Steelers Week 8 film study: Balanced offensive attack key in victory over Browns
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 8 win over the Browns.
In a pivotal AFC North game between three-loss teams, the Steelers left Cleveland victorious after a hard-fought contest that played exactly to Pittsburgh’s current playing style.
Ben Roethlisberger is now 24-2-1 against the Browns in what might have been his last game in their building.
Let’s review the key team stats from this game.
• Even though the Browns, who are the best time-of-possession team in football, held the ball for more than 11 minutes in the first quarter alone, Pittsburgh ended up running 69 plays and possessed the football for 31:45 compared to the 58 plays Cleveland ran that only ate up 28:15 of playing time.
• The yards per play were nearly identical, 5.4 for Pittsburgh vs. 5.3 for the Browns. Both teams were at 4.3 per play at halftime.
• Both teams were poor with their third down conversion rate, but the Steelers got a first down on half of their four fourth down chances while Cleveland was unsuccessful on both of its attempts on fourth down.
• The Steelers finished with 45 more passing yards and 19 more rushing yards than their opponent. This was only the second time all year the Browns failed to rush for 100 yards.
• As important as any number mentioned here, the Steelers didn’t turn the ball over while Cleveland had one crucial giveaway.
• The Browns had the most penalty yards in the league entering this game but were only flagged five times for 30 yards compared to eight for 65 by Pittsburgh.
Steelers show offensive balance
Roethlisberger threw the ball 34 times as the Steelers stayed balanced once again with almost a 50/50 run/pass split in this game. He finished with 266 yards through the air. He also almost had a two-point conversion on a quarterback sneak that was brought back because of a penalty.
Roethlisberger threw the ball quite well and rarely put it in harm’s way. A great deal of his yardage came after the catch, and he concentrated his targets to just a few choice receivers. Roethlisberger made his layups, was more willing to target the middle of the field, moved better than he had all year, and didn’t turn the ball over.
Still, this drop back passing game still needs a lot of work and is likely to be a liability all season. This is an RPO-dependent passing game, and Roethlisberger was 0 for 3 on passes that traveled at least 20 yards downfield. Also, let’s not excuse the checkdown on the failed two-point conversion attempted from the 12-yard line. He finished the day with a 7.8 yards per attempt and acted as a spoke in the wheel rather than the driving force of Pittsburgh’s offense, which is exactly what is required at this point.
Pass-catchers step up
Diontae Johnson’s final stat line stands out, mostly because of his 50-yard catch and run late in the game, but he nearly made several other plays in this game, and very much is the Steelers featured receiver. Four of Johnson’s six receptions produced first downs.
Chase Claypool led the receivers in snaps (72), made a contested catch, and pitched in as a runner. He lined up in the slot quite a bit, something fans should get used to with JuJu Smith-Schuster out for the year. Claypool played aggressively all game, and let’s just say the referees let the Browns cover men play a rather physical style before the catch point…or Johnson might have had a much bigger stat line. And along those lines, let’s just say — for the record — that the refs in this game didn’t exactly lean Pittsburgh’s way from start to finish.
Anyways, Pat Freiermuth now clearly has the confidence of his quarterback and is demanding the football, especially against a Browns defense that was particularly soft in the middle of the field. They got him involved early in this game. Freiermuth is going to catch a lot of touchdowns in his NFL career.
The Browns didn’t have Denzell Ward and suffered some defensive back injuries on Sunday, but the Steelers pass catchers — including running back Najee Harris — did well enough in this outing. Maybe a little more should have been expected from the wide receivers from start to finish, but give Cleveland’s cover men, namely first-round pick Greg Newsome, credit for playing a solid game.
Zach Gentry isn’t always pretty doing it, but his role as a blocking tight end and occasional receiver should be commended. Freiermuth played 78% of the snaps compared to 61% for Gentry, who ran a route on 13 occasions, while Freiermuth was out on a route 26 times. The Steelers should entertain trade offers for Eric Ebron if there is a team in the league interested. Also, it was great to see James Washington out snap Ray Ray McCloud 34 to 11 on Sunday.
