While everyone focuses on the matchups between the lines, the biggest matchup for the Steelers' opener at First Energy Stadium this Sunday will be Ben Roethlisberger in his sixth meeting with the Browns' defensive coordinator, Gregg Williams.
Williams has had a long NFL career of being a defensive coordinator and a head coach, but since Roethlisberger entered the league he's been with six different teams. The two have faced each other five times, stretching from Ben's rookie season to last year's season opener.
Roethlisberger leads the series 4-1, but Williams has always managed to find ways to limit and hit Roethlisberger with aggressive strategies aimed at making him hold the ball or generating pressure:
Roethlisberger has been sacked every time he's faced Williams' defense. Considering the Browns have Myles Garrett and a considerable investment in their front seven, pressure is going to be a major factor in how Williams wants to get to Roethlisberger.
Williams likes to be aggressive in his pass rush, especially on obvious passing downs. That means the Steelers should expect sub packages and various lineups that force the offensive line to communicate on their assignments. Take a look at this blitz Williams dialed up with the Rams that got to Roethlisberger back in 2015.
The defense lined up Robert Quinn (No. 94), Alec Ogeltree (No. 52) and Marc Barron (No. 26) all next to each other just outside of the left tackle, Kelvin Beachum. Ogeltree rushed the edge against Beachum while both Quinn and Barron darted to more inside gaps. Beachum was able to get to his spot, but in all the mixup he fails to get his hands on Ogeltree and gets shoved right into Roethlisberger, allowing the sack:
That same style of blitz got to Roethlisberger later in the game, this time getting Barron a free path without Le'Veon Bell in to protect. This was also the play that left Roethlisberger injured for the next several weeks:
The key to protecting against those situations will be Roethlisberger's ability to recognize those overload blitz situations and effectively communicate where the extra protection has to be, or where the offense can go. Despite the weapons Roethlisberger has, the Steelers still need to find ways to counterpunch Williams' defense when it gets aggressive.
That aggression applies both in the pass rush and the coverage packages. Williams is not afraid to assign his cornerbacks to press coverage with a lot of room to work and let them get physical at the line to force the quarterback to hold the ball. If they miss their jam it could be disastrous, but if they keep Roethlisberger from seeing an open target it gives their pass rush more time to work.
Take a look back at the interception Roethlisberger threw last year against the Browns against man coverage. The Browns line up in a man scheme with two deep safeties in Cover 2 for protection. It was typical for the safeties to line up anywhere from 15 to 20 yards off the line just in case one of the Steelers' receivers broke free. While the Browns are in this coverage scheme, there's a lot of open grass in the middle of the field as the rest of their defense is devoted to rushing Roethlisberger.
The best counters to these plays are typically intermediate route combinations that negate the safeties because of how far back they are and force the cornerbacks to be disciplined across the board. Roethlisberger thinks that Martavis Bryant will split the two safeties, but doesn't get the ball over the underneath cornerback who tips the ball into the hands of another defender:
Roethlisberger has to find ways to exploit the Browns' aggression on different coverages and blitz packages. We talked about how Randy Fichtner was putting the young quarterbacks in good situations to make decisive reads during the preseason, but the effectiveness of his play calling will be put to the test in this game.
If the Steelers are going to use spread formations like they did last year, they would benefit in bunching up their receivers to make it more difficult for man assignments to be as clean. Watch how Antonio Brown lines up next to JuJu Smith-Schuster at the bottom of the formation. Their stacked positioning makes it difficult for a jam, and the Browns in their zone defense struggle to keep up with either. Brown's shallow cross frees him up and makes for a quick and easy read by Roethlisberger:
Roethlisberger's success against Williams' defense will depend on his ability to counterpunch the Browns' aggressiveness. When they try to press the Steelers' receivers, bring heat, or do both at the same time, that's when Roethlisberger will have to be at his best.
Keep an eye out when we make note of these moments in Sunday's live file.
