Friday Football Footnotes: Falcons' Cordarrelle Patterson to test Steelers’ shaky kick coverage

Atlanta Falcons return specialist (and second-leading rusher) Cordarrelle Patterson returned to practice Thursday. He was given a rest day Wednesday.

That’s unfortunate news for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A rested Patterson sounds like a nightmare scenario for Danny Smith’s special teams unit.

The 31-year-old recorded his NFL-record ninth kickoff return touchdown on Nov. 20 against the Chicago Bears.

A NEW NFL RECORD FOR @ceeflashpee84

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— Atlanta Falcons (@AtlantaFalcons) November 20, 2022

He’s the last returner Steelers fans should want to see with Matthew Wright’s kickoff leg on the field and a coverage unit that allowed 45 yards per return on five attempts for the Indianapolis Colts last week. Dallis Flowers almost took one all the way to the house to open the second half before Connor Heyward tracked him down 89 yards into his return.

Dallis Flowers kicks off the second half with an 89-yard return.

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— Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) November 29, 2022

“What a dynamic return man he is,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Patterson. “The field-position component of play, his resume, what he has been, man, (he) needs no endorsement from me. It’s just been nothing short of special. … We’ve got to minimize his impact on the game, and that’s no easy task.”

Opposing teams have allowed Patterson to return only eight kicks. But he’s averaging 33.5 yards per return when he gets the chance. That’d lead the league if he qualified. Minnesota Vikings running back Kene Nwangwu is on top of the NFL with a 25.8 average over 24 attempts.

Praying that Wright can get a few touchbacks may be the Steelers’ best strategy to contain Patterson, because their kick coverage unit was truly a mess last week. In part, that could be blamed on a series of injuries that directly impacted that aspect of the team. Miles Boykin, Jaylen Warren and Robert Spillane were all out. They are all special teams contributors.

Also, whether it’s the depth of his kicks, the hangtime or both, Wright has allowed 509 return yards this year. That’s the sixth most in the NFL, and he has kicked in just five games.

But Heyward refuses to put it all on the kicker.

“We can all do a better job coming off our blocks winning one-on-ones,” Heyward said. “They schemed us out pretty well on some of the returns. But all of them were on us as a kickoff unit.”

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In terms of what the Colts did schematically, Heyward said the Steelers used those bad returns as teaching tape so the Falcons don’t exploit the same deficiencies.

“Showing us boundary returns, and bringing it right up the middle,” Heyward said. “But we worked on our technique and how we are going to play on the backside and how the guys on the frontside can win a little bit more. Everybody doing their job.”

Tomlin said even if the Steelers are able to contain Patterson in the return game, they need to worry about him on offense too. His 506 rushing yards are behind only Tyler Allgeier’s 552 for the team lead, and he’s only played in eight games. Patterson also has 11 catches for 65 yards.

“The things that he’s able to do on offense as well, to watch those talents evolve over the last decade and be the dynamic playmaker that he has been as a wide receiver, as a running back — a starter-capable runner — as a dynamic return man, I’ve just got a lot of respect for him,” Tomlin said.

One piece of good news for the Steelers when it comes to keeping Patterson in check is that the club’s rush defense has evolved nicely as this season has gone along.

After allowing an NFL-worst 146.1 yards per game on the ground in 2021, the Steelers allowed 142.6 over the first three games of this season.

So it looked like 2022 was going to be much more of the same when it came to stopping opposing rush attacks. But since then, the rush defense has been quite good. The Steelers are now seventh in the NFL in rush defense at 104 yards per game.

And it better be good Sunday. Only the Bears (430 attempts) have run the ball more often than the Falcons (390 attempts). And only three teams — Chicago (192.0), Baltimore (162.7) and Philadelphia (162.5) — have a better rushing yards per game average than the Falcons (160.0).

Winning back-to-back games has been a tricky formula for the Steelers to figure out this year. They are 11 games into the season, and they haven’t done that yet. An integral part of solving the riddle this week will be limiting Patterson’s influence on the game.

On both offense and special teams.

Andrew Catalon is calling the Steelers game on CBS Sunday in Atlanta. He joined Tim Benz for Friday’s Breakfast With Benz podcast.

Listen: Tim Benz and Andrew Catalon talk Steelers