Against Texans, Steelers rush defense wants to replicate Week 1 wall
The Steelers unleashed an all-out assault on the New York Giants’ running game in Week 1. They attacked the line of scrimmage with seven and eight men at a time.
They charged upfield and crashed in from the edges. And it worked.
New York left with a 26-16 loss and a meager 29 rushing yards. Pro Bowl running back Saquon Barkley totaled just 6 yards on the ground.
The results in Week 2 against the Denver Broncos weren’t as overwhelming. The Steelers still won 26-21. And it’s not as though Denver ran wild. But the Broncos were better on the ground, finishing with 104 yards rushing and 4.0 yards per carry.
The Broncos were able to create occasional creases in the Steelers defensive line that the Giants could not.
“It’s about being fundamentally sound, staying in our gaps or coming off (blocks) and making tackles,” said defensive lineman Tyson Alualu.
Defensive coordinator Keith Butler’s players weren’t quite as aggressive quite as often in Week 2. When they were, at times, Denver used that aggressiveness against them.
“We weren’t as sound as we needed to be,” defensive end Cameron Heyward said. “There were a couple of times where, I think, if we had stayed in our gaps and got off the field, they would’ve abandoned the run.”
Butler credited Broncos offensive line coach — and former Steelers assistant — Mike Munchak for coming up with effective blocking schemes that got the Steelers out of position.
“They had a couple of wind backs on us,” Butler explained Thursday. “(Denver) started one way and then came back the other way. We didn’t do a good job of following back in those circumstances.
“(Munchak) knows our front pretty well. (He) did a great job. We had to try to straighten things out, which I think we did.”
Should the Steelers expect to see a like-minded philosophy Sunday from the Houston Texans? Butler’s tape study yielded at least one trait he wants his players to recognize.
“Sometimes they (run) what we call ‘wraps,’” Butler said. “Wraps are basically a tight end in the backfield on the end of the line of scrimmage, and he comes back to create another block on the backside. They do that quite a bit.”
Butler also wants his players to be ready for lots of jet motion.
“Jet motion to us is fast running motion that goes across the formation. They try to confuse you a little bit with that and (bring) the tight end back, too. It makes people go back with those guys because you have to match the number count when they do that,” Butler said.
Whatever the Texans have been trying to do on the ground, it hasn’t been effective very often. At 84 rushing yards per game, only the Giants and New York Jets rank worse in the NFL. And only the Giants (38) have attempted fewer total rushes than the Texans (39).
That’s partially because the Texans have been chasing the scoreboard so much over the first two weeks against the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens — the two overwhelming favorites to meet in the AFC Championship game.
Houston closed the first quarter of their opener against the Chiefs with a 7-0 advantage. Since Kansas City tied the game early in the second quarter, the Texans haven’t held a lead over those last seven quarters.
Running back David Johnson was the primary return from the Arizona Cardinals in an offseason trade of star receiver DeAndre Hopkins. In Week 1, Johnson had 77 yards on 11 carries. He got 11 carries again in Week 2, but he netted just 34 yards. And according to The Athletic’s Aaron Reiss, none of those attempts came against an eight-man box.
That’s encouraging for the Steelers. If they can handle the Texans’ rush attack without overcommitting, that’ll make life more difficult on Deshaun Watson and the Texans receivers. And even without Hopkins, Houston’s passing game appears to be a more troublesome concern.
Matt Thomas of SportsTalk 790 in Houston joins me for Friday’s podcast. We talk about that angle and also get into the fallout from the Hopkins trade, J.J. Watt’s performance over the first two weeks and how Steelers fans should interpret Houston’s 0-2 start.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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