When the Pittsburgh Steelers needed a big play, Kyle Dugger made one. Dugger’s 73-yard pick-six was an obvious turning point in their 34-12 win Sunday, ending a Bengals drive that had advanced into enemy territory and putting points on the board without Mason Rudolph and company needing to step onto the field.
Though the Bengals would fight back to make it a one-possession game on the drive after, Dugger’s play took control of the game. Let’s break it down.
We don’t yet have All-22 of the play but it’s not hard to understand the coverage. Pittsburgh is playing “Robber” or “Lurk” coverage. This “1 Robber” is Cover 1 with a five-man pressure. Pittsburgh is in man-to-man across the board except for Dugger, who doesn’t have a man to cover. Instead, he is lurking or “robbing” anything underneath, reading the quarterback’s eyes to take him to the football.
Pittsburgh sends a five-man rush from its three-outside linebacker package with rookie Jack Sawyer replacing the injured Alex Highsmith as the third EDGE rusher. As an added wrinkle, instead of playing their normal 1-5-5, the Steelers are using a 2-4-5 with two down linemen.
As he often does in these packages, Herbig is playing off-ball. He stunts and loops to the opposite B gap, DL Cam Heyward slanting into the A gap to draw the left guard’s eyes while Sawyer rushes wide to keep the left tackle’s attention.
Herbig loops in free. T.J. Watt wins his rush from his left side spot. The two converge and pressure Joe Flacco into a rushed and bad throw.
Kyle Dugger Joe Flacco
That three-outside linebacker package has been highly effectively as of late, a topic we’ll dive into later this week, and Dugger is right there to read the ball. Flacco throws it at him and Dugger hangs on, making up for an earlier drop on a similar coverage.
Herbig gets extra credit for his effort. After Dugger picks off Flacco, Herbig races downfield to throw a block. He gets in the way of TE Drew Sample to lead block for Dugger and knocks him down. Dugger finishes it with an ice-cold stop/sidestep on Chase, who runs by him at the goal line.
Great scheme with the rush and coverage. That’s what the saying “rush and coverage go together” means. The rush gets home, the man coverage holds up, and the lurker in Dugger takes advantage. Pittsburgh won the turnover battle 2-0 with both takeaways going to the end zone and won a big game over Cincinnati.
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