Things didn’t go well Sunday night at SoFi Stadium for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a 25-10 blowout loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
The offense couldn’t do anything, the defense couldn’t capitalize on turnover-worthy plays, and eventually wore down in the end, and even special teams had some uncharacteristic mistakes.
But lost in all the ugliness from the Steelers was nose tackle Keeanu Benton’s stellar performance.
After struggling early in the year and being a magnet of criticism for the Steelers’ run-defense issues, Benton has quietly put together a very strong stretch of play. He was great in Week 9 against the Indianapolis Colts as part of a dominant effort from the defensive line.
On Sunday night, Benton carried that performance over, having one heck of a game against the Chargers.
Benton finished the game with seven tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss and four pressures. He graded out at a 78.5 overall from Pro Football Focus and was also credited with four run stops. When he’s playing well, the rest of the defense tends to so as well.
For much of the night, defense wasn’t the Steelers’ issue. But they wore down defensively in the end because the offense couldn’t sustain drives.
Let’s check out Benton’s performance.
On the first snap of the game, Benton showed what type of day it was going to be for him, particularly defending the run.
T.J. Watt initially blows this play up by getting inside of the blocking TE, but he’s unable to disengage to make the stop. Fortunately, Benton is working down the line of scrimmage, crossing the face of center Bradley Bozeman to get his nose into the gap.
Inside linebacker Malik Harrison does a nice job of scraping over to replace Watt, and that turns Chargers running back Kimani Vidal back inside to Benton, who cleans it up for the run stop.
A few snaps later, Benton had the key pressure on QB Justin Herbert to force an incompletion on third down.
Good inside rip here by Benton to get his shoulder clear and turn upfield against Chargers right guard Mekhi Becton.
Once Benton has Becton’s hips turned, he wins the rep, powering upfield to get into Herbert’s face, rushing the downfield throw that falls incomplete. That first pass-rush win helped Benton play with confidence, and he heated up as the game progressed.
Nice delayed stunt here with inside linebacker Patrick Queen, which ultimately frees both for the pressure on Herbert.
Benton does need to have better feet here to stay square and get to the quarterback faster, but his presence bearing down on Herbert, along with Queen screaming in untouched, forced a quick throw. Unfortunately for the Steelers, the coverage wasn’t tight enough on the back end, leading to a quick completion.
Cameron Heyward ends up making this play, but he’s not able to do so if Benton doesn’t hold his gap at the point of attack on the combo block.
At times earlier in the season, Benton would get blown off the ball and try to do too much in those situations. He would turn sideways and try to get skinny to defeat the double-team, which is the last thing you want to do if you’re losing ground. It cost the Steelers at times.
But this shows clear signs of improvement. Benton knows what’s happening and he anchors into his gap and holds the line. Eventually he’s able to split it and get in on the run stop with Heyward.
While Benton was good throughout the game, he did have some tough reps.
A late shift here puts him inside shade of the right guard, right in the A-gap. He comes off the ball with high pad level and can be seen peeking into the backfield trying to find the football. That allows Becton to move him off the spot and out of his gap, creating a lane for Vidal.
This run went for 11 yards and led to the Darius Slay injury.
Later in the game he had another rough rep in which a double-team from the right tackle knocked Benton well off his spot, opening a crease.
He just doesn’t have his legs underneath him here at the point of contact from the down block from the right tackle. That causes Benton to give up his gap and get moved off the ball, opening the lane. Credit to him for recovering quickly, but it wasn’t enough as he was out of position and the Chargers had a seam.
Sometimes it happens. That’s a credit to the Chargers on this one.
And those two reps won’t take the shine off Benton’s performance.
Here on his sack of Herbert, Benton shows his motor.
He doesn’t win initially with his hand usage, but he doesn’t let up. You can see him still trying to throw his hands to stay clean, and he continues to work laterally to try and turn the corner on Becton. Eventually he knocks the lineman’s hands down and get past his hip.
Payton Wilson’s blitz forced Herbert to step up right into Benton, who finishes with force.
Even with the game out of reach, Benton played hard as a run defender, especially when chasing the football.
That’s just great effort from Benton. In the first clip he wins with his initial two-handed punch to Becton’s chest, standing him up on the zone run. That clears Benton to win inside and chase the football.
To his credit, he tracks down Vidal for the run stop.
Then, in the second clip he runs the length of the line of scrimmage to cut off Vidal on the zone run and get in on the stop.
To be a Steelers defensive lineman, you need to run to the football and play with great effort. Heyward and rookie Derrick Harmon showed it in Week 9 against the Colts. It was Benton’s turn in this one. He did it even with the game all but over, too.
That’s very encouraging and showed that Benton gets it. It put a cherry on top of a strong individual performance from the third-year pro.
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