The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their Wild Card playoff matchup against the Buffalo Bills, 31-17. The Steelers had opportunities, but for the most part, the game seemed hopeless. Now that the Steelers are behind 14-0 in the first quarter, let’s examine the 10-play drive that started at the Steelers 8.
The Steelers signal a run play at the start of the drive with a personnel grouping. They might as well have brought Buffalo into the huddle and informed them that a run up the middle was on the horizon with Najee Harris, three tight ends, and neither Diontae Johnson nor George Pickens on the field. No, a play-action throw may have caused Steelers supporters to jump out of their seats. Mason Rudolph will take the snap and pretend to hand the ball to Harris in the video below. A deep safety is positioned at the 19 and three Buffalo defenders are positioned at the 12. At the first sign, all four will charge forward. As the video stops and they all realise it’s not a handoff, look where they are.
In pass patterns, the Steelers only send out two players. Pat Freiermuth will be wide open, so much so that even if he does a 360-degree turn while catching the pass, he would still gain roughly 15 more yards before being tackled. Calvin Austin will go a deep route to bring that deep safety with him. The final turnover (not shown in the video) and the protracted review that kept the Steelers in the lead following a 33-yard gain will be remembered from this play. The much-needed utilisation of play action will be forgotten.
Running on first down is something that the Steelers adore. Here, Harris will cut in front of Rudolph, who will take the shotgun snap. Though it’s not really a fake, observe how it impacts the linebackers for the Bills at the 45. Once more, they all take a stride towards the run fake, but when they see it’s a pass, they all turn around quickly.
The Steelers will only send out two players in route at first, while the Bills will drop seven players into coverage. While delayed routes develop underneath, Pickens and Johnson will suck all seven defenders at least ten yards deep. Washington Darnell will take up residence five yards over the middle. Allen Robinson was moving to the left at the snap, while Harris was pulling his fake, running to the right for a swing pass. We can see that Rudolph has his choice of three available underground pathways when the clip is frozen. With all of the Bills defenders positioned in the middle of the field, he selects Robinson, who is by himself outside the numbers. To move the sticks, Robinson takes it up the sidelines for a good gain.
Following two effective play-action throws on first down, the Steelers use a three-wide receiver look that does not force a power play. After falling for the fakes, the Bills linebackers are not nearly as aggressive while charging at the snap. After Harris receives the pass, Washington crashes inside and a huge hole is made by Dan Moore blocking to the outside. At the 40, Harris gains six yards before making contact and bullies his way to another three. the first quarter’s end.
Following the change of quarters, the Steelers will signal a run once more with their players and structure. The Steelers pass catchers who are targeted the most are Johnson, Pickens, and Freiermuth. For this play, they will be on the sidelines. Myles Boykin, a wide receiver, played 121 offensive snaps this season and was only targeted four times on a pass, according to Pro Football Reference. Boykin is divided extensively towards the base of the structure. Along with Allen Robinson and Connor Heyward, Calvin Austin will be positioned closely to the left of the offensive line in a three-man bunch formation. Austin doesn’t often operate across the centre, so aligning him thus tight with two players who are more renowned for their blocking than their pass -catching seems odd.
Austin will simulate a deep handoff by running a ghost motion back to the 45 at the snap. Rudolph fakes a deep handoff to Austin after passing off to Harris. The phoney performs as intended. The video appears to be frozen, but it appears that the Bills’ edge rusher at the 40-yard line attacked the ghost, creating a large gap that allowed Harris to cut outside and gain 11 yards.
The offence for the Pittsburgh Steelers is clicking. One sentence hasn’t been typed in a long time. Twenty yards on two runs and forty-six yards on two throw plays. The Bills defence never knows what’s going to come next, so they keep getting trapped in No Man’s Land. The crucial plays have been the runs and fake runs. Now, what will the Steelers do next? With the exception of Robinson, they remove every run blocker off the field and remove the very potent Harris. Oh, and at the snap, they also line up in the shotgun and put Jaylen Warren in a pattern, which eliminates even the possibility of a handoff for the defence. Thus, the same edge defender position in No Man’s Land that was getting letters Now, Land can strike without fear. He moves on Broderick Jones and is essentially left unharmed in a fast sack.
Right now, the Steelers are clearly in a pass scenario. Instead, they use Jaylen Warren in a shotgun draw play. Given that neither offensive lineman crosses the line of scrimmage and both receivers at the top of the screen swiftly return to the quarterback, this play may have been a run-pass-option. However, four yards beyond the line of scrimmage, Freiermuth instantly engages in a block at the bottom of the screen. In any case, a linebacker occupies the hole up the middle, and Warren smashes it outside to clear another charging Bill. George Pickens, who can see the play coming at him from the top of the screen, hurls himself into a defender to give Warren the sideline in order to sprint 13 yards.
