Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Preview & Prediction | PFF

Seattle Seahawks vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Preview & Prediction | PFF

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Ghost your losses, get your payout in partnership with DraftKings Sportsbook. The crown is yours. The next game we’re talking about is the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Seattle Seahawks. This game is in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh hosting this one after uh their win in New York. And the Seahawks obviously traveling across the country after their loss against the San Francisco 49ers. Where we starting here, Dolan? So, we’re going to look at the Steelers defense. And despite them winning, I I can guarantee you Mike Tomlin was very irritated with the fact that the Jets were clearly the more physical team on the field on both sides of the line of scrimmage than the Steelers were last week. Obviously Aaron Rogers bailed them out and the Jets made a couple mistakes late in the game, but the Steelers were not good, especially against the run last week. And I want to talk about, as we do often with Seattle, outside zone running. They didn’t do a great job last week running the ball against San Francisco, but the Steelers showed some weaknesses as well. 15 outside zone runs the Steelers saw against against against the Jets last week. 12 of those 15 went to the left and I want that to be an important part here because that is away from TJ Watt. The Jets made a plan of okay, we’re going to run at the interior guys and make cutbacks. We’re going to run at Alex Highmith. We cannot run at TJ Watt because he’s arguably the best rundefending edge player in the league. But as a team on those 15 snaps, 53.7 run defense grade, the Jets had five and a half yards per carry and four explosive runs. Bree Hall had a fantastic day running away from TJ Watt and getting those zone blocks going to the left. Now, the Seattle offensive line is not as established, and I know the Jets have young guys, but they really established themselves in that game as possibly a good unit, especially Arman Meu there at right tackle, but I I think this is going to be the key and what Mike Tomlin’s going to want to see is better run defense from his team because Seattle’s still going to try to run the ball with Clint Kubak. The offensive line is trying to gel. didn’t get into it last week and I really believe that’s the reason they lost the football game last week against San Francisco. They didn’t control time of possession. They didn’t get I think maybe one or zero explosive runs on the day if I remember that right. It just didn’t the offense couldn’t get layered the way that Clint Kubak wants it to. If they can run the ball better against Pittsburgh this week, or if Pittsburgh, I should say, doesn’t improve from their performance that they had in New York last week, then you got yourselves a real a real situation here with Seattle’s offense. Even though Pittsburgh’s defense on paper is an elite unit, but the Jets ran it right down the throat last week and especially away from TJ Watt. I think a lot of people now kind of like flipping to the Steelers side of things. A lot of people were were honest about Aaron Rogers grade last week with him. You throwing four touchdowns and and yet his PFF grade I think was in the 50s or 60s, I can’t remember. About a 56 about a 56 or so. 56 there. There it was. And a lot of people were were sort of like getting on us for that. And the fact of the matter is, you can go back and watch all four of those touchdowns if you want. Two of them were wide open. It was blown coverages. Uh, another one was a a throw to the flat on the goal line in which Jamon Sherwood, the Jets linebacker, had no chance to make a play on it. And then the other one was just a pop pass in the back field that ended up going for a touchdown. And so, yeah, okay, the stat sheet tells you it’s four touchdowns, but it’s not like Aaron was really working for it. Now, of course, we’ll give him his credit because he was able to see certainly when those uh wide receivers were wide open from the blown coverages, his eyes were able to go to it pretty quickly and he was able to get his guys the ball, which sort of goes into what I want to talk about to preview this game. The Steelers yards after catch last week from those uh from those blown coverages and also from some DK Metaf magic there. 172 yards came after the catch for the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was third most in the NFL last week. And I thought about it. I was like, man, I feel like the Steeler I feel like the Seahawks played a little bit tighter in coverage, but they also had some coverage bust themselves. 