Harris continue climb
Harris was spectacular against Cleveland — one of the NFL’s best run defenses. He showed patience, burst through the hole, power and great contact balance. Harris also continued to show little by little that he is on pace to becoming one of the best receiving backs in the league.
The offense rightfully goes through Harris, who is really learning quickly how to run in the NFL and, without question, the Steelers have absolutely committed to their first-round draft pick and the running game as a whole…and it is paying off.
Linemen lining up
It seemed like a curious decision to have Zach Banner deactivated for this game now that he is healthy after spending most of the season on injured reserve. But the logic must have been that they were comfortable with Joe Haeg as the swing tackle — and Haeg has played well in spot duty.
And, more importantly, they certainly wanted to keep the continuity in place that was developing with this young line. That patience is paying off for Pittsburgh’s offensive line and offense as a whole. The negative here is that tackle Chukwuma Okorafor had penalty issues and, overall, might just not be a starting tackle in the NFL.
Penalties were a problem for the line overall. When left alone on Myles Garrett, which could be blamed somewhat on the coaching, Dan Moore, as expected, had troubles. Moore was overmatched against Garrett alone. That isn’t anything to worry about with Moore, who gained valuable experience once again against a truly elite defensive superstar. Garrett is a force of nature that does that to nearly everyone and, frankly, the Steelers could have done a better job of helping Moore here and there.
But maybe the best move for next week is just switching out Okorafor and Banner at right tackle going forward. Once a massive weakness for this team, Pittsburgh’s offensive line has drastically improved, especially in the run game. And this was against an excellent Browns defensive line on the road in a loud stadium.
Trai Turner has really come into his own in a Steelers uniform and has been a stabilizing factor at right guard. The tight ends also did a nice job run blocking. The Steelers are moving bodies.
Canada makes impact
Matt Canada’s use of misdirection was on full display in this game and paid off quite well. The offensive line deserves much credit on their own merits, but presnap motion and misdirection helped the cause quite a bit, as well. Six different Steelers players carried the ball in Cleveland, but Harris still handled 26 of the 32 attempts.
Stopping the run
Pittsburgh’s run defense was a massive component to getting this win and clearly the main objective tactically was slowing down star running back Nick Chubb. The Browns had just 40 yards on the ground at halftime and only 20 of those were from Chubb, who returned from injury. Chubb had a 21-yard run, but still only finished the day with 61 yards on the ground on 16 rushing attempts; only four of his carries produced first downs.
Chubb played 33 of a possible 59 offensive snaps. Coming off an injury or not, Chubb rivals Derrick Henry as the NFL’s best pure ball carrier, and he has elite long speed to hit the home run to go along with excellent vision, balance and power.
Chubb is a special player running behind possibly the best offensive line in the league with a fantastic offensive mind manipulating personnel groupings as well as blocking angles, often using 13 (1 RB/3 TE) Personnel. In fact, no team comes close to using as much 13 Personnel as Cleveland, and the Browns had three tight ends play at least 23 snaps against the Steelers.
It is a common misconception that Cleveland is strictly a zone running team. That is far from the truth. In fact, the Browns’ big, powerful line along with their usage of a fullback and multiple tight ends really works well for a power running team, often with pulling principles.
Bounce back for D-line
Coming into this game, the biggest concern with Pittsburgh’s defense were defensive linemen not named Cameron Heyward. But that group stepped up and showed excellent gap integrity, ability to get off blocks, and stoutness at the point of attack vs. Cleveland’s outstanding rushing attack.
They did a much better job than recent weeks of keeping the Browns’ offensive linemen off the linebackers and, overall, the Steelers tackled well at all levels with several notable exceptions. This was Chris Wormley’s best game in a Steelers uniform. Heyward was a monster on Halloween defending the run.
