowronek – 1 (special teams) (one tackle on two total attempts, 50% miss rate)
Miles Killebrew – 1 (special teams) (one tackle on two total attempts, 50% miss rate)
It wasn’t good, and it wasn’t all that bad when it came to tackling Sunday in New Jersey.
The Steelers, for the most part, did a good job of getting guys on the ground at the tackle point. But there were some ugly reps.
Take, for instance, veteran cornerback Darius Slay in the first quarter.
Slay knifes into the backfield quickly to nearly meet Breece Hall at the handoff from Justin Fields. He’s in good position and breaks down at the tackle point, but he isn’t able to finish the rep.
From there, it becomes a fire drill with multiple players trying to tackle Hall in the backfield for a loss. He was able to wiggle out of it for a 3-yard gain, turning what should have been a loss of 4-5 yards into a gain of three. That’s a good 7-8 yard swing for the Jets.
A few plays later, Justin Fields hit Garrett Wilson for a 33-yard touchdown, burning Slay in coverage.
Late in the first half, rookie Yahya Black put some heat on Fields in the pocket — one of his two pressures on the day — but was unable to finish the rep for his first career sack.
Black gets a bit fortunate that Jets guard John Simpson tuns his attention away, thinking he pushed Black off-balance and up the field. That allows Black to recover and get back inside. He just doesn’t finish the rep.
He’s right there, suggesting he must finish these plays moving forward. Ultimately, the missed sack led to a big hit on Fields from Jalen Ramsey. This then led to a 15-yard penalty on Simpson, all but ending the first half.
The other miss I wanted to highlight was the 40-yard kickoff return by Xavier Gipson in the first half. Wide receiver Ben Skowronek, who had a great game with a 22-yard touchdown and a key fumble recovery in the fourth quarter, was charged with the miss.
That’s a tough play to charge him with a miss for, but that’s what happened.
He’s unblocked, and as a special teams ace that’s a play he must make. Grasping at air but coming up short costed the Steelers, as Gipson hit a seam and should have taken this to the house. He tripped on his own blocker, a fortunate break for the Steelers.
Hopefully, special teams cleans things up for Week 2.
There was some sloppiness from the defense in the tackling department, but the Steelers did well forcing missed tackles on offense and special teams. Pittsburgh forced 11 missed tackles against the Jets, meaning they won the all-important tackling battle by a mark of +2, improving to 1-0 in the game within the game on the season.
TOTAL FORCED MISSED TACKLES AT JETS — 11
Jaylen Warren – 3
Kaleb Johnson – 3 (two on special teams)
Kenneth Gainwell – 2
Jonnu Smith – 2
DK Metcalf – 1
As the new star receiver in Pittsburgh, it was great to see DK Metcalf create plays after catching the ball. He had the lowest average yards per target of his career Sunday at just 3.2 yards. It was dangerous after the catch, racking up 67 yards after the catch.
On a 3rd-and-10 on the first drive of the game, the Steelers needed a big play, especially after the Jets ran right down the field defensively. Rodgers targeted Metcalf on a quick hitter, and he did the rest.
What makes this play difficult is that Metcalf wasn’t able to catch it in stride. Instead he has to turn around and slow his momentum, gathering himself. In the process, he freezes Jets safety Tony Adams and sets him up to turn the corner on him. This resulted in a big 23-yard catch-and-run to move the chains.