126 yards after the catch for the San Francisco 49ers. That was seventh most in the NFL. So, if the Seahawks aren’t on their P’s and Q’s when it comes to coverage, it might be a similar day that we could see from the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now, I don’t think it’s going to be quite that highscoring because I don’t see this Seahawks defense uh having as many blown coverages as the Jets did last week, but it is something to note there for that Seattle Seahawks defense. On the other side of things, the Steelers have to run the football better and and 53 rushing yards, that’s 29th most in the NFL last week. I mean, like they just they straight up have to have more rushing production because, like I said, I think it’s going to be it’s going to regress towards the mean, if you will, with how the Seahawks play. I don’t think the Steelers are going to going to get as many yards after catches they got this past week. I don’t think they will see as many blown coverages as they did against the Jets this upcoming week. So, in order to balance that out, they have to run the ball better. But getting to the offensive line, I’m worried about Brick Jones at this point. Like, we’ve talked about Brick Jones over the last two years. In week one, 44.9 pass blocking grade from Brick Jones. He had three sacks allowed and four pressures allowed. like this just it’s just not good enough. It has to be so much better for a guy that you’re hoping is your franchise offensive tackle. And so we thought that that was going to be an issue for the Steelers going into this season. And I think it’s going to be an issue in this game. If Jones cannot play better, Seattle’s got the guys to be able to get after the quarterback and to be able to get the ball out of Aaron Rogers hands very quickly. So I am taking the Seahawks in this game. I’m taking the Seahawks 24 to7. And the reason why is because I got worried about just the Steelers offensive line in general going up against this Seahawks defensive line. And if I think those guys are really pressuring and getting in the face of Rogers, you know, Rogers at this point, he does not want to take hits. He’s going to get the ball out of his hands quickly. He’s smart enough as a quarterback to be able to do that. But I think that Mike McDonald knows that he can play his corners more aggressive. I mean, he’s got Devon Witherspoon, Reek Woolen, Josh Job. All three of those corners have the strength and the length to be able to play that press type of coverage that is much closer to line of scrimmage. So, if you’re getting the ball out very quick against a team that’s not afraid to play press against you, that’s a tough day at the offense. It’s a lot of contested catches. It’s a lot of tight window throws. And if Rogers is able to do it, hats off to him. But I feel as though if that’s the storyline and that’s how it’s going to manifest, give me the Seahawks in a slight win here, 24 to7. That’s what I’ve got for the score of this game. Yeah, it’s funny because they scored 34 points last week and yet I think your concerns about the Steelers offense are justified. I actually think this is both ways going to be a lowscoring game. I think but I I still think though the best unit on this field and they’re going to have they need to bounce back. They need to play more physical. I think the Steelers defense at home here with Seattle making the long trip. I I think that’s still going to be the best unit. I think they’re going to bounce back. Mike Tomlin knows they have to be more physical on the defensive line. I’ve got Pittsburgh 21-13 over the Seahawks. And I just think if you have an offense in Seattle that’s also still trying to gel, still trying to find its way. And the problem of Jackson Smith and Jigba really being the only guy that did anything as a receiver last week for Seattle is if they’re this is the moment for the for the Steelers is they’re going to put Jaylen Ramsay in the slot a lot this week against Smith and Jigba. Then where else do we go? Is it Cooper Cup? Is it Tory Horton? Is it Elijah Royal? Where else can Sam Darnold throw the ball? Because if I’m Pittsburgh, I’m putting Ramsay over Smith and Jigba in the slot. I’m leaning everything his way. Kind of similar sometimes how teams do against CD Lamb in Dallas. Just make somebody else beat you, right? And if they can’t find a way to do that against a solid group of corners and what should be a very very good defense, then I’m not sure how Seattle’s going to put up a ton of points. I think we get a low-scoring defensive game. 2113 Pittsburgh. Yeah, I think that we’re uh I I I I’m remembering some of the picks that I have and there there are a handful of upset picks that I have this week and I I just feel as though man, it’s like we watched week one and there are certainly things to take away from week one because if you showed uh strengths and weaknesses like obviously those are major points that you want to take into week two, but things can change a lot in week two and I think that we might be able to get closer to what real teams identities are over the next two weeks specifically. Uh, and that’s why I I I think that this week could be ripe for a good amount of upsets because the books might be going off of what happened last week in a lot of spots and maybe giving teams a little bit too many points. The overunder for this one was 40 and a half. And so they they agree with you that’s a lowcoring type of affair. I have the score total at 41. So I have it barely as an over. You have it as the under at 21 to13. And so, um, it’ll be interesting to see how these teams match up because there’s no doubt about it, the Steelers, in theory are the more complete defensive line against the the Seahawks offensive line. I will still go with the Seattle Seahawks

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Seattle Seahawks and The Pittsburgh Steelers.

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