Halicke: Offense operates without fear over the middle

The nickname for any two-high shell coverage is middle-field open. The Chargers run a lot of it. And, contrary to any naysayers about Arthur Smith's offense, the Steelers wanted to exploit it.

A big reason why the Steelers walked out of Acrisure Stadium on Sunday with a 20-10 victory over the Chargers is because the offense used the middle of the field in the passing game, something they completely shied away from in their Week 1 win in Atlanta and only dabbled with last week in Denver.

And none of the plays hit bigger than a 55-yard touchdown pass from Justin Fields to Calvin Austin III to give the Steelers a 10-point lead midway through the fourth quarter:

This play pretty much put the game on ice. The Chargers were without star quarterback Justin Herbert for the majority of the second half due to his high-ankle sprain, and they were completely helpless with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback as the Steelers' defense limited Los Angeles to a staggering -5 yards in the second half. Getting up two scores with just minutes to go all but guaranteed a 3-0 start to the season for Pittsburgh.

But, how did the offense use the middle of the field? After all, Fields didn't even attempt one pass over the middle against the Falcons in Week 1. First, let's break down the play above, then get into why the middle of the field became a catalyst for how this offense moved the chains:

The Chargers are in Cover 4 here, meaning the two cornerbacks are responsible for the deep portion of the outside quarters of the field while the safeties both split the inner deep halves of the field. And because there are five men rushing, that leaves only two defenders in the middle of the field.

Two routes open things up for Austin, especially with how the Chargers defended it. Fields broke down a bit of what happened here:

"You're really just high-lowing that hook defender," Fields said after the game. "The hook defender took (George Pickens) underneath and Calvin was right behind him."

That hook defender (Derwin James) was one of the two defenders left on the second level. With James selling over to Pickens on the out route, as Fields said, that opened the window for Austin on the post to the middle. But, it should have necessarily sprung him free for a touchdown.

"Sometimes with two-high shell, they want to keep everything in front," Austin said. "Sometimes, you've got to capitalize on some RAC (run after catch). We've been emphasizing that all offseason. It came into fruition here."

That's the other wrinkle to this play. Go back and watch Pat Freiermuth's route. Daiyan Henley (No. 0) is responsible for both the middle and can't abandon the flat since the cornerback has responsibility deep. All Freiermuth does is sit in between the two zone defenders. It's second-and-7. With that kind of space, Fields could hit him quickly and move the chains.

However, Alohi Gilman (No. 32) sees Freiermuth sitting in a wide open space and crashes down on him, abandoning his deep fourth of the field. There are no deep routes there, so he probably figured that he was safe to help keep Freiermuth limited should Fields make that easy completion. But, when Gilman abandoned that deep fourth of the field, all it did was create a running lane for Austin.

That's knowing the defense you're playing. And, the data was right there for everyone to see coming into the game. Through the first two weeks of the season, the Chargers were one of the league leaders in running two-high/middle-field open coverages. According to FantasyPoints.com, the Chargers ran out of a two-high look 65.2% of the time, the fourth-highest clip in the league. And, the Chargers were also one of the league leaders in using zone coverage, deploying it 82.6% of the time. Only the Colts and Cowboys ran out of zone more often.

That's why this play was ripe for the plucking on third-and-15:

And this one on third-and-4:

And this one on the first play of the Austin touchdown drive:

And the thing is: There could have been more over the middle. Pickens dropped one early in the game on third down, a play in which Asante Samuel Jr. was probably a tad early, but still a catchable ball for a guy whose expected to catch a high percentage of contested throws. And, Freiermuth dropped a bullet from Fields over the middle near the end of the first half that would have gotten the Steelers much closer for Chris Boswell than the 62-yard attempt he missed:

If none of this does it for you, maybe the passing chart will:

NFL NEXT GEN STATS

This is why you don't overreact to one game. When the Steelers didn't us the middle of the field against Atlanta, it was not indicative of how this offense was going to run. Finding explosive plays against zone, middle-field open coverages isn't easy. But, today proved you can find ways to pull it off when executed correctly.

This offense still has a ways to go. The first half was really, really rough at times. They couldn't run the ball. 100 of the Steelers' 114 rushing yards came in the second half. They made no attempt to stretch the field on the defense.

But, they made adjustments, put Cover 2 and Cover 4 beaters in the adjustments, and went out and played a great second half. And, had Najee Harris not been tackled at the 1-yard line as the Steelers were trying to run out the clock, the offense would have put up 27 points on a defense many considered to be one of the league's best through the first two weeks of the season.

Not too shabby for an offense that's just three games into the season.