Game of the Week: Steelers receivers will cause unique problems for Bengals
The Pittsburgh Steelers' offense has been a revelation in the past month, averaging 36 points per game over its past four contests. For preseason prognosticators, this is hardly surprising. Much was expected of this offense, but those expectations preceded the loss of stud running back Le'Veon Bell.
That this team has been every bit as capable of lighting up the scoreboard without Bell is one of the sneaky-big upsets of the 2015 season.
If there's one team in the NFL that's unlikely to be impressed by this late-season development, it's the Cincinnati Bengals, who host the Steelers this Sunday. On Nov. 1, Cincy held the Steelers to their worst offensive performance of the season, a paltry 10-point outing at Heinz Field. This game included essentially all the same Pittsburgh skill position players who've fueled this recent offensive explosion.
Sunday in Cincinnati, something's got to give.
THE THREE AMIGOS
Ben Roethlisberger is one of the best in the game, so it's really no shocker to see the offense make this turn under his direction. What has been surprising is the rise of complimentary players on the Steelers offense who've rapidly developed into dangerous individual matchups worthy of their own game plan attention.
The football world knows well the myriad ways Antonio Brown can challenge a defense — and special teams, for that matter. The new complication in preparing for this Steelers crew is that sidekick wide receivers Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton have emerged as legitimate candidates to hang ridiculous numbers on the stat sheet as well.
In the Steelers' past four games, there have been six 100-yard receiving performances. Brown, as you'd expect, has three of them with 284, 139 and 118 yards respectively. But Bryant had two monster games during that stretch himself (178 and 114 yards).
The most surprising development was Wheaton delivering the second biggest day during this stretch, an eye-popping 201 yards from a guy who typically plays a minor role in the offense.
This means defenses can't just push coverage exclusively to one guy or the other. You have to figure out a way to defend all three. The Bengals have done so in the recent past, but Sunday will be a test of growth.
FORCING A BROWN OUT
Brown appears all over the Steelers' offensive formations, in all areas of the field, and runs just about every known route on earth. There is no magic pixie dust to slow him down.
He's used to seeing double teams or help defenders in the routes he runs, so simply giving him the attention of two guys is far from the end of the story.
The key with Brown is preventing the big play, and a significant part of that is playing intelligently in the double team. Having two defenders marking him is only the first half of the equation. Using the proper leverage in the double and not making mistakes to sacrifice the advantage is the most important part.
The following slide illustrates this point. Brown is extended to the bottom of the formation with a cornerback in his face with outside leverage. There's also a deep safety eyeing his up-field progress, positioned deep and to the inside. By design, any route by Brown deep and to the inside should be covered up the safety, and any route to the outside should be manageable for the cornerback (see below).
Brown smartly takes his route up the field and towards the safety, appearing to threaten a deeper inside route. He makes a slick move at the top of his route that fools the cornerback into surrendering his outside leverage and trying to undercut the route. This allows Brown to return to the outside where the cornerback should've been — and where the safety can't possibly get to before the throw.
Brown's speed, quickness and play-making skill get tons of recognition, but it's his savvy here that really makes the play. He's being doubled, but he's able to peel away the help element halfway through the route and score a huge catch.
The key for Bengals defenders is to use the leverage that the coverage calls for and don't ever surrender it. Brown will make some catches — that's a near certainty. But the biggest of these come from breaks in the integrity of the coverage.
CAN'T CONTAIN HIM
Bryant is the physical marvel of the group, a 6-foot-4, lanky wideout with speed and body control usually found in much smaller players. The knock on Bryant was always his "rawness," but he's been developing his own game rapidly. There was a time when you could count on a single-shot play or go-route each game from Bryant that would be highlight-worthy, but not much else.
He's become more refined in his intermediate game to the point where he can be a high-catch number guy as well on any given week.
That said, the biggest issue here is very similar to the approach with Brown — you have to do everything in your power as a defense to keep Bryant in front of you and not surrender the field-flipping big play.
In the slide below, you can see the rare talent that Bryant possess, as well as a pretty solid primer on how trying to match his athleticism (instead of using better technique) is usually going to be a losing approach. A defensive back who's gotten his hips even with a receiver has the dominant position, meaning he's "in phase" and now able to look back for the football and find the ball. The error below is not turning while in dominant position and just trying to beat Bryant on the jump.
Turning and looking for the ball when not in phase is something no defensive back should ever do. But when in phase against Bryant on deep balls, he's just too long and quick to elevate to rely upon your own reactive skills to win.
Bryant must be played with great discipline and technique or you can almost certainly expect one or more of his back-breaking plays a game.
WHEATON FROM THE CHAFF
Defenses that have faced the Steelers in the past month are clearly aware of the challenge that Brown and Bryant present with Big Ben in the game. Wheaton flexing his own refined skills when drawing one-on-one situations has been an enlightenment moment for this offense.
Wheaton isn't as fast as Brown, or as physically gifted as Bryant, but he's still explosive and able to take advantage of space when defenses make coverage decisions towards either of the two other presumptive receiving stars.
The slide below shows one of these examples, where double (or deep help) situations arise for Brown and Bryant and Wheaton gets to make toast of a much more spacious middle of the field with a double-move (below).
There are enough instances throughout Steelers games in recent weeks where any one of these three will draw single coverage. The key for the Steelers has been finding and exploiting the best matchup of the three on any given play. The Bengals chances of slowing this resurgent Steelers offense lies with winning that one-on-one matchup from down-to-down, and playing disciplined within the double teams.
The Steelers live and die off the big play, lying and waiting for cracks to take advantage of with their talented trio. The Bengals know how to slow this group, but they've got stay committed to a certain approach to make lightning strike once again.
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Matt Chatham played for the Patriots and Jets over nine seasons in the NFL, winning three Super Bowls. He is also the founder of footballbyfootball.com. You can follow him on Twitter
