Tag: run defense

Is DeShon Elliot the real MVP of Steelers defense?

DeShon Elliot’s absence highlights his immense impact on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense during their tough late-season stretch.

Much to the dismay of Steelers fans, the team’s Week 15 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles brought their Super Bowl aspirations crashing back down to Earth. Coupled with an extremely difficult final three weeks to close out the 2024 season, the negativity in the air is palpable.

However, analyzing what went wrong during these trying times has brought about a newfound appreciation for perhaps the best player on the Pittsburgh Steelers defense in 2024: SS DeShon Elliot.

PFF, while known for their less-than-remarkable grades for the Black and Gold, recognizes Elliot as the second-best run-stopping safety in the 2024 season.

Elliot missed the team’s Week 15 contest and is scheduled to miss the Week 16 contest against the Baltimore Ravens as well. His ability to stop the run, drop back into coverage, rush the passer, consistently make great tackles, and lead the secondary were all aspects sorely missed in the team’s loss to the Eagles. Without Elliot, the defense failed to stop the Philadelphia Eagles offense from taking over the second half in Week 15.

Could the absence of Elliot in Week 16 lead to consecutive losses for the Black and Gold, further solidifying his position as the MVP of the Steelers defense?

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Commanders’ Joe Whitt stresses the most important thing for his defense

Washington’s defensive coordinator has one primary focus.

The Washington Commanders run defense is simply not good enough.

Though the Commanders are currently in the number seven playoff spot with a 7-4 record, that is an area from which defensive coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. is not backing away from facing it.

In fact, when asked Thursday at his weekly press conference, Whitt called the run defense “the main thing that we have to do.”

“Well, the main thing that we have to do, the two things that we have to do on defense to get to where we want to be in December, January football, February hopefully, it’s we gotta stop the run. Like that’s the number one thing that we have to do. Not shying away from it.”

Whitt then elaborated that coaches have even been discussing how to improve their run defense. In their last game, the Commanders surrendered 228 rushing yards on 40 Eagle carries.

In fact, the Commanders have surrendered the most rushing yards in the NFL through 11 weeks. It is worth remembering that the Commanders have yet to have a bye week. Consequently, they have played one more game than many NFL teams right now.

Unfortunately, that stat is confirmed by the fact the Commanders are second worst in the NFL yielding 5.0 yards per rushing attempt. They are also giving up the third-highest rushing yards per game: 150.5 yards per contest.

“We looked at the process over these last couple days of, ‘Alright, how can we be better with it?’ What do we need to do from a coaching standpoint, player standpoint, from a practice? How we’re implementing the techniques, just back to the basics because you can’t give up, I think we’re at what, 150 yards a game? You can’t do that and think that you’re going to win in December football. That’s just not how it happen.”

The Commanders face the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, one of the NFL’s worst rushing offenses.

Steelers’ safety is ranked 1st by PFF in run defense

Steelers’ safety DeShon Elliott has been great through seven games of football. PFF has recognized him as the best run defending safety.

Pro Football Focus has decided to give Pittsburgh Steelers safety DeShon Elliott his flowers. The former Raven was acquired in free agency by Pittsburgh during the 2024 offseason and has made his presence felt immediately. While Steelers free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick hasn’t had his usual success this season, struggling to record any splash plays, Elliott has played at an elite level thus far. 

PFF has an interesting reputation in Pittsburgh, as the polarizing grades of Steelers players have sometimes left a lot to be desired. However, Elliott is currently being graded by the organization as the best safety in the 2024 NFL season against the run. 

While many were aware of the talent Elliott possessed, no one could have truly predicted the impact the Pittsburgh strong safety would make when he signed his two-year, $6.0 million dollar contract back in March.

Elliott is a key component to this Steelers’ defense and why it has played at such an elite level in 2024, and will look to continue his dominance against the run when his team takes on the NY Giants in Monday Night Football, on October 28th at 8:15 PM EST.

