5 Things to Watch: Steelers vs Eagles
The Pittsburgh Steelers are feeling a little bit desperate, now saddled with a 2-5 record.
Things don't get much easier in Week 8 as they'll have to travel to Philadephia to take on the undefeated Eagles, who currently hold the number one seed in the NFC.
With the bye week looming, you cannot understate the importance of winning this one in order to maintain some hope for an ensuing playoff run.
An Offense Built For Jalen Hurts
Second-year head coach Nick Sirianni has done an excellent job developing an offense built to maximize the strengths of his quarterback Jalen Hurts. Hurts has running back capabilities thanks to his strong lower half and is able to absorb a lot of volume as a ball carrier.
Through the first six games of the season, Sirianni has dialed up 33 designed quarterback runs, second most in the NFL among QBs, which have amounted to 134 yards and three touchdowns.
The Eagles will dial up counters and power run plays with a pulling lineman in order to spring him loose and take advantage of his elite athleticism.
The Philadelphia offense is built to win in the trenches, with a top-three offensive line with multiple stars like Lane Johnson and Jason Kelce. The Eagles running game revolves around not just using Hurts as a runner but also as a decoy to hold defenders from pursuit. They're a spread, shotgun-based offense that wants to establish the ground game early and often.
Hurts operates almost exclusively out of the shotgun, similar to how he did in college at Oklahoma, and the Eagles' 42% run usage rate out of the shotgun ranks second in the NFL according to Sports Info Solutions.
Will T.J. Watt Play and If So, How Much?
T.J. Watt practiced all week after the Steelers activated his 21-day practice window from injured reserve. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year gave Steelers fans hope by telling the media that he wasn't ruling out a return on Sunday against the Eagles.
With Watt sidelined since the season opener due to a pec injury, it would be rather surprising if he was able to go full tilt this weekend but even on a pitch count, Watt can cause enough havoc to wreck an offensive gameplan. The Steelers technically have until 4 P.M. eastern time on Saturday to activate him to the 53-man roster.
Philadephia has one of the best right tackles in the league in Lane Johnson who is making his way back from a concussion. Johnson is a smooth athlete in his own right, capable of quickly exploding out of his stance and switching up his pass sets which will provide for some interesting competition between the two on Sunday. With Watt sidelined for basically the entire season to date, the Steelers' pass rush has been rendered helpless and virtually nonexistent.
Entering Week 8, Pittsburgh ranks 30th in pressure percentage and 27th in sack percentage, according to Sports Info Solutions. There are just not enough characters to accurately describe his impact on this defense.
Third Down Offense
The Steelers offense sputtered on third downs last week in primetime against the Miami Dolphins. Despite being depleted in the secondary, Miami lined up in man coverage seven times, holding Pittsburgh's offense to a 4-14 conversion rate. It just so happens that Philadelphia also specializes in man coverage, thanks largely to their talented cornerback duo of Darius Slay and James Bradberry.
Through the first six games, the tandem has combined to total five interceptions with only one touchdown allowed.
In his first start under the lights, Kenny Pickett converted three of his ten pass attempts for first downs on third down to go along with one head-scratching interception. The good news is that the Eagles have had an awfully tough time getting off the field this year on third downs, allowing opponents to convert 44.6% of their chances, which ranks 29th in the league.
Matt Canada and Pickett will need to be ready for those man coverage looks on money downs that they struggled with a week ago, in order to exploit this weakness.
Philadelphia's Also Adding A Pass Rusher
Howie Roseman has been known to be aggressive in the trade market and just months after acquiring star receiver A.J. Brown, he was able to strike a deal for Robert Quinn.
The former first-round pick, now 32 years old is having a bit of a down year compared to last season when he boasted 18.5 sacks for a Chicago defense that didn't have much else going for them at the time. Quinn only registered one sack during the first seven games in Chicago but there were still flashes on tape of his elite bend and ability to freakishly win the short corner against opposing tackles.
Now Eagles' defensive coordinator has a plethora of pass-rushing weapons at his disposal, adding Quinn to an already talented defensive front that features Brandon Graham, Hasson Reddick, Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave. With so much depth, they're now going to be able to keep their rushers' snap counts lower, and in turn have their specialists fresher late in ball games.
Graham, Reddick and Quinn offer three vastly different but unique skill sets which will be tough for the Steelers' offensive tackles to game plan for. While Quinn will likely also be on a pitch count this week, don't be fooled by the slow start to the season because he can still fly off the ball and bend at a high level.
A.J. Brown is a Low Volume but High Impact Player
A.J. Brown is no stranger to playing in a run-oriented offense after spending the first portion of his career playing for the Tennessee Titans in an offense featured around Derrick Henry.
Many thought that the Eagles' acquisition of Brown would lead them to throw the football more but so far this season, that has not been the case. That's not without reason and Brown is still making an impact, just with fewer opportunities than most number-one receivers around the league.
Among receivers, Brown is tied for fourth in the NFL with 2.9 yards per route run.
Brown has a stocky build with a thick lower half and is extremely dangerous when he gets the football in his hands. Particularly lethal in the middle of the field on slants and crossers, he's a load to bring down thanks to how strong he is. Despite never being a high-volume player, he was able to haul in 24 touchdown passes in the first three seasons of his career but with just two so far this season.
Coming off a couple of fairly quiet games headed into the bye week, it's possible they'll want to get him involved in this one early especially to test the health of the Steelers cornerbacks who have been dealing with injuries in the past month.
Back in 2020, Brown torched the Steelers with a 73-yard catch and run touchdown and it'd be wise to prevent that from happening again this week.
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