Brett's Cowboys Corner

The 3-1 Steelers are coming off their first loss against checks notes Joe Flacco’s Colts. What is going on? Anyways the Steelers have found themselves against a lot of under performing teams in moments, is that a product of a tough and physical team or is that more the right place at the right time. As I watch Atlanta walk off with a win on TNF, it does not seem like they’d only drop 10 points in a rematch with Pittsburgh.

Steelers versus the Cowboys, an American classic. Many Superbowl matchups but a surprising first…Sunday will be the first time these teams meet on Sunday Night Football. Cowboys currently lead the all-time series 17-16, with the last trip to Pittsburgh being a memorable win for two rookies, Dak Prescott and Zeke Elliott. In 2016, Zeke capped off a 35-30 win with a 32-yard run right up the middle. The last meeting in Dallas was less exciting as 38-year-old Ben Roethlisberger matched up with Garret Gilbert playing QB for the injured Dak, 24-19 Pittsburgh won.

The Steelers commit to their run game, though last week Dallas improved in run defense, they have overall been very poor in this department. Najee Harris is better than Devin Singletary, so this will be a good test for the Cowboys run defense. I think we will know very earlier how it is going to be all night. Justin Fields is an athlete with his legs, and will likely take a few notes from Lamar Jackson’s game against Dallas.

The Steel Curtain has historically been a tough defense, this group has not been a great run defense and has given up big pass plays. The Cowboys need to get a little more creative on routes and they can give Pittsburgh some headaches. They have been good with leads but have struggled trailing, as Indianapolis started out a quick 17-0 run against them.

OFFENSE

Justin Fields: The Bears decided to move on from Fields after three years because they saw something brighter when they were awarded the #1 overall pick in the draft. A day after signing Russell Wilson, the Steelers traded for Justin Fields. At the time it seemed this was going to bridge a year from Wilson to Fields but after a calf injury to Wilson, Fields stepped in and led the Steelers to a 3-0 start. Wilson says he is good to go, but the Steelers decided to stick with Fields against the Colts and now Dallas on Sunday Night. Justin Fields has done well in ball protection and doing just enough to allow the Steelers to win games, his ability to make plays with his legs may be the turning point on NBC.

Arthur Smith’s Play Style

The Steelers are very similar in play calling to the Cowboys. They keep everything short and simple. They keep everything close to the line of scrimmage and like to lean on a run heavy offense.

One thing unique about their personnel packages, they use a lot deep rotation of tightends, they will line them up inline with the offensive line but will frequently line them up as slot receivers. Pittsburgh has used 13 personnel, which is 1 running back and 3 tightends on the field at once, a league high of 17.5%. For reference of how rare this is, the last team to ever come close to that number was Cleveland Browns in 2021 at 17.6%. Also in two tightend sets, the Steelers will use those packages 46.3% of the time.

The strange part is the Steelers are 21st in the NFL at yards per play, 3.8, when having two or more tightends on the field.

When They Do Throw

The Steelers like to run a lot of curl routes short of the first down markers and will always look for out routes outside the numbers. So they try to make throws easy and safer for Fields by using the boundary to protect the ball.

Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Fields has thrown short of the sticks on a league-high 72.5% of his attempts this season, completing 61 of 73 such attempts for 462 yards, a TD and an INT. And for those outside throws, another league high, 52.3% of his attempts are outside the numbers.

George Pickens is the main target when throwing, again primarily throwing to him outside the numbers. He makes a lot of tough catches, Fields has thrown him a lot of passes that typically would be too low or behind him, but somehow he always comes down with it. Of course there is data to back this up, thanks again to Next Gen Stats, George Pickens has caught 6 of his 13 targets with a sub-50% completion probability for 144 yards this season.

Watch for Calvin Austin as he is the deep threat target. The speedster will be found on crossing routes as well as find soft spots of the coverage down field. Fields doesn’t go to the deep ball too often but with Austins separation, its hard to pass up.

The tightends; Freiermuth is a shallow, dump off pass catcher. Not much run after catch, but reliable hands, he will often run a lot of out routes to the sideline. Washington is a 6’7″ physical pass catcher, high point the ball to him.

These Guys Like to Run the Ball!

The Steelers are currently tied for first for the most rushing attempts in the NFL. Though they have not had the most success in the run game, the Cowboys have not been a great run defense and this will be a test. But regardless the Steelers do not give up on their run game.

Justin Fields has recorded the 2nd-most carries (18) and 2nd-most yards (73) on designed quarterback runs this season. This will be a game where I think Fields will decide to tuck the ball and take off more than he has, especially if he is watching the film on the Ravens game against us, nothing better than getting those QB run looks.

