The Pittsburgh Steelers should have a sizable advantage on paper entering Sunday’s matchup against the Buffalo Bills at Acrisure Stadium. Based on the injury report for the Bills, Buffalo could be down both starting offensive tackles in Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown.
That could lead to backups Ryan Van Demark, Alec Anderson and Tyler Grable potentially seeing play time against a tough Steelers pass rush, led by outside linebackers T.J. Watt, Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith.
That’s a clear advantage on paper. That’s why they play the games, though. The Steelers had that advantage against the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 10, and got after the quarterback a ton, generating 27 pressures and sacking Justin Herbert five times. But they were blown out in that game, 25-10.
That’s because the Chargers largely got the ball out quickly, negating the pass rush in big spots, something the Green Bay Packers did in Week 8. Head coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the challenges of defending offenses that get the ball out quickly, stating it’s nothing new to the Steelers.
It might not be, but teams do it a ton and have success, and that could be the case Sunday for the Bills without their two starting tackles in an effort to protect star quarterback Josh Allen.
For Steelers defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, the challenge will be forcing Allen to hold the ball to let the pass rush have an impact.
“Well, I think when you look at how teams play us, I think, analytically, teams get the ball out faster versus us than they do a lot of other people,” Austin said, according to audio provided by the team. “Just going back and looking at it through the course of the season that teams that sometimes traditionally hold the ball, they get it out. And so that’s a way to combat our rush. You get it out with quicks and screens and not allow our guys to rush. I think obviously last week, early in the game when he was holding the ball, you got a chance to see what happens. But that’s really what we’re facing. So, I would expect nothing different.
“That ball’s gonna be out and they’re gonna try to run the ball, get it out of his hands, and if he doesn’t get it out of his hands, he’s gonna be moving around trying to make something happen.”
On the season, Allen averages 3.00 seconds time to throw, according to Pro Football Focus. That number is skewed a bit due to the amount of scrambling and creating Allen tries to do after the snap when things break down. Historically though, he’ll get the ball out quickly and efficiently in the quick-passing attack when it’s there, and it could be there against the Steelers.
The challenge for Pittsburgh will be attempting to play like the Houston Texans did in Week 12 on Thursday Night Football. They sacked Allen eight times and left him bruised and battered, all while forcing the superstar quarterback to get rid of the football in his third-fastest time of the season at 2.75 seconds.
To do that, the Steelers will have to play more man coverage to avoid giving up the quick, easy completions against zone. They’ll have to borrow some of what they did against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 11, too, which led to a bad day from Joe Flacco, who carved them up in the quick passing game in Week 7.
The Steelers have shown they can do it. Replicating it is key. They’ll have the advantage from a personnel standpoint when it comes to getting after Allen with the pass rush. But the most important thing this week will be coverage on the back end, forcing Allen to hold the ball.
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