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5 Reasons for Optimism for Raiders Week 7 vs Rams

It may seem like every team the Raiders face is in better shape than them. But that isn’t always the case. In fact, the Raiders actually have a better record than their next opponent. The Raiders are at 2-4 on the season, while the Rams are 1-4. So, …

It may seem like every team the Raiders face is in better shape than them. But that isn’t always the case. In fact, the Raiders actually have a better record than their next opponent. The Raiders are at 2-4 on the season, while the Rams are 1-4. So, while there are certainly causes for concern, you probably don’t have to look too far to find some reasons for optimism. Here’s a few.

Each week since Crosby missed his first career game, he has looked better and better. Last week in the loss to the Steelers, he was racking up the pressures and only Justin Fields’s supreme athleticism and quick decisions kept him from getting blown up by Crosby. Matt Stafford is not nearly that fleet of foot and is more likely to stay in the pocket than Fields was, opening up the possibility of Crosby getting home a few times.

These days the closest the Raiders have to a number one receiver would appear to be Bowers. He had nine catches last week and leads the team in targets (46), receptions (37) and yards (384). He leads the league in receiving among tight ends, and has him on pace to surpass 1000 yards on the season. Not to mention when he gets the ball his hands, he is among the league leaders in yards after catch. The Raiders will continue to feed him so long as defenses fail to stop it.

Currently the Raiders have the second worst rushing offense in the league. But this week they will go against the very worst run defense, so maybe they can get something going? The Raiders had the worst rush offense while Zamir W/hite was the feature back, so his potential return doesn’t necessarily mean a whole lot. But it can only help to have one more healthy back in the stable along with Alexander Mattison whose four combined touchdowns leads the team.

Looking at the kind of points the Rams have given up had me doing a double take. They have given up at least 24 points in all five games this season. Even the win. And they gave up 41 points to the Rams. The Raiders, on the other hand, have only scored more than 24 points once this season (26). So, maybe the Rams defense is bad enough that the Raiders offense can actually put some points on the board.

SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Raiders’ home away from home. In fact, when they play the Chargers in LA, they get their best crowd of the season. Rams fans represent better than the Chargers, but even still, LA is Raiders country. And for that reason, the crowd is expected to be about 60-40 in favor of the Raiders. Which is about what you get at Allegiant on a good day. That should help the Raiders feel more welcome as well as keep down the noise when they’re on offense.

‘No bells and whistles’: Mazi Smith, Cowboys smother Giants’ run game with impressive showing to build on

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys put up the best numbers of any NFL run defense this season, and the first-round draft pick thought to be a bust led the way.

The Cowboys run defense finally put on the performance that everyone had been waiting for.

But the star of the show was someone nobody expected.

Dallas held the Giants to just 26 total rushing yards on in Thursday night’s 20-15 win. The 1.1 yard-per-carry average they allowed represented the lowest ever in Cowboys franchise history in games where the opponent had at least 20 rushing attempts.

And garnering universal praise for the effort is none other than defensive tackle Mazi Smith, the former first-round draft pick who many in Cowboys Nation had already written off as an all-time bust.

Smith ended the night with three tackles- one of them for a loss- and was PFF’s highest-graded player (88.4) from the game. He knows his interior position doesn’t exactly lend itself to monster stats, but the 23-year-old seemed immediately aware that his Week 4 outing was an important step in what was been, thus far, a rough start to an NFL career.

“I feel like I grew. I feel better,” Smith said from the visitors’ locker room after the win. “I want to keep growing, don’t want it to be a flash in the pan.”

But Smith was even more pleased with how the rest of the Dallas defense executed their game plan on the night. Taking away any semblance of a Giants’ ground attack was instrumental in helping the Cowboys snapping a two-game losing streak in which the run defense got torched for 464 yards on the ground by the Saints and Ravens combined.

On Thursday? The unit took real estate back from the Giants over the third and fourth quarters; New York’s rushing total after the halftime break was negative-three yards.

