Keith Butler saw a big step up from his defense against the run from 2017 to 2018. Despite losing his best player in Ryan Shazier, his unit found a way to go from ranking 27th in yards per carry allowed in 2017 to ninth in 2018.
Much of that was because of the improved communication and composition of the defense in how it reacted to offensive adjustments and maintaining gap integrity. We dig in to show you how that happened and why they can carry that upward momentum into 2019:
There are multiple factors to examine on the Steelers' improvement against the run from 2017 to 2018. I broke down every week how their tackling graded out and finalized those grades at the end of the year with our final whiff chart.
The decrease in missed tackles was vital, but just as important was the improved communication and coordination of the defense. Especially when Shazier was out of the picture, the run defense in 2017 could be haphazard at times, missing routine adjustments and opening up gaps for easy gains by opponents.
Watch how the pre-snap adjustments progress in this 48-yard run by Alfred Blue back on Christmas Day of 2017. The Texans motion their tight end across the formation and the simple motion causes confusion in the defense.
You can see Sean Spence and Vince Williams slide down, but then point for Sean Davis to come up to help on that side of the formation, their beckoning for him to move up growing more frantic with every second. When Davis finally does move up, you can see Williams clap aggressively, knowing they need to be sharper in such a routine adjustment.
When Blue gets the ball he attacks the weak side and hits his gap untouched. The Texans got a guard to Williams and Spence never worked his way to the weak side, opening up for a huge gain:
Breakdowns like this happened often in 2017 to the point that it was the team's Achilles' heel. Teams like the Texans found find their way back in games or teams like the Jaguars could close them out with killer runs by Leonard Fournette.
But 2018 saw a better performance when it came to limiting those types of big plays. Despite not improving in turnover production, the defense found ways to limit offenses and force them to be consistent with their production rather than breaking loose on random runs that bail them out when their passing game couldn't.
Watch how the Steelers contain this reverse to Curtis Samuel, the young speedster coming from the same backfield as the dynamic Christian McCaffrey and the dangerous Cam Newton. The defense has to honor multiple run threats, but they stick to their assignments and contain the play.
Anthony Chickillo maintains his edge on the side of the reverse, Williams maintains his gap even as it expands because of the play, Jon Bostic moves with the pulling guard, and Bud Dupree seals his side beautifully by bumping Newton and staying as deep as the deepest man in the backfield. The result is a bottled up Samuel who has to scramble to gain a single yard:
Notice how seamless the adjustments by the defensive front were against the Panthers as compared against the Texans. There was no frantic clapping or hurried adjustments to fill assignments, just a solid understanding of what everyone had to do to contain the play.
Stops like this became more of the norm in 2018 and have to continue to improve for 2019. Bostic wasn't a major upgrade against the pass, but he was a strong presence against the run with gap integrity. Both Mark Barron and Devin Bush will be tasked with understanding adjustments at the line of scrimmage and responsible for keeping the run game contained.
Butler will be looking for his linebackers to lead the charge in this improvement. If they succeed, the Steelers' defense will be that much better against the run. Better run defenses force longer third down attempts, which, in turn, force more desperate pass attempts. More desperate pass attempts lead to higher chances for interceptions and turnovers.
It all connects, and that's what Butler has to make happen to keep his job after 2019.
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