Najee Harris, RB, 6-1, 232

Najee Harris is a physical runner who can break out a home run on you. Though he has been limited by a poor run blocking line, he racks up plenty of yards after contact, it will take a few Cowboys to bring him down. I fear the poor run defense from the Cowboys may make Najee look like it’s 2020 Alabama again.

Cordarrelle Patterson, RB, 6-2, 220

Patterson may be their most beneficial back, the offense moves better when he is out there to be a short pass and run weapon. He will get a few carries a game, but averages about 8 yards a carry. He will be more used in the pass game as a swing pass guy behind the line of scrimmage. Dealing with ankle injury and is currently questionable.

Jaylen Warren, RB, 5-8, 215

Warren did not play last week due to a knee injury and is questionable against Dallas, through the first three weeks he has been in the same boat as Najee and overall been under performing his expectations on the year.

Run Blocking Struggles at Times

Taking a look at the Chargers game, there were times where the offensive line was struggling to hold up blocks and create holes for Harris.

There is nowhere for Najee to go on this play. In the Cowboys situation, we would see their defensive tackles being angled inside and taken out of the play. For Pittsburgh they are running into a wall of defenders. The tightends have not been blocking great and being plagued with injuries on the offensive line, this has been devastating to the Steelers run game.

Zach Frazier is a rookie center, just like in Dallas but unlike Beebe, Fraizer does not play with a lot of power and the entire line has struggled with sustaining blocks. Mason McCormick is another rookie at guard but may not have to bear another week starting if Isaac Suemalo is back from his pectoral injury that has kept him out the start of this season.

DEFENSE

Mike Tomlin: The Steelers head coach since 2007, started under the Tony Dungy tree as a DB’s coach in 2001. With 17 non-losing seasons consecutively, the Steelers always find themselves at least .500 and usually backing their way into the playoffs. Coach Tomlin has been a defensive mastermind for this team and though his players have changed a lot through his time, he has kept the identity of Pittsburgh being a tough defense the same, and elevating a lot of great players from Troy Polamalu to TJ Watt.

TJ Watt and the DLine

The star of the Steelers defense is TJ Watt, with three sacks on the season he will line up against Terrence Steele as he traditionally always lines up against the right tackle. Teams have had success chipping him and usually double team him. Steele had a great day against Brain Burns last week, allowing zero pressures.

The Steelers send the typical 4-man rush and have success, they blitz 5th lowest in the league at 20% of dropbacks.

Nick Herbig will line up against Tyler Guyton who has had some issues this year. He has generated 9 pressures and 2 sacks on just 45 pass rushes (20.0% pressure rate) this season.

The inside matchup will be watched again, this time Cam Hayward will be the man to manage on the inside. If a defensive tackle can create pressures that will limit your ability to throw and can mess up your run scheme. Per Next Gen Stats, Cam Heyward has generated 11 pressures on 83 pass rushes this season (13.3% pressure rate), the 9th-highest pressure rate among defensive tackles in 2024 (min. 50 pass rushes). If the defense stays typical, he will matchup head to head on Tyler Smith.

Where are Defensive Struggles

Linebackers like to Guess

When we see struggles from the Pittsburgh, we see problems with the linebackers guessing. Patrick Queen can make some big plays, but with his speed he guesses a lot. He wants to be the first to make a big play and get into the backfield. With misdirection or a simple bad decision on Queen’s part can lead to chunk plays. Play action has been killer to him because of the guessing.

Cornerbacks in Zone Coverage

The two outside corners have played well. Joey Porter Jr. was an absolute steal of the draft and Deonte Jackson on the other side has held up. Porter generally plays better with tight coverage and doesn’t allow much separation, which the Cowboys have been the worst at creating separation in the NFL. We see most of the problems in zone coverage and crossing routes. The Cowboys will be without 2nd receiver Brandin Cooks, so it would be cool to see a young guy step up against them and maybe we should have creative play designs this week.

Primarily from the Colts loss, the Steelers have had some issues as a redzone defense, we will see how that holds up on Sunday Night Football.

Defense has Not Allowed Points

The Steelers have only allowed 13 points a game, and have been forcing a lot of punts and drive stallouts this year. They play best when they can force teams into passing situations because of their pass rush. They have crushed teams defensively when holding a lead.

One last guy to mention, who will give the Cowboys headaches potentially is Minkah Fitzpatrick, he is always around the ball and very active in all areas of the game. He will lock down the middle of the field and may takeaway Dak’s favorite seam route to Jake Ferguson.

This will be a tough gritty game for Dallas but can potentially show that the run defense is not full of holes. Dak may need to be superman for this offense…sorry Dak.