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“Everybody was doing their job. Everybody was doing what they’re supposed to. That’s really how you stop it,” Smith explained. “It ain’t no bells and whistles to stop a run game: everybody do their job, do what they’re supposed to do. That’s how you stop it.”

After back-to-back weeks of Cowboys team leaders complaining about some of their teammates playing “hero ball” or “trying to be Superman,” Smith and the rest of the Dallas defense seemed to more faithfully stick to their assignments at MetLife Stadium. As a result, they allowed the fewest team rushing yards in an NFL game so far this season.

And that- much more than the questions and skepticism swirling around the unit the past two weeks- is something Smith believes the group can actually put to use going forward.

“People be talking and chirping. Nobody’s worried about that. And if they are worried about it, they’re worried about the wrong thing,” he said. “Ain’t nobody getting out there playing the run for us or with us; don’t care what they’ve got to say.”

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Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley to test rebuilt Saints run defense

The New Orleans Saints run defense has had trouble against the Philadelphia Eagles in the past. Will Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley put them on their heels?

The New Orleans Saints have had trouble with their run defense in the past against the Philadelphia Eagles, most notably in their 2020 matchup when both Miles Sanders and Jalen Hurts each surpassed 100 rushing yards. However, the Saints defensive line has been revamped since then, and while the run defense was exceptional back then in most games, it has been similarly effective in more recent years as well.

Entering Week 3 of the 2024 season, the Saints rank second-best in rushing yards allowed, giving up only 126 on 41 attempts. They also rank second in yards per carry allowed at 3.1, tied for third in rushing touchdowns allowed with one, and fourth place in rushing first down percentage allowed at 17.1%. Cameron Jordan has remained a stout run defender, but they’ve also invested in guys like Bryan Bresee and Nathan Shepherd. The secondary is tackling better, too, with Alontae Taylor developing into a sure thing in the open field.

However, it is worth noting that they faced two running back groups which are not necessarily known for their effectiveness, as well as two quarterbacks who are not anywhere as mobile as Jalen Hurts. Having to deal with mobile quarterbacks has been an issue for the Saints in the past, primarily because they employ a 4-2-6 defense, which means they have one less linebacker on the field at times to run as a spy. We’ll see if that approach changes with Willie Gay Jr. chomping at the bit for more reps, having been brought in specifically to defend agile passers.

Hurts has played two games against the Saints, and while he has never hit 200 yards passing in either of those games, he has averaged 87.5 rushing yards in those games at 4.9 yards per carry. He also had three touchdown runs in his most recent game against the Saints back in 2021.

Saquon Barkley is a little more interesting, as his history against New Orleans is not exceptional, in three games he averaged 36.7 rushing yards (3.4 yards per carry) with only one rushing touchdown, and a single receiving touchdown. He did well as a receiver, averaging 51.0 receiving yards per game against the Saints and 11.8 yards per reception. His most recent appearance against them came last season, where he had just 9 carries for 14 yards and 2 receptions for 23 yards.

This will no doubt be the biggest test of the Saints’ run defense yet this season, as having to deal with multiple facets of the rushing attack is always difficult to figure out.

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Maxx Crosby laments Raiders ‘leaky’ run defense in loss to Chargers

Maxx Crosby laments Raiders ‘leaky’ run defense in loss to Chargers

At the half the Chargers had 26 yards on the ground. But as the second half went along, the cracks started to show and eventually the dam broke.

Maxx Crosby was a major force in the Raiders defense holding the Chargers down early and keeping it a one-point game at the half. His disappointment in the team’s inability to keep it going for 60 minutes was palpable.

“It’s a game of inches and a game of details and we weren’t detailed enough for four quarters,” said Crosby. “We did some good things, but there’s a couple runs where it’s on us. At end of the day it’s about block destruction, getting off blocks and finishing plays and we just let things get a little leaky at the end and that’s not what we’re about, so we got to fix it moving forward.”

