Steelers vs. Vikings Week 14 film study: Brutal 1st half too much for Steelers to overcome
NFL football analyst Matt Williamson will break down each of the Steelers games this season in the Trib’s Steelers Film Study. Here’s what he saw in the Steelers’ Week 14 loss to the Vikings.
In a pivotal Thursday night game for both conference playoff races, the Steelers got blown away by the home team in an embarrassing fashion, despite the close final score 36-28. Rarely do you see a first half in the NFL so lopsided. However, in what is now typical Vikings and Steelers fashion, this game became very interesting in the final two quarters of play.
Minnesota has held a touchdown lead in every single game they played this year but was just 5-7 entering this game. Meanwhile, the Steelers were 6-1-1 in one-score games, which is simply unsustainable.
Could a performance like this be attributed to playing a road game on a super short week after a physical Ravens game? Sure, it could and yes, that is a factor.
But it is rare to see a team in the NFL execute this terrible in all facets for an entire half of play. You must have some pride and better preparation. This game was 29-0 at one point and could have been much worse actually. No team in NFL history has ever won a regular season game after trailing by 28 points at any point during the game. But pride did kick in and Pittsburgh turned it up several notches.
The line play on both sides of the ball was far too reminiscent of how the Steelers played against the Bengals two weeks ago. Actually, it was worse in this game. It is rare to see such massive holes for a running back to run through that Pittsburgh gifted Minnesota’s Dalvin Cook on Thursday night. You aren’t going to win games in this league when you lose time and time again up front. This game was lost in the trenches.
Stats tell a story
Here are some key stats from this game.
• The first half entirely belonged to Minnesota, but when it was all said and done in this wild affair, the Steelers ran two more plays than Minnesota and both offenses produced 22 first downs.
• Time of possession was also nearly equal, and Minnesota turned the ball over twice compared to once by the Steelers.
• The Vikings averaged 6.8 yards per play. Pittsburgh was at 5.4, which is a respectable number.
• The Steelers surpassed 100 yards on the ground, but Minnesota surpassed 240 with Cook ripping Pittsburgh for 205 rushing yards.
• The Steelers did throw for 53 more yards than their counterpart.
• The penalties in this game were astronomical though, and you could certainly argue that the refs would have been better served keeping the flags in their pocket a bit more. But the final penalty tallies were not lopsided. In total, there were 21 penalties accepted (and some big ones were declined) for a total of 187 yards.
• Offensively, Pittsburgh’s first three drives only mustered 19 passing yards and 19 rushing yards, good for 2.4 yards per play.
Big Ben leads the way
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was the Steelers’ best player in this game and was far and away the biggest reason they were able to make it interesting, which is certainly was. It was also far and away Roethlisberger’s best game of the year, and, over the past several games, he is playing much better than the first half of the season.
And don’t forget, Roethlisberger got hit hard time and time again by free rushers in the first half of this game. He made big throw after big throw late in the contest, but none better than the dart he threw to tight end Pat Freiermuth on the Steelers’ final play of the game. When it mattered most, the future Hall of Famer stepped up in a big way when it would have been very easy to lay down or even exit the game well before it was over.
Roethlisberger’s one interception was a dangerous throw in traffic, but that turnover was on wide receiver Diontae Johnson, not the quarterback. Johnson was in a tough position, but he was unable to fight through contact. You can’t stop your feet on a slant route. Roethlisberger released that ball expecting Johnson to be in a spot, and the receiver was unable to accomplish that on this play. This was another very solid game by Johnson though.
Claypool’s up-and-down performance
Wide receiver Chase Claypool needs to be discussed because he is maddening. His talent is obvious even to someone who doesn’t study the game, and we have seen so many flashes of what Claypool is capable in his short time in the NFL.
He also is still fighting a toe injury, and that can’t be forgotten. Roethlisberger looked his way in this game when it mattered most because he knows what Claypool’s capabilities. The second-year receiver caught eight of the nine passes thrown his way.
But the maturity of this player is a problem. For weeks, his effort as a blocker has been poor and the mental errors continue. Claypool was even benched at one point of this game but came back to make some huge plays. But the taunting call in the first half is now something all NFL players know is going to get flagged every time. His penalties are getting ridiculous.
He also was fortunate the refs ruled in his favor on a potential fumble when Claypool stretched the ball out for extra yardage.
But here is the big one and really sums up where Claypool is right now: He makes a huge play on fourth-and-1 to keep the Steelers alive on the final drive and then celebrates the play and probably costs the Steelers one more play in this game. That could have been the difference between winning and losing.
Washington makes impact
Also, let’s give wide receiver James Washington some credit. He has been somewhat invisible of late but showed up in Minnesota. He really competed for the football and made plays in traffic. It was his best game of the year.