Linebacker Joe Schobert made play after play in the run game against his former team, doing a great job of getting off blocks, while fellow inside linebacker Devin Bush’s speed and range was apparent on numerous snaps. The second level defenders also were very disciplined against play action and the manipulation that Cleveland’s offense has become so good at executing.
Timely stops
What stood out most with Pittsburgh’s defense was just how incredibly clutch and timely they were in this game. There are many examples of this, but on the Browns opening drive with Pittsburgh on its heels to start the game, the Steelers held Cleveland to just a field goal. That set the tone.
Shortly after, they stuffed the Browns on a fourth down as the second quarter began to not only thwart the drive, but it also gave the Steelers’ offense the ball in excellent field position, beginning a drive that would end in a field goal and tie the game at three.
Then, as the first half wound down, Pittsburgh’s defense really stepped up. The Browns went three and out twice and then on their final drive of the half, outside linebacker T.J. Watt had a big sack to keep Cleveland with just three first- half points. The Browns marched down the field and scored on their first possession of the second half, but Pittsburgh’s defense responded once again in a big way on the next drive on a possession that began with Pressley Harvin kicking the ball out of bounds on the kickoff.
But the Steelers defense left their best clutch performances for Cleveland’s final two possessions with Watt recovering a crucial fumble created by Schobert, Cleveland’s only turnover of the day. And finally, the Steelers forcing a fourth down failure the last time the Browns had the ball.
The stars, namely Heyward and Watt, came to play and set the tone. Also, it must be noted that Pittsburgh allowed just 87 passing yards in the final three quarters of play, and the entire secondary showed well in this game against a Browns offense that often kept extra blockers in to protect an ailing Baker Mayfield. The Steelers responded by rarely blitzing second or third level defenders. Cleveland’s receivers also didn’t help Mayfield, as they had too many drops in this game.
Some positives for special teams
As for the special teams, let’s just focus on the positives. McCloud did a nice job as a returner, the coverage teams were strong, and Harvin punted well enough. We will just leave it at that right now.
Rookies growing up
The last area that needs to be brought up after seven games is the Steelers’ rookie class. Let’s exclude Harvin from that conversation considering his crazy circumstances. Pittsburgh has asked its rookies to play more snaps than just about any team in the NFL this year. That is paying off now and should continue to pay huge dividends in coming years.
Harris put on a show in this game, and is the Steelers’ best offensive player. Freiermuth was coming off his best game as a pro before the bye and upped that ante dramatically with this performance. Harris and Freiermuth are already foundational offensive weapons for the Steelers while center Kendrick Green and Moore are rapidly improving and are making strong cases for being long term starters as two very important offensive line spots.
Isaiahh Loudermilk’s role keeps growing along the defensive line, and he probably deserves even more playing time than the 15 snaps he got this week as he continues to learn on the job. He showed up several times in this game once again, and that is now becoming a weekly occurrence.
And considering that Tre Norwood was drafted 245th overall, he might be the best surprise and find of them all. Norwood is a playmaker who is used all over the secondary, something rarely asked of rookie defensive backs.
Around the North
The AFC North is extremely interesting. This was a huge loss for Cleveland, the only team in the division now with four losses. But six of the Browns’ final 10 games are divisional matchups, and they go to Cincinnati next week.
No one could have seen Cincinnati’s loss to the Jets coming, dropping the Bengals to 5-3. Cincinnati’s bye week comes after next week’s crucial matchup against their in-state rival.
Meanwhile, Baltimore got to watch all this action from the couch as the Ravens reclaimed the top spot in the division. It was a great weekend for the Ravens, who host the Vikings in Week 9.
Pittsburgh has a winning record at the start of November and hosts the Bears and Lions (they are a combined 3-13) before what looks like a grueling eight-game stretch to finish the 2021 season. Pittsburgh is very much in the mix in the division race as well as the conference.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.