Crosby referred to a couple runs in particular that bit the Raiders in the second half. The two runs he is referring to are almost certainly the 12-yard TD run by JK Dobbins to begin the fourth quarter and the 61-yard Dobbins run to set of the game clinching touchdown late in the fourth.

The 12-yard run went inside the right tackle and it was Divine Deablo who  blew the gap, blitzing too early and ending up on the edge along with Crosby, leaving a good sized hole for Dobbins to run for the end zone.

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The 61-yard run once again saw Dobbins choose the gap where Diablo was not. This time Diablo went inside the guard and Dobbins bounced to inside the tackle and was gone for 61yards before Nate Hobbs could chase him down.

Three plays later they were in the end zone and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.

Colts’ defense doesn’t have an answer for Joe Mixon and Texans’ run game

The Colts’ defense had no answer for Joe Mixon and the Texans running game in their Week 1 loss.

Coming into Week 1, much of the attention was on how this Colts’ secondary was going to hold up against the Texans’ receivers. However, at the end of the day, it was the Houston run game that caused the Colts the most fits.

As a team, the Texans finished the game rushing for 213 total yards. Leading the way was running back Joe Mixon, who was acquired via a trade from Cincinnati during the offseason, totaling 159 rushing yards at over 5.0 yards per rush.

According to Colts.com, this was the first time that the Colts allowed a rusher to eclipse the 150-yard mark in the last 56 games.

“They did a great job rushing the ball today,” DeForest Buckner said. “As a D-line, we gotta do a better job with getting off blocks, obviously, not having too many busts when we’re blitzing or whatever it is. We kind of beat ourselves.”

That success on the ground for the Texans had a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of their offense. Steady gains on early downs create short down-and-distance situations where the entire playbook is open for the offense, forcing the defense to defend the entire field, which can then help open up opportunities in the passing game.

Or in short, it becomes much easier for an offense to keep a defense off-balanced and guessing when they have to defend both the run and the pass–putting an additional strain on a secondary that doesn’t need that.

The other advantage a strong run game can create is the ability to string together long drives. When it was all said and done, the Texans held the ball for 40 minutes compared to the Colts’ offense having possession for just 20 minutes.

This led to a huge discrepancy in number of plays ran, with 76 for the Texans to the Colts’ 43, and can certainly wear a defense down.

Houston was able to take advantage when Grover Stewart wasn’t on the field, which did also happen at times last season. However, with how heavily the Colts have invested into the defensive front, even with the addition of Mixon for the Texans, I’m not sure anyone saw this performance coming from the Indianapolis defense.

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard could be a bad matchup for soft Saints run defense

Panthers RB Chuba Hubbard could be a bad matchup for a soft Saints run defense. New Orleans has gotten gashed in recent weeks:

It’s taken some time for the Carolina Panthers to figure out what they have in Chuba Hubbard — the young running back was a non-factor when the New Orleans Saints took down the Panthers back in Week 2, totaling just two carries for 16 yards on the evening. But he should be in line for a heavier workload during Sunday’s rematch, which is bad news for a soft Saints run defense.

Hubbard just put up 104 rushing yards with a pair of touchdown runs on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ top-10 run defense. A week earlier, he ran for 45 yards and another touchdown while gaining 47 receiving yards. He’s emerged as Carolina’s top option in the backfield.

And that could be a problem for New Orleans on Sunday. Look at some of the performances the Saints have allowed to running backs after coming out of their bye week:

  • Jahmyr Gibbs: 8 carries for 60 rushing yards
  • David Montgomery: 18 carries for 56 rushing yards and a touchdown
  • Bijan Robinson: 16 carries for 91 yards and a touchdown; 3 catches for 32 yards and a touchdown
  • Tyler Allgeier: 10 carries for 64 yards

Those are just some of the highlights. Dennis Allen’s defense has gotten pushed off the line of scrimmage far too often, not just in the last two games but in the last few years. Their run defense was once known for strong anchors and quick reaction speed to plug gaps and force teams to pass. But it’s been eroded over time and now opposing offenses don’t have any fear when dialing up a run. It’s a big problem.

