Film Room: How Bare Minimum Won for Steelers Offense
After what was probably the most frustrating offensive display to occur in what amounted to a win last week, Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Matt Canada finally was able to use the bare minimum of what it takes to become a functional offense in the NFL.
What is frustrating is much of this only really occurred on one offensive drive in the third quarter. So to better understand why that drive worked so well, it's imperative to break it down play by play.
Utilizing Play Action From Under Center
Last week it was very apparent watching the play calling that the Steelers would've benefited immensely from utilizing more play action to help bring up the linebackers. The offense the past few weeks had often been running into crowded boxes, which was making it hell for the run game to get going.
If there is anything to be learned about watching good offenses, play action does not need to be set up. The threat itself is often enough to get these defenders to come up and vacate the middle of the field zone, which gives easy throwing windows for the quarterback.
Canada utilized play action off the jump from this drive from under center, which left a huge throwing window to put it on Pickens and let him generate yards after the catch. This makes it extremely easy on Pickett because not only did both the linebackers come up on this, but so does the strong safety. This is going to set up the rest of the drive.
Good Play Sequencing
How do you build off a good first play? You don't try to outsmart yourselves and that's what the offense did.
The offense had been running a ton of inside zone in this game up to this point, which had some mixed success here and there. To follow up the play action, the pass has now effectively set up the run, so running a misdirection toss right to get Jaylen Warren one on one with the defensive back here is a great way to generate good yards.
Two successful plays in a row utilizing fakes and misdirection that build off the tendencies from earlier in the game, now the defense has no clue what to expect.
Successful play action and misdirection followed up with a mixture of the two as they play fake to Warren to what looks to be setting up the reverse to Calvin Austin, but they fake that action as well. With Allen Robinson running up the seam, they're able to clear the middle of the field which sets up an easy screen to Warren to make plays in space.
This is how you build off previous play success, by implementing elements of what worked prior and utilizing it as a smoke screen. When you aren't able to just impose your will at the line of scrimmage, you have to get creative and build off your tendencies to create a sustainable offense.
This builds confidence, not just for the skill players but the quarterback as well to trust what he is seeing in front of him.
Pre snap, the Raiders are showing a two high shell and with the outside corners playing with about ten to eight yards of cushion. It would be an appropriate assumption to believe the Raiders are in quarters defense here, which essentially turns into man-to-man.
Robinson is running the short crosser towards Spillane, so he has to watch the flat there. Pickett's eyes are googly eye staring it down which if Spillane wasn't moved before he sure is now. All Pat Freiermuth has to do is drift away from the middle linebacker's leverage into space where the throwing window becomes wider.
Pickett is actually late on this throw, but still hits the window as the linebacker, Divine Deablo, is late to adjust to Pickett's eyes here. It was considered a "get right week" for a reason, as the Raiders' defense would never be confused to be among the best, nor the most disciplined. Take advantage of it when you can.
If there was a complaint to be made about the Steelers run game in the first two weeks of the season, it was the amount of outside and wide zone the offense was running, which the line could not execute properly. They mostly got away from that this week and stayed committed to inside zone and some gap scheme runs.
Gap scheme runs like duo are often confused for inside zone because both involve double teams at the first level depending on the defensive alignment. During the broadcast, Chris Collinsworth was often referring to inside zone as duo, a common misconception. Duo is typically run from the strongside of the formation, which would have been the right side.
This is inside zone and the guard here Isaac Seumalo is responsible for the second level defender. So typically when it's duo the guard will run through the defensive tackle, as opposed to going around like Seumalo does here. This effective run set up by the pass sets up the inevitable touchdown.
Once again, the offense utilizing play action from under center to it's full extent. Robinson short motions over pre snap, which gives Pickett a very clear indicator the defense is in man coverage. He knows he's going to have Freiermuth one on one with a linebacker. Because of the threat of play action itself, the linebacker respects it just enough to set up a wide open touchdown.
This is decent play design here on a half field read with Robinson becoming the low read on this boot action, but it's all key on Darnell Washington being able to maintain his block and give Pickett enough time to find his open man.
This was the Steelers best offensive drive of the season and it was not even close.
The Bare Minimum
What happened in Week 3, particularly on this third quarter drive, could only be called the basic bare minimum of a successful offense. If you look around the league it does not take long to see what successful offenses do. The Vikings are among the best offensive teams in the league, with Kirk Cousins placing among the top ranked play action passers in the game as he is 30/41 for 284 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions, according to PFF.
The Vikings are second to last in rushing yards on the season right now, with Pittsburgh just barely in front of them by three yards, yet they're first in the league in play action pass attempts. The Steelers are 26th right now with 16 passing attempts off play action, despite the fact Pickett has 10th highest grade off play action in the league.
The threat of the action itself is enough to open up windows in the passing game and the fact that Canada has taken this long to start using it is mind-numbingly infuriating. With his concepts still lacking much in the way of creativity on intermediate passing concepts and not knowing how to utilize all his weapons, it's no wonder it took a game against some of the worst defenses in the league to look somewhat functional.
If the Steelers want to contend with the bigger teams in the AFC, they have to do more than just the bare minimum, but at least the minimum is a start in the right direction.
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