NFL: Third and Long: Pittsburgh’s Partial Success and the SPOX All-Pro Team

Week 15 had the regular season game of the year to offer: In the AFC heavyweight fight, the patriots beat the Steelers, despite Pittsburgh’s defensive preparation of a very good game plan. However, this came with a decisive weakness. Also in this issue of the NFL Column: The Packers should take Aaron Rodgers out for the rest of the season, the SPOX-All-Pro-Team and a full mailbag!

You also want to ask questions to the SPOX-NFL column? This goes directly to the author!

The Steelers losing the duel with the Patriots in this way is incredibly bitter. However, the chaos at the last Steelers play of the game, which ended with Roethlisberger’s interception in the end zone (more about it), tells only a part of the story. Because Pittsburgh had a good defensive game plan for a long time, which they finally adapted to New England.

In the past few duels, Patriots and Brady Pittsburgh’s Zone Coverage had broken down time and time again, and the Steelers responded on Sunday: a defensive game plan that was heavily based on Man concepts and at the same time prepared for the Underneath Rub Routes New England so fond of playing.

Instead of waiting for Brady to have too much time in his pocket against the 3-men rush and to find the gaps in zone coverage at some point – all too often seen in the AFC Championship game of the pre-season – this time Pittsburgh took the initiative: The Steelers attacked Brady with a 4-men rush and situational lightning, and combined this with aggressive coverage.

Again and again, a similar pattern was seen, especially against New England’s 5 receiver spread formation: Pittsburgh played four times directly man-to-man in these situations, with a deep safety hedge and an underneath zone defender. And with a plan: this zone defender was able to take over a player in Man Coverage in the middle of the field to eliminate New England’s rub effects. This, for instance, gave the Steelers the interception.

The problem is that the Steelers had no plan B for Rob Gronkowski, neither in Zone nor in Man Coverage. Here too, a pattern can be seen on tape. Gronk ran numerous in-breaking routes, ideally away from the free Underneath defender.

This made it incredibly difficult to impossible for the pitiful Sean Davis – Pittsburgh’s safety had Gronk mostly in Man Coverage – to stand up to the best tight end of the NFL. Gronkowski caught 158 of his 168 yards on Sunday when Davis had him in coverage. And even in Zone, it wasn’t really any better, the old-fashioned loopholes were revealed here, when New England could play its option routes and attack the weak points in a targeted way.

And the ending? The play call of the Steelers at the end was then, there is nothing to euphemism, bad. Roethlisberger wanted to spike the ball, Tomlin the fake spike. The Steelers had not played it for the first time, of course New England was prepared for it. This is what distinguishes the Patriots: When a team has done something, it is in Belichick’s head. The players confirmed this, and New England had defensively rehearsed this situation with the fake spike.

And the execution was devastating: obviously Roethlisberger had expected a fade route, the receiver ran a slant into the center served with defenders. So far, so bad, but then firing the ball in Double Coverage is simply desolate of Big Ben himself.

And if he is already throwing the ball in the situation, the ball placement has to be much better – in front of Rogers, where there was plenty of room. It was a chaotic closing sequence on the one hand and a perfect defense on the other. This made the difference at the most critical moment of the game.

The fact that the healing process of Aaron Rodgers’ broken collarbone is more likely to be 80 than 100 percent was clear to all before his eagerly awaited comeback against the Panthers. It obviously did not interfere with his decisions, otherwise at least some of his scrambles would not be explained. But at the same time you could see that it influenced its precision and throwing power.

Rodger’s interceptions were conspicuous – all too short litters. Passports that Rodgers can fit in top form. If it’s more like 80 percent, the turnovers that you could see on Sunday will come out.

That doesn’t mean that Rodgers can’t adapt to it and play around with it, but in several scenes he showed exactly that against Carolina. But what can the Packers still win if they leave Rodgers in there? The playoff-place was lost by the defeat against the Panthers and Atlanta’s victory against Tampa, so the season was over. It would be a mistake if the Packers Rodgers would now continue to postpone hits and risk another injury. Even if it is “only” a broken collarbone.

Instead, it would be the smart decision to let Brett Hundley start again and let Rodgers heal up. The latter is supposed to be at 100 percent for the coming season and the preparation, but Hundley has left many desires unfulfilled in his missions over the past few weeks. It would be a good opportunity for him to show himself again before his contract expires after the coming season. Even though I wouldn’t expect too much from it. But to let Rodgers play a stricken game now doesn’t do the Packers any good.

Page 1: Steelers vs. Patriots and Aaron Rodgers was supposed to be on the bench

Page 2: Brady, Brown, Donald, Jones and Co.: My All-Pro Team 2017

Page 3: Coach Carousel, Vikings, Broncos, Packers, Bears – your questions