The Pittsburgh Steelers host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night, and many of the headlines have predictably circled around Aaron Rodgers facing his former team. However, another avenue that’s crucial to a Steelers win this week is their ability to stop the run. That’s going to be difficult against Josh Jacobs, whom Pro Football Focus’ Dalton Wasserman expects to have a big day.
“The Steelers’ run defense has been very inconsistent this year,” Wasserman said on the PFF NFL Show. “It was not good at all against Cincinnati last Thursday. If the Packers can keep themselves in good down-and-distance situations and not just let the Steelers’ pass rush pin their ears back, they’re at a huge advantage in this game. Josh Jacobs, and the ability for the Packers at times to control the pace of the game, instead of getting in this shootout where the Steelers’ pass rush is teeing off on them, that makes a big difference.”
Inconsistent certainly isn’t the worst way to describe the Steelers’ run defense through six games. They really struggled to stop the run to begin the year and were just getting thrashed to start the season. Then, in their wins against New England, Minnesota and Cleveland, it looked like the unit was making solid progress.
Unfortunately, that all went into the gutter against the Bengals. A team the Steelers should have easily been able to stop ran for 142 yards on 6.1 per carry. It was a disastrous performance, and the task doesn’t get any easier against Josh Jacobs this week.
Jacobs isn’t blowing anything out of the water this year, but he has been consistent. He hasn’t been extremely efficient, picking up just 3.7 yards per carry. However, his 111 touches show that he’s going to be getting the ball no matter what, and he’s turned them into 414 yards. Jacobs is running well and did lead the league in rushing a few years ago, so he’s no stranger to finding chunk yards on the ground. He’s also got eight touchdowns on the season already, so he’s no stranger to the end zone either.
It’s a tall task for the Steelers, and an area where they must improve this week. The Packers are usually able to keep Jordan Love upright. He’s been sacked once in each of the past three weeks. If the Packers establish a ground game against the Steelers early, that only makes the rest of their offense more comfortable. Whether the Steelers can stop the run or not will go a long way toward deciding the winner Sunday night at Acrisure Stadium.
