One of the biggest factors I saw play into the Steelers' 26-24 win over the Colts on Sunday at Heinz Field was how their defense came out in the second half. The Colts had 130 passing yards in the first half, but only 97 in the second half.
When you subtract the 30 yards from their three second half sacks, the Colts only had a net of 67 yards passing to close out the game. I made sure to ask a bunch of the Steelers after the game about the adjustment to compare them with my notes when I reviewed the tape, and the results were illuminating.
It wasn't just about how they adjusted, but how diverse Keith Butler's scheming was with the athletes in his defense. Let's look closer:
The first half featured plenty of underneath passes from both Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer. The Steelers debuted their rover defense featuring a 1-5-5 look against the Dolphins. That formation allowed them more moving parts to create confusing and chaotic looks.
And they faced an offense that wasn't winless and had won on the road against the Chiefs and the Texans. Even with Hoyer, the Colts had a veteran quarterback who could make smart veteran reads against the Steelers defense and pick at weak spots in their designed coverage packages.
Here's a perfect example when the Steelers used that rover defense to disguise a coverage. They start the play aligned with one high safety and showing either Cover 1 or Cover 3. But just before the snap, Minkah Fitzpatrick bumps to his right from being the lone deep safety and Terrell Edmunds drops back to cover the other half of the field.
This switches the Steelers into a Cover 2, a look that opens up different parts of the field. Hoyer doesn't flinch and makes the right read to pick at the Cover 2 with a smash concept. The smash combines a deep corner route with an underneath hook or a short slant.
Eric Ebron runs the deep corner while Chester Rogers runs the underneath route and catches an easy eight yard completion to move the chains:
Because Edmunds vacated his space, Rogers' route was more open and Hoyer picked up on it. Early on, Hoyer was playing tough and reading the different zone defenses. But this Steelers' defense has the speed to show those diverse looks and run man-coverage schemes to challenge receivers, tight ends and running backs across the field.
Here's an example of that on a big third-down stop in the second half. The Steelers are using the Rover look again, but this time they're in a Cover 1 man scheme. The Colts line up running back Nyheim Hines outside with Steven Nelson, then motion him next to Zach Pascal to give him some clearance to get open.
But Nelson calls out the switch and Devin Bush quickly jumps on Hines' shallow cross route, even avoiding the other shallow cross that could've blocked him from covering Hines. The result is a tight passing window and an incomplete pass that results in fourth down:
The Steelers weren't just going to let Hoyer continue to dink and dunk them underneath. They came out in the second half looking to challenge those underneath options to force him to throw downfield more.
Haden told me about those adjustments after the game.
"We knew Hoyer was getting the ball out quick," Haden said at Heinz Field. "We started to get a lot of pressure from T.J. (Watt), Bud (Dupree); those guys did a good job getting after the quarterback. We knew we had to get a little bit tighter on coverage because the ball was coming out faster."
That's when first-half observations can lead to major second-half results.
And those adjustments continued on the very next play when the Colts went for it on fourth down. They tried to use a drive concept with tight end Jack Doyle running the deeper in route to clear out space for Ebron running the shallow cross underneath.
But Joe Haden was matched up with Ebron on this key play. Watch how Haden handles the much bigger Ebron by fighting for position, establishing inside leverage and not allowing his crossing pattern to be open. This takes away Hoyer's primary option, forcing him to hold onto the ball and giving Dupree more time to get the sack, forced fumble and turnover:
There were some breakdowns in the second half, and one in particular that led to the only touchdown they surrendered in the half. Rogers runs a corner route while Ebron runs an underneath out route.
Haden loses Rogers when he thinks he's passing him off and leaves him open. You can see him recognize his mistake as he puts his hands on his head and Mark Barron acknowledges his mistake:
But it's clear that when those breakdowns don't happen, this defense can run with all types of threats. Watch how Terrell Edmunds takes on Doyle's out route, not allowing him to create space and breaks up the pass to stop the two point conversion:
Edmunds still doesn't have a turnover on the season, but he fits the profile of the athletic defense that allows Butler to deploy several different looks to disguise coverages and challenge various receiving threats around the field.
That allows Butler and Mike Tomlin more options to change the defense up with aggressive calls when offenses do find first half success. And those adjustments sometimes that lead to big wins.
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