But, as has been the case far too often this year, Ray Ray McCloud played more offensive snaps that what his skill set truly deserves. Claypool’s situation contributed to his overuse, but McCloud played 63 of a possible 74 snaps. Washington was on the field for 30 snaps and Claypool played 44 in Minnesota.
Now picture JuJu Smith-Schuster getting all of McCloud’s playing time and what he would mean to the offense as a blocker near the ball in the slot and in the middle of the field catching the football. Smith-Schuster has been greatly missed, and Pittsburgh should consider resigning him in the offseason if the price is right.
Minnesota left Patrick Peterson and Bashaud Breeland in single coverage a high percentage of the time because they dedicated so many defenders to their blitz looks near the line of scrimmage. Cornerback has been a huge problem for Minnesota all year and it was again Thursday night. Peterson, Breeland, Mackensie Alexander and Cameron Dantzler all had rough outings and offered little resistance to Roethlisberger and Pittsburgh’s wide receivers as the game went on.
Pat Freiermuth was called to pass block more in this game to help deal with Minnesota’s blitz package. Of course, he almost came up with the play of the day if it were not ruined by a great play by safety Harrison Smith. But we can question why the Steelers didn’t target the middle of the field more with Freiermuth in the second half with Minnesota playing so much two high safety shells.
Harris continues to impress
Running back Najee Harris made a statement too that he is going to be a leader on this team. His effort was extraordinary, and it began to really pay off as the game went along. Harris also made a catch late in this game that you simply don’t see from running backs his size. It has been a little slow coming thus far, but Harris will routinely make such plays in his career as a pass catcher. Count on that.
Vikings defensive alignment succeeds
Smith spent much of the first half in the box as an eighth defender, and Pittsburgh had little success running against that alignment. Smith was tremendous in this game. The Vikings desperately missed every down linebackers Eric Kendricks and Anthony Barr last week in their divisional loss to Detroit. But those two came back huge for this game, combining for 20 tackles, a sack and three tackles for loss. Smith, Kendricks and Barr really helped the Vikings control the middle of the football field.
As we now should be accustomed to, another big powerful interior defensive lineman, Michael Pierce in this case, abused Kendrick Green and owned the interior of the line of scrimmage when Pittsburgh had the ball. Pierce isn’t a pass-rusher, but he pushed the pocket effectively and made it difficult for Roethlisberger to step up or maneuver. And Roethlisberger really struggles to move in any capacity right now.
Offensive line in flux
Green’s struggles getting snaps off properly was troubling to say the least in this game. Surely crowd noise had a lot to do with it, but it also falls on the rookie center. Green played just four games at center in college. Maybe the Steelers should consider moving him to guard in the future. Let’s see how Green does the rest of this season at center obviously, but in the grand scheme of things, such a move might make sense if a center is available to the Steelers this offseason.
Guard John Leglue came back to earth in this game. He allowed too much pressure and was actually replaced by Rashaad Coward briefly. But after these past two games, Leglue looks like a keeper who could help with depth due to his versatility. He should at least be active on game days for the foreseeable future.
Vikings attack QB
These two defenses had the first and second most sacks in the NFL coming into this game. Pittsburgh didn’t sack Vikings QB Kirk Cousins once, but Roethlisberger went down five times. Five different Vikings recorded a sack in this game, which is exactly how Minnesota has been recording their sacks all year.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was masterful in his blitzes and blitz looks, usually peppering both A Gaps, often sending four pass-rushers but giving the illusion of blitz. But Zimmer is widely known for his Double A Gap pressures and the subsequent looks he creates off them, and Pittsburgh wasn’t ready for it.
The Steelers blitz recognition was dismal, as free rushers were the norm for Minnesota, especially in the first half. Roethlisberger was sacked five times in the first 32 minutes of play. On one play, Sheldon Richardson came in totally clean for a sack. How do you let a big guy come untouched? Inexcusable.
Second-half rally
The Steelers’ comeback was impressive. That can’t be denied. But we also must realize that moving the ball when an offense is down that great on the scoreboard becomes far easier in this league with the Vikings employing a steady diet of two high safety looks while playing with a big lead. None of what they did in the second half erases the total offensive ineptitude for the first two quarters of this game.
Steelers D gets Cook-ed
As for Pittsburgh’s defense. Wow. Cook had 73 rushing yards in first quarter. On his first seven carries, Cook nearly averaged 17 yards per carry. Pittsburgh’s first-half run defense was as bad of a display as you will ever see at the NFL level as Cook ripped off explosive run after explosive run, usually untouched for a big chunk to begin the run.
The Steelers employed a lot of light boxes early in this game. That strategy can obviously be second-guessed now, but remember that Cook was questionable to play in this game.
Still, Alexander Mattison isn’t to be taken lightly and we know that Minnesota, first and foremost, wants to run the football with a heavy dose of outside zone. And Pittsburgh looked ridiculous against the Vikings pitch plays.