To maintain the drive, the Steelers must make another play. On third-and-long, how many times have we witnessed them throw short of the sticks? There is no need for that because three routes are at least ten yards long, and Freiermuth and Warren will be held in to block. The Bills will drop theee into a seven-man coverage against those three routes, using seven players at the line of scrimmage but only sending out four. Rudolph hits Freiermuth, who breaks free from his block and seeps out to the top of the screen, for a 13-yard catch-and-run. Simple stuff, isn’t that right?
In the following close-up of the same play, Rudolph is shown making what might be the play of the game. He looks left, then right, then upfield to avoid a pass rusher, re-positions his feet, then turns left to pass to the wide-open Freiermuth. Rudolph wandered around in the pocket until he found a solution, remaining composed even if the play didn’t go as planned. This is probably because of his experience, which has taught him that if he sees seven in coverage, it indicates that only four players are rushing, negating the need for Freiermuth to stay in and block. Before he began to toss that manner, he didn’t actually seem that way—as if ,He knew there wouldn’t be any defenders there because he had numbered all of them.
The journey goes on! Here, the Steelers are arranged in that tight formation once more, with 5’9, 162-pound Calvin Austin serving as the group’s front-runner. Although it seems unlikely for a player his size to be blocking on a run up the middle, he does his job. Out of the group, Diontae Johnson will lead the ghost motion. This time, no one bit the ghost. In fact, after dealing with the Bills edge rusher, Freiermuth can’t get enough of the linebacker, so Rudolph doesn’t even fake it to Johnson as he watches Jaylen Warren be stuffed for a short gain.
To the left of the formation, Diontae Johnson will be solitary. With a middle safety, the Bills are playing one-on-one coverage. Rudolph like his top receiver to go man-to-man when there is no oncoming traffic. Johnson’s defender positions himself outside, and since the safety isn’t coming over to assist, the pass should be simple for a touchdown. The Bills defender, sensing he’s been outmatched, snatches Johnson’s shoulder and is called for pass interference. This is a nice penalty to accept, one of those “good ones.” Johnson would have had the entire end zone to himself if not for the grab.
The play is designed to provide the quarterback a lot of choices. Attacking distinct regions of the field and varying depths are the four patterns. At five yards, each tight end will split up and go to the opposing sidelines. Pickens is moving towards the bottom right corner of the screen, but not before drawing the attention of the lone safety early in the route to create room for Johnson. At the end, Najee Harris will also leak out of the backfield.
What this drive needs, do you know? More phantom movement. Myles Boykin, who hardly rarely catches passes, has now split out to the right once more. Once more, we have the three-man group close to the offensive line. Pickens, Johnson, and Freiermuth are not with us on the pitch. If this looks familiar, that’s because the personnel and formation are the same as they were six snaps ago when Harris ran 11 yards for a touchdown. The Bills won’t notice it, for sure. By the way, Pressley Harvin, the punter, could be needed to defeat this combination of Heyward, Robinson, Austin, Harris, and Boykin if you were trying to put together the “least likely Steelers to catch a pass.” It’s a run, as everyone on both sides of the ball is aware. Calvin Austin is going toOnce more, Calvin Austin will separate himself from the group to run the ghost. Just one minute before, it worked for eleven; now, it loses a yard.
There are two key distinctions between the 11-yard version and that play. First, Buffalo had seven players in the box on the successful play, four of them were positioned 10 yards deep. Buffalo had lots of room to manoeuvre around. This failed attempt occurred at the goal line with nine defenders in the box and no player deeper than five yards. The second distinction is that in the winning rendition, centre Mason Cole blocked a linebacker four yards over the line of scrimmage with a fired-out block. In the botched version, a defensive tackle sucks up Harris and dumps him on his back.
An opportunity to atone. The Steelers will now attempt to pass the ball into the end zone because running the ball becomes more difficult near the goal line. Okay, so the run blocking didn’t work, but Mason Rudolph still had time to complete throws save for one play. Before I offer my thoughts on the play, I’ll just let you watch the tape.
“Everybody, go run five yards and turn around!” is what I would call this play in the fifth-grade playtime huddle. I’m sure there’s more to it than what I’ll be describing, maybe. It is not surprising that no one opens up. There’s no variation in route depth, no angled routes, no rub routes to cause defensive friction, and no positive outcome for the Steelers. Diontae Johnson appears to be dressing as a defensive back for the Buffalo Bills in order to stay warm. Rudolph tosses it that direction for an intercept that breaks the heart. Rudy, just toss it into the ground! Although Buffalo plays on turf, Steelers supporters would have been happier if it had been played on the dirt in the parking lot.
compared to what took place here.
Hopefully, the upcoming offensive coordinator for the Steelers will provide this squad with some further foundation to work with.
