Shield Your Eyes - Colts @ Steelers - Pregame Thoughts
The 7-1 Indianapolis Colts are coming to the City of Steel for a game against the 4-3 Pittsburgh Steelers that has a chance to be a bloodbath. These two teams come into week 9 with extremely different vibes coming from both locker rooms and fan bases. The Steelers, reeling from two straight losses and looking to stop the bleeding on defense, will have to do so against the number one offense in football in the Colts, winners of four straight.
On the injury front, things are as dire for the Steelers as they have been so far this season. Players that will be OUT for this game include WR Scotty Miller (Finger), S Chuck Clark (Illness), S DeShon Elliot (IR-Knee), S Jabrill Peppers (Quad), and LB Cole Holcomb (Illness). That’s right - the safety room got hit by a Mack Truck this week, and our communication problems could be exacerbated as a result. We acquired S Kyle Dugger from the New England Patriots - a very solid box safety who has proven to be very good against the run and is dangerous as a pass rusher, too. Word on the street is he hasn’t been the same guy since he had tightrope surgery on his ankle back in January, but obviously we need all the help we can get right now. I think most of the fanbase, myself included, is hoping to see Jalen Ramsey start at FS and Kyle Dugger start at SS, but we’ll see how it shakes out. No matter how the coaching staff plays it, I think Brandin Echols and James Pierre are going to have big roles in this game so that Jalen Ramsey can be used elsewhere.
For the Colts, they could have some defensive line issues as Grover Stewart (Foot) and Tyquan Lewis (Groin) are both questionable for tomorrow, and Samson Ebukam (Knee) has been ruled out. One of their receivers, Anthony Gould (Knee), has also been ruled out, and one of their corners, Jaylon Jones (Hamstring) is questionable. I suspect they’ll spend a lot of time in their base defense since the Steelers like to operate with heavier personnel groups, so I doubt they’ll rush Jaylon Jones back. With that being said, I’m sure they’re hoping to get some good news about their two d-linemen tomorrow.
This is a mismatch, folks. There’s really no way around it. The Steelers are 30th in total defense allowing 386 yards per game and the Colts are 1st in total offense averaging 385.3 yards per game - a real case of a moveable object meets an unstoppable force. Tucker Kraft killed us last week for 143 yards on 7 catches, and this week, the tight end coming to town is rookie sensation Tyler Warren who leads all TEs with 492 receiving yards so far this season. Also, since Mike Tomlin and Teryl Austin have struggled to see beyond the issues against the run, I might as well point out that Colts RB Johnathan Taylor is #1 in rushing (850 yards) and #1 in total TDs (14 - five more touchdowns than second place).
In anticipation of tomorrow’s matchup, I went back and watched the Broncos/Colts game from week two to get a feel for some of the things we might see tomorrow. When I watched this play (above), I thought about what it could look like with the Steelers trying to defend it and it made my head hurt a little. In that play, you can see they have Tyler Warren lined up in an offset H-back spot…they use a little play action, and Warren’s route splits the o-line, and it’s an east completion over the middle. Obviously, you gotta know where he’s at at all times, but I would’ve said the same thing about Tucker Kraft and we saw how that went.
Another thing that struck me in that game was how willing Danny Dimes was to hang in there and take hits and still get the ball out. Denver blitzed him a LOT, and he tore them apart for 316 yards and a touchdown. If you know anything about that Denver defense, then you know how impressive that is. Last week, we blitzed Jordan Love nonstop, and he shredded us. This week, it might be in our best interest to rush four, and let guys cover, but we’ll see what the coaching staff thinks. As for Johnathan Taylor, it’s just kinda an “is what it is” type of situation. Even Denver’s defense couldn’t contain him - he broke a 68-yard run in the fourth quarter of that game that set the Colts up in the red zone when they were down 28-23. He’s having the kind of year where even if you play a perfect game from a gap integrity standpoint, you’re probably still going to have to overcome one or two of these big runs. The key with all of these Colts stars is going to be forcing them to make mistakes (turnovers), which is something we haven’t done in over a month.
The matchup on the other side of the ball is a lot less daunting in my opinion. I mentioned all of the injuries they might have to overcome on their defensive line, so this could be a solid opportunity to get the run game going. For two weeks in a row now (and coincidentally 2 losses), the Steelers run game has started off hot and then been abandoned in the second half. We might as well climb in our coffins now if we’re going to do that again this week. This is the number one offense in football, and to me, the best way to mitigate the damage they’re going to do to us is to keep them off the damn football field. Time of possession will be everything for us in this game. I’m not sure that this team is capable of beating the Colts in time of possession, but I think they’re capable of making it interesting. In Jaylen Warren I trust.
If it’s any consolation, Vegas currently thinks the Colts are only 3.5 points better than us, so that’s interesting. Let’s just try and keep a cool booty in this one, guys.
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