The Steelers' 24-17 Sunday night victory over the Chargers at Dignity Health Sports Park featured several big plays from the defense. They shut out Phillip Rivers and the Chargers in the first half and only allowed late scores when the Chargers' time was running out.
Rivers targeted his top two receivers, Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, 16 times and only completed seven passes to them for 105 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
Keith Butler and the Steelers' defense had a plan to take away Rivers' top threats, and it worked. Let's break down how big the effort was from the Steelers' coverage unit:
I wrote extensively about how Rivers and Allen exposed the defense last season. And Dale Lolley wrote last week about how the Steelers planned to make sure that wouldn't happen again this season. A big part of that problem last season came when Allen was matched up with linebackers, and particularly Jon Bostic.
The Steelers made a significant investment to make their defense more athletic to handle these situations. Chief among those changes was 2019 first-round pick Devin Bush, who made his presence known by leading the Steelers with seven tackles, a pass defended, an interception, and a recovered fumble which he returned for a touchdown.
Rivers tried to take advantage of Bush early, and with the help of a Tyson Alualu tip, Bush intercepted the pass. Bush was still in position to cover Allen, even without the tipped pass, and it showed an immediate difference compared to the coverage of Bostic or L.J. Fort in 2018:
But the Steelers didn't rely on just Bush. Even without Steven Nelson, the secondary had several contributors on the night. The team recorded ten official passes defended from Bush, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Terrell Edmunds, Tyson Alualu, Joe Haden, Dan McCullers and Cameron Sutton.
Sutton led the team with three breakups, all of which came while guarding Williams. Williams was the seventh overall pick for the Chargers in the 2017 NFL Draft, while Sutton was selected in the third round by the Steelers in the same draft.
Rivers saw those two matched up against each other all game, which was a big reason why Williams had ten targets. But Sutton continuously challenged Williams and made life difficult. Watch how Sutton takes away the in-route from Williams. When Williams breaks into his cut, Sutton moves stride for stride with him without any unnecessary contact, and fights through Williams' hands to knock the ball away:
Rivers kept trying to find mismatches for Allen and Williams to exploit, but the Steelers kept finding answers. During a third and long, Allen was lined up in the slot — he is one of the NFL's premiere threats while lined up there.
Last year, Butler didn't want to sacrifice moving his top cornerbacks inside when the Chargers lined up Allen in the slot. That changed Sunday night. Watch how Haden is matched up in single coverage with Allen the entire way.
Being in man-to-man, Haden has to establish inside leverage and not let Allen cross his face. Once he's done that, Allen cuts to the outside and pushes off a bit to create separation. Rivers sees that space and tries to fit the ball between Haden and the sideline. But Haden is ready and makes a terrific play on the ball to force fourth down:
This was the most ready I've seen the Steelers' secondary this season for challenges all over the field. Both Williams and Allen present dynamically different threats with Allen as the quicker slot option and Williams as a physical jump-ball threat.
When Rivers tried for Williams on one of those jump balls, Sutton locked him down again. Watch how he establishes the inside leverage, then fights to stay locked in with Williams and not give up any ground. Sutton was even in a better position to attack the ball than Williams:
Sutton finished the night with only one tackle, but on top of his three breakups, he had an interception and he made a difficult play to recover the Chargers' onside-kick attempt. Mike Tomlin acknowledged Sutton's effort after the game.
"He upheld the standard with the quality of his play," Tomlin said of Sutton. "Not only on defense, but man, that onside kick recovery was a spectacular play."
Even when Rivers thought he saw openings for his top receivers, the Steelers adjusted and took them away. Watch how Rivers gets tricked into thinking Allen had found the soft spot in the Steelers' zone defense. The Steelers drop back into zone with Williams running a seam route and Geremy Davis running a short hitch.
Allen's deep-in route fits between both, but Fitzpatrick preys on Rivers' read that Allen found the soft spot in the Steelers' zone. That play by Fitzpatrick almost led to an interception:
It was clear the Steelers learned from their mistakes last season and had a very good plan to counter it. Combine that with allowing only 32 yards on 13 rushes and you have a dominant showing on the road from a young defense that's getting better each game as their chemistry with each other grows.
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MORE CLASSROOM
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Oct. 10: Finally, a defense with ball skills
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Oct. 8: Williams’ return repairs a lot
