To remain undefeated, the Steelers need to improve in critical areas today.
The cupcake part of the schedule is passed. The teams that put the Steelers nearly neck-and-neck with the Baltimore Ravens, in terms of ease of schedule, have been knocked off. They’ve defeated some of the worst teams in the league by narrow margins. Now comes the hard part: Besting the 4-1 Browns, who appear to have it together for once.
Offensively, the Steelers are firing on (mostly) all cylinders. I’m confident they prevail over a 20th-ranked defense that’s allowed 1,917 total yards and 17 scores. With key injuries in the Browns secondary, as long as the line continues to give Ben time and protection, they’ll be successful through the air.
Third downs
Their Achilles heel has been on third downs — the Steelers have only converted 29 of 60 attempts (48%), which currently puts them at 27th in the league. That percentage was helped last week when Ben was 13-13 for 161 yards and two touchdowns. Without a doubt, the offense will need to extend drives to wear out the Brownies defense and put points on the board.
On the other side of the ball, the Steelers have been stout defending third downs. At third in the league, Pittsburgh’s opponents have converted 28 of 50 attempts. Last week was an exception and, hopefully, just a hiccup, when the Eagles converted 10 of 14 third downs.
“We just didn’t do a good job of controlling the circumstances, and really some of the circumstances were advantageous to us, meaning third-and-long (situations),” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said in his Week 5 postgame press conference.
Pittsburgh’s third-down defense needs to get back to their pre-Eagles ways. The Steelers simply cannot allow Baker Mayfield (ribs) — or Case Keenum, for that matter — to get comfortable and find his rhythm. The defense needs to have in the back of their minds what happened when Denver’s Drew Lock went down and Jeff Driskel came in.
Just control the clock and keep Cleveland from getting into scoring situations.
Communication breakdown
While third downs have been the Achilles heels for the offense, communication has been for the defense — or, lack thereof.
Linebacker Devin Bush has been tasked with communication duties, but it’s the unit as a whole causing the breakdowns — breakdowns that have led to big scores for the opposition.
Blown assignments. Hesitations and late switching on routes. Who is covering who? That confusion and miscommunication can’t happen and shouldn’t happen with a unit that has now played 17 games together.
No one wants to see the Steelers trounce on the Browns this week more than the Steelers themselves. If they’re going to do that, the defense’s coverage game must be on-point. The Browns have bonafide playmakers at wide receiver and tight end. If they thought Travis Fulgham was a nightmare to cover, just wait. The Browns have elite versions of Fulgham who can cause the secondary fits.
As he has a penchant for, Tomlin said to ‘keep watching.’ “I just attribute it to a four-game sample size. Keep watching. We will continue to write our story, particularly as it pertains to comparing it to a 16-game body of work from a year ago. If you took a sample size of our body of work from last year at this time through four games, it was miserable, I think. We are very much in development, and I like the overall trajectory of our group in the corners. We’re just going to keep working.”
That work has to show itself today. This isn’t the Giants, the Broncos, the Texans, or even the Eagles. It’s the Browns, and they’re hangry.
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