Pittsburgh Steelers Takeaways: Nick Herbig has earned more than a backup role, the offense can finally breathe, and no one won an ST role.
DETROIT — The Pittsburgh Steelers offense made most of the team’s headlines this preseason.
There was the quarterback competition between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, a new offense being installed but not necessarily revealed by Arthur Smith, an offensive line struggling even with two top draft picks, and much consternation about the lack of talent at the wide receiver position — and that was before the first-team offense went out and laid two straight eggs to open the preseason.
The offense looked much better on Saturday against the Detroit Lions, scoring twice in the first two drives before sputtering when the reserves entered.
But while the largely negative headlines about the Steelers offense dominated, the dominance on the other side of the football seems to have been largely missed. Through three games, the first-team defense allowed just one score, and they did it without a single snap from T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward or Alex Highsmith.
There’s no player that made a bigger contribution to that dominance than second-year outside linebacker Nick Herbig.
With Heyward and Watt on the shelf, the Steelers gave the undersized Wisconsin alum as many reps as he could handle, and Herbig took advantage. In three games, he recorded seven tackles and 3.5 quarterback sacks.
Saturday in the finale against the Lions, Herbig was everywhere. On the second snap, he drove back his blocker, forcing a running play wide for a minimal gain. On the third, he came on an interior blitz and forced a quick throw by Hendon Hooker. On the fourth, he defeated a double team to sack Hooker. On the sixth, the stripped the ball away from the Lions quarterback.
On the next drive, he made the tackle for a short stop on first down, and helped cause some more pressure on third down. Mike Tomlin showed mercy on the Lions offense by sending No. 51 to the bench for the rest of the day. Against fellow backups, Herbig was just too good.
Tomlin often talks about improvement from a player’s first year to his second. Not only has Herbig done that, he’s forced his coach’s hand to find him some playing time beyond being a backup to Highsmith and Watt.
“He’s behaving like a guy that’s been a lap around on the track,” Tomlin said. “He’s just taking the jump, and he’s been there before. He’s finally in this footing. He wants to be impactful and obviously we’re going to find a role for guy like that, whether he is quote unquote a starter or not, when he’s got the opportunity to be significant, and he showing that, not only in stadium but in the team development work.”
The Steelers have been there before, when Highsmith forced their hand in his rookie season, getting the team to run a package with three outside linebackers, with Highsmith joining Watt and Bud Dupree. You may very well see a reprise of that package this year, because Herbig is proving to be tough to keep off the field.
GOOD TASTE FOR OFFENSE
The reaction to a handful of drives over two games for the Steelers offense in the preseason had probably been pretty over-wrought, but if it dragged through a third game and into the regular season, there might have been some significant weight behind the noise of the fanbase.
Job No. 1 for that unit was to make sure that didn’t happen. Mission accomplished. The first-team offense scored twice, once under the direction of Wilson, and once under Fields, in two drives, to firmly wash the bad taste of the first two weeks’ play out of their mouths.
While their struggles were unlikely to continue in game play, given then way they’ve practiced, putting some good play on tape was certainly a life burden for that unit.
“You never want to play games and struggle in them,” Fields said. “I think that in-game production, putting some points on the board, we can definitely take the good things from this game and move onto the next game.
“We just needed results that are indicative of how we’ve worked,” Tomlin said, supporting the notion that the Steelers offense probably won’t be as bad as it looked against Houston and Buffalo long-term.
Two things improved on the day for Saturday. The Steelers converted on third down — something Tomlin repeatedly referenced as a frustration over the first two games — and they got a big play in the running game, which we had yet to see in the preseason.
When a screen pass to George Pickens went for a loss on the second play of the game, Pickens knew that the next snap was a critical third down with 11 yards to go.
“I knew I needed to make a play,” Pickens said. “Other drives in the previous games, we got stalled out in the first drive.”
The connection between Pickens and Wilson has been growing since Wilson returned to action midway through the preseason, and it’ll be a critical one for the team this season.
“They matched him up man-to-man, and he did a great job of winning,” Wilson said. “Once again, the protection – the time that I had on that play was really good by the guys up front, and GP is one of the best in the game, so he’s hard to cover. He does a great route, got some extra yards. His yards-after-catch is phenomenal too – best in the league. He’s just a playmaker.”
NICE TO MEET YOU
So far, the Steelers have seen relatively little of 32-year-old running back and kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson. Patterson missed all of the spring and most of training camp while recovering from a hamstring injury. He finished the preseason without even returning one of the new-to-NFL modified kickoffs.
But he did show that he still has plenty of wheels on Saturday, taking an inside handoff for a 31-yard house call.
“I’ve seen that a lot in the last decade or so, it just hasn’t been in a uniform that I’ve been associated with, so it was pretty cool.”
Patterson hasn’t shown much this preseason, and it was reasonable to start to wonder how the injury might’ve impacted the veteran speedster. It’s safe to say his long speed looks just fine.
BETTER BRODERICK
After a rough go against the Bills, and especially against defensive end Greg Rousseau, second-year tackle Broderick Jones had a much better showing against the Lions. While facing lesser competition, Jones did not allow a sack or even a significant pressure after yielding two sacks to Buffalo.
“My steps felt good today, just being able to slow them down and hone into the game,” Jones said. “Playing my brand of football. I felt like it was good. A good building block.”
After trying Dez Fitzpatrick, Beanie Bishop, Ryan Watts and several others over the first two game at punt gunner, the Steelers settled in with Scotty Miller and Darius Rush for the final game.
There weren’t any obvious gaffes, but the return coverage was not good on the whole. Rush slipped trying to make one tackle. Isaiah Williams averaged 10 yards on three returns, even though Cameron Johnston restrained himself to a long kick of 53 on his six punts after booting several 60-plus yarders the week before.
The coverage unit must improve, and while you can give Miller and Rush a leg up on roster battle at the moment, don’t be surprised if the Steelers are active in adding experienced coverage men on cut-down day.
