The Steelers' ground game was a major factor in their 17-10 win against the Patriots last season, and you can expect that to be part of Mike Tomlin and Randy Fichtner's plan for the season opener on Sunday night.
Jaylen Samuels ran for 142 yards on 19 carries behind a dominant performance by the Steelers' offensive line. He was the epitome of Tomlin's "next man up" mantra in the place of James Conner. But Conner is healthy and has fresh legs to start the season. So how big can he be as the Steelers try to beat Tom Brady in Foxboro for the first time in franchise history?
Let's take a look:
The first step to understanding the Steelers' success against the Patriots last year is looking at the plays called for Samuels. Instead of employing power run schemes that the offense normally thrives with, the Steelers used a lot of wham- and zone-blocking schemes to stretch out the Patriots' defense.
Power run schemes rely on blocking assignments where offensive linemen have a specific player assigned, with pulling linemen to get in front of the running back and blow up defenders to get success. Zone schemes rely on linemen being assigned to protect certain spaces.
The wham is a similar concept, but with a tight end coming from one side of the formation to block the other. Both zone and wham schemes give the running back options between the gaps. That forces the defense to account for more options. Watch how that benefits Samuels on this 25-yard run. He approaches the A-gap behind Maurkice Pouncey and then runs behind Ramon Foster to the biggest hole:
Samuels thrived behind the Steelers' zone schemes in limited snaps. That wasn't always the case for Conner throughout 2018. His problem was finding the balance between patience and aggression in attacking various gaps. Too much patience can turn into hesitation and become a missed opportunity, like this run against the Chiefs:
Conner looked like he turned that around by season's end. When he came back from injury he looked much more comfortable running in the zone schemes. Watch how smoothly he stepped up into the A-gap behind David DeCastro for a quick 8-yard gain:
Expect Conner to get the bulk of looks at running back, but don't be surprised if Samuels is sprinkled in with occasional touches. Both will get opportunities to run behind various run schemes against the Patriots, but look for specific points where the Steelers call zone schemes and how well they succeed.
If the Patriots are unable to maintain gap integrity against the Steelers' zone runs, it could force them to focus more bodies toward directly attacking the Steelers' run game and open up better passing opportunities for Ben Roethlisberger.
Much of that could depend on how the Steelers handle Michael Bennett on the edge and Danny Shelton at defensive tackle. Bennett is a new addition and Shelton missed the Steelers game last season, but has faced them several times while with the Browns.
Bennett will be up against Alejandro Villanueva for much of the game while Shelton will battle Pouncey, DeCastro and Foster. Bennett will need to turn back runs from his edge to keep Conner and Samuels between the tackles. Shelton can be an active body in the middle and if he can be disruptive enough take up the A-gap on zone runs, the Patriots might be able to control the interior runs.
If the Steelers don't dominate the trench wars on offense, expect a long night for Roethlisberger and the offense.
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