This defensive front does not move well laterally while maintaining any sort of gap integrity. For the second time in three weeks, the Steelers have allowed a single rusher to gain 100-plus yards. That hadn’t happened in the first 234 games under coach Mike Tomlin.
Minnesota fullback CJ Ham played nearly half of the Vikings’ offensive snaps and Blake Brandel was on the field for a whopping 17 snaps as Minnesota’s sixth offensive lineman. Looking back to the Bengals game, this is becoming a trend and something Pittsburgh had better become accustomed to seeing every week. The Steelers are getting bullied by big offensive personnel.
Injured OLBs tough to replace
Outside linebacker T.J. Watt lasted just 25 plays before being ruled out with another groin injury. Alex Highsmith was also injured, playing just 31 snaps before exiting. As if being without the best defensive player in the league (again) wasn’t enough, Highsmith’s injury quickly thrust Taco Charlton and Derrek Tuszka into every down roles, which is way more than they can chew.
As a result, the Steelers pass-rush was dismal all game and Cousins is a quarterback who performs way worse under pressure compared to a clean pocket, more so than most NFL starting quarterbacks.
For the second straight week, Oli Udoh proved that he is a guard, not a left tackle. The Vikings need to get Christian Darrisaw back to protect Cousins’ blind side. But Pittsburgh couldn’t exploit that weakness. The Steelers did very little blitzing, even with Watt and Highsmith out of the equation.
Inside linebackers still struggling
Inside linebackers Devin Bush and Joe Schobert continue to hurt the team. Their run fits were dreadful, as was their overall recognition and tackling. Schobert was sat down briefly and we saw a little of Buddy Johnson. To Bush’s credit though, he did make some plays this week and was active. That’s an improvement, but it still wasn’t good enough, especially in the run game. Bush and Schobert each played 58 snaps. Johnson got six snaps, as did Miles Killebrew. Marcus Allen played nine defensive snaps.
Vikings pass-catchers shine
As for Minnesota’s passing game, receivers Justin Jefferson and KJ Osborn accounted for 24 of Cousins’ 31 targets-and still couldn’t be stopped. Other Vikings receiving options caught four passes in this game. Jefferson is a force of nature and was dominant once again, but the Steelers also made it too easy on Minnesota’s star wide out. As expected, Osborn played an every-down role with Adam Thielen out of the picture.
Let’s not forget about Cousins, who played quite poorly Thursday night. Early on, that didn’t matter, but Cousins kept Pittsburgh in this game. He completed less than 50% of his passes and didn’t deliver on third downs. Cousins missed Jefferson, whose stat line could have probably doubled, on several throws that need to be made.
Good effort in secondary
This was a strong showing by safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. He was unfairly called on a penalty in the end zone when in reality, that was an exceptional football play for today’s NFL. Fitzpatrick also made some big tackles on Cook in the first half when the star running back was running untouched through the first two layers of Pittsburgh’s defense. Fitzpatrick was all over the field.
We really shouldn’t ignore cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon and his two interceptions either. There is something to work with going forward with Witherspoon, and he has at least earned a hat on game day going forward once Joe Haden returns to the lineup. All that being said, what happened on Witherspoon’s return on his second interception? It looked like a potential pick six, but he quickly lost all energy. That was bizarre.
This was an extremely rough outing by Cameron Sutton and, overall, Jefferson was one on one far too often in the first half. Jefferson was especially lethal on deep crossing routes — a route he is great at and a route that is tough to double. Jefferson’s dominance — and again Cousins left some plays to Jefferson on the field in this one — wasn’t all Sutton’s fault, but Sutton was also beat deep downfield by Osborn, which was more than Pittsburgh’s comeback could overcome.
Overall thoughts
It did get better though of course. The Vikings had just 28 yards of total offense in the third quarter of play.
The Steelers had the superior quarterback play, but like the most recent Bengals loss Nov. 28, this game was lost in the trenches. Losing Watt and Highsmith were factors, but it wasn’t like Pittsburgh was stopping the run when these two were available either. Of course, reserve linebacker Melvin Ingram is no longer in the equation.
Playing without defensive linemen Stephon Tuitt and Tyson Alualu are huge factors. And living with the growing pains of a young offensive line is a massive factor. All of that being said, the product Pittsburgh’s big men put on the field was again a huge liability against a quality opponent.
The Steelers are now in a tough spot. There are no two ways around that. We shall see how the rest of the AFC and AFC North pans out Sunday. At least Pittsburgh has a very long week to prepare for an ailing Titans team, tend to their wounds and figure some things out.
This Thursday night “tale of two halves” can really toy with your outlook for this Steelers team and, in the end, they aren’t a Super Bowl contender. But the book also hasn’t been written in its entirety yet either. This group has shown the ability to come back.
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