While the Saints may be favored to defeat the Panthers this week, Hubbard’s rise to prominence and the porous New Orleans defense in front of him gives Carolina an opportunity to at least keep it close, if not try for an upset on the road. The Panthers may have just one win this season but they aren’t an opponent the Saints can afford to overlook. Watch out for No. 30 on Sunday.

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Packers run defense puts together second consecutive strong outing vs. Rams

The Packers consistently stuffed the run game of the Rams and Vikings over the last two weeks.

The run defense for the Green Bay Packers has made a drastic turnaround over the last two games.

Against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday, the Packers held ball carriers to only 2.6 yards per rush, and even that figure was bolstered by quarterback Brett Rypien scrambling for 19 yards on three attempts. The week prior, the Minnesota Vikings averaged only 2.0 yards per carry as a team. Between the two games, the Packers allowed just one explosive run of 10 or more yards.

Prior to these two game, the Packers ranked 25th in run defense, allowing 4.5 yards per carry, including two games with over 200 rush yards allowed. In total against Minnesota and Los Angeles, however, they surrendered only 2.3 yards per rush attempt.

By no means are the Rams or Vikings among the top rushing teams in the NFL. The Rams entered Week 9 ranked 17th in yards per carry at 4.0 and Minnesota 27th at 3.7. But nonetheless, credit where credit is due. The Packers defense did its job and held both opponents well below their season averages—something that hasn’t often happened against the run.

“At the end of the day,” said Kenny Clark after the Rams game, “it’s just a mentality and everybody knowing exactly what run gap they’ve got and understanding that’s what teams are going to want to do. When it’s a close game and it’s back and forth, all teams are going to try to do is continue to run the ball on us and try to shorten the game. We’ve got to understand that as a defense and keep playing to that style and fit the run. We’ve been doing a really good job.”

Overall, there haven’t been any drastic changes made by Joe Barry to help facilitate the Packers’ current level of play. There may be times where depending on the situation, they have more defenders closer to the line of scrimmage, and the defense still continues to use pre and post-snap movement, something they’ve done for much of the season.

However, what we have seen is improved play from those on the field. TJ Slaton has been a force inside the last few weeks, generating consistent push and eating up space. The edge defenders were particularly good against the Rams, not letting the ball carrier get outside and funneling everything back towards the middle. The return of De’Vondre Campbell at linebacker has certainly been a factor, and the elevated play of Isaiah McDuffie on Sunday in place on Quay Walker was a contributor as well.

“We’ve been doing a lot of movement up front, but that’s the same thing we’ve been doing all year, honestly,” Clark said. “It was good to have DC [De’Vondre Campbell] back. [Isaiah] McDuffie played a hell of a game with his [two] TFLs, with his [seven] tackles.

When a defense can slow the opponents’ run game, it makes the jobs of everyone on that unit easier to do—an important aspect with the Green Bay defense featuring two seventh round rookies in the secondary on Sunday. In second and third-and-long situations, the pass rush can pin its ears back and get after the quarterback without having to worry about defending the run. The defense as a whole is able to do the dictating by getting into favorable matchups, and the secondary is able to play more aggressively as well.

Against Minnesota, the Packers defense really struggled to get off the field on third downs, but it wasn’t because of their run defense. The Green Bay defense forced the Minnesota offense into third and eight or more yards on 12 occasions but the pass defense allowed seven first downs in those situations. This week against the Rams, however, the defense was able to come up with those stops, holding LA to just 5-of-16 on third or fourth down attempts.

As the Packers’ offense continues to try to find some sort of consistent footing, the defense is going to have to shoulder a lot of the burden and keep opponents off the scoreboard. Step one to doing that is to continue holding up well against the run. As we’ve seen, when that is accomplished, there is a positive trickle-down effect to the rest of the defense.

However, we’ve also seen the flip side – the Atlanta and Detroit games – which results in the defense playing on its heels for much of the game, dulling the pass rush and putting the secondary in difficult situations.