Tim Benz: If Steelers don't slow Saquon Barkley, Giants could pull off upset

If the Steelers are to win their season opener Monday night against the New York Giants, they are going to have to stop superstar running back Saquon Barkley.

Check that. The Steelers are going to have to slow superstar running back Saquon Barkley.

Stopping Barkley doesn’t happen very often. Just about the only thing to stop — or slow — him over his first two NFL seasons was an ankle injury last year. He missed three games and then took a little while to get back up to speed.

In the first seven games after his return, Barkley didn’t have a 100-yard rushing game. But the last three games of the season, it appeared as if Barkley was finding the groove that made him the 2018 NFL Rookie of the Year with 2,028 yards from scrimmage.

The Penn State product rushed for 112 yards in Week 15 against the Miami Dolphins, 189 yards the next game against Washington, and 92 yards in the season finale versus the Philadelphia Eagles. He totaled 146 receiving yards and five touchdowns during that stretch as well.

“He’s got the quicks and the vision to be a quality interior runner, and the power to be a quality interior runner,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said last week. “He’s got burst and acceleration and top-end speed that allow him to excel on the perimeter game and in open grass. Five- to 10-yard runs can quickly become 50- and 60-yard runs when you’re facing a guy with the talent of Saquon. We are going to spend a lot of time preparing to minimize his impact.”

I assume that’s what took place in practice all week. But I’m not going to assume it will matter.

As Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler pointed out, even if the Steelers win a lot of battles up front against the Giants offensive line — one that Pro Football Focus ranked as 20th in the NFL to start the season — Barkley can still be dynamic without many gaps to exploit.

“I’d like to be an offensive lineman on that team with that running back behind me,” Butler said Thursday. “That guy doesn’t need a very big hole. He can get through some very slim holes.”

That said, Butler described the Giants offensive linemen as “probably better run blockers than pass blockers at this point.”

Translation? Look for the Giants to go to Barkley early and often. For three reasons.

1. He’s their best player. They’ll give him the ball.

2. They need to minimize exposure of second-year quarterback Daniel Jones to a fearsome Steelers pass rush that led the NFL with 54 sacks a year ago.

3. The Steelers weren’t great against the run last season.

The Steelers also led the NFL with 38 takeaways, were tied for fifth-best at 18.9 points per game allowed and had the third-best pass defense in the NFL (194.6 yards per game).

But Butler’s unit was a mediocre 14th against the run (109.6). Opposite of Barkley, as the season went along in 2019, the Steelers rush defense got worse, yielding a dreadful 438 yards over the last three weeks.

As Butler outlined, winning first and second downs will be particularly important as the Giants will likely try to highlight Barkley early in sequences to establish his dominance and shield Jones.

“If I’m them, they are going to want to keep the game in front of them,” Butler said. “Stay out of third-and-long. Keep it third-and-medium so they can dictate what they want to do and we can’t get them in situations where we want to pressure the quarterback.

“It’s going to be our job to stop Saquon in the running game and get after the quarterback in the passing game.”

There’s that wishful word again. “Stop.” Maybe Butler has more faith in that happening than I do.

But I bet he’ll be just as happy with “slowing” him.

If that should happen, Butler ought to consider it a win for his defensive unit. And should that happen, I bet it turns into a win on the scoreboard for the Steelers as well.

If they don’t and Barkley picks up where he left off in December, it could be another slow September start for the Steelers.

Official Week 1 prediction: Steelers 23 Giants 19.