The Pittsburgh Steelers came out of their Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings feeling much better about themselves, but Darius Slay has a bone to pick with Pro Football Focus.
They charted Slay as allowing 123 yards, the highest amount of any cornerback in the NFL from Week 4. However, Slay does not agree with that characterization.
“Now PFF I know you lying," Slay said on X.
Most of the 123 yards comes on the team’s blown coverage against Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison, which went for 81 yards late in the fourth quarter.
Brandin Echols had bad cramping against the Vikings that forced the Steelers to go exclusively into big nickel, with DeShon Elliott at nickel cornerback.
The call was a simple Tampa 2 coverage, but in the NFL, defensive coordinators have started to dress that up. Now, they and the Steelers run concepts called ‘non-traditional Tampas.
In a traditional Tampa 2 coverage, the safeties sink into their half field zones and the inside linebackers ‘runs the pole’ in the middle of the defense.
In a non-traditional Tampa, the safety sinks into the lower zone where the cornerback would often be, while the cornerback floats back into the deep half.
On that play, safety Chuck Clark and Slay failed to communicate with one another.
“I’m gonna take that one,” Austin said. “We were struggling with who was in the game, and I probably made a call that probably wasn’t simple enough for everybody, and so that’s on me. … I’ll make sure if that ever happens again, if we have some attrition the way it happened, I gotta give our guys something that’s way more simple, and that they can line up and play.”
Slay might have that one on him, but it was a team miscommunication on the entire side that led to the big play from Addison.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.