Carter's Classroom: Haley's vital change of pace

Dec 7, 2016 • 10:14 pm

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Matt Gajtka's piece on the pace of the Steelers' offense a few weeks ago was more than timely. It addressed the problem that came from the team's play selection.

Ben Roethlisberger was throwing often earlier in the season, reaching 44 attempts or higher four times in his first eight games. While it makes sense to keep the ball in the hands of the offense's leader and oldest contributor, the results led to more incomplete passes and less time with the ball, placing the defense on the field for longer periods of time.

That's why Matt's piece was on the money, as the style of offense had a high-risk/high-reward balance to it. Sometimes you could get explosive performances like how the team performed against the Redskins, Chiefs and Jets, but also put your team in more difficult situations like it did with the Eagles, Dolphins and Ravens games.

So what's the difference?

The obvious answer would be the increase in running the ball, which the Steelers have done more so in their past three games. Each of those three games featured Le'Veon Bell carrying the ball more often than any of his games from earlier in the season.

But that's not the only thing that's changed. It's also the method of attacking through the air and the increase in quick-reads and more guaranteed passes for Roethlisberger that have increased. This helps take the pressure off Roethlisberger and removed some of his inconsistency from earlier this season.

DOMINATING GROUND GAME

The Steelers' three-game winning streak has coincided with Bell's three-game streak of gaining more than 100 yards on the ground. That's from a combination of Bell's uncanny ability to read the developments in a defensive front and act on those reads along with the strong play of his offensive line.

The above play is an example of Bell exploiting a well executed zone blocking scheme. The object is for each player to maintain certain spaces in an effort to force defenses to choose which gaps they want to defend and to give the running back the opportunity to read the defense and choose the weakest point of the defense rather than directing him to attack a specific hole.

Notice how Bell sees that the gap between Chris Hubbard and David Johnson and that the defender responsible for it was a defensive back. Bell easily makes him miss in space and gets upfield for a first down.

Bell's decisiveness combined with his insanely quick feet make him a difficult target for defenders to get a fixed on when the Steelers' offensive line can give him the space to make moves like the one he puts on below:

While Alejandro Villanueva needs to finish his block on the outside linebacker, his teammates have done a good enough job to make it so that even with two defensive backs creeping into the box, Bell has a huge space to work within on the play. Notice how far to the right Bell goes, forcing the linebacker to honor that side of the hole, and then Bell cuts right behind him for the big gain.

Todd Haley knows that Kevin Colbert rebuilt the Steelers' offensive line with three studs in Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro and Marcus Gilbert, and that means the offensive line needs to be an asset which the Steelers utilize more often.

That means designing plays where their athleticism and size can be of the most value. That's why there have plays designed for DeCastro and company to become a lead blocker out on the edge:

Watch how DeCastro clears out the defensive back on the right side on the above play. That's Eli Apple who does a good job of attacking the play and goes low to take out the much bigger and stronger player in DeCastro. But DeCastro goes low with him and pushes him out of the way so that Bell can continue to follow Jesse James down the line.

James does a great job on Landon Collins, lowering his pad level and keeping his hands inside of Collins' to keep him off Bell.

Establishing the run allows the Steelers to maintain balance for an offense whose passing attack is missing four of the top five receivers it planned to have after last season in Martavis Bryant, Markus Wheaton, Darrius Heyward-Bey and Sammie Coates. Even though Coates is still available, his broken fingers have made him less of an asset and required former practice squad players to step up.

That trend should continue with the Bills being one of the worst defenses against the run, but building off the run game to keep defenses off balance is the next step.

CREATIVE WAYS FOR GUARANTEED YARDS

Finding ways to get the ball out quickly and to gain small chunks of yardage keeps defenses on the lookout for multiple possibilities. The more that opponents have to think about what possibilities exist, the less they can focus on executing their reactions:

The play above does just that; it gives Brown a chance to make a routine catch and gain 4-5 yards on an early down to set up a manageable down and distance. The pacing of this kind of play prevents a defense that has been susceptible to continue to focus on stopping the run.

It also forces defenders to run with those short routes more throughout the game and opens up plays like this:

This isn't your typical screen, as Antonio Brown's drag route over the middle clears out the right side of the field. The read on this play bases itself in seeing the Giants in man coverage, as the routes of the receivers clear out the screen. Typically a screen goes away from the space which the receivers start, clearing space by allowing pass rushers to come free on one side of the field so that the running back can slip behind them.

This helps build that chemistry that becomes difficult to predict and requires a lot of discipline to defeat. When this and the running game are clicking, defenses have to focus on several variables to contain the offense. That's when the big plays can be manufactured.

LONG PASSES

Roethlisberger has not taken as many deep shots as he did earlier in the season, and it seems that's by design. When it does happen, it helps to have plays like this that keep defensive backs honest:

The play above is a comeback pattern that is covered well but is still completed. Watch how Brown's move turns the cornerback around from covering the possibility of Brown going deep. Haley has designed plays when Brown has the option to make that a short route or a deep one, based on how he reads the defense. Roethlisberger's chemistry with Brown is how they both read the same thing and trust each other to be correct.

But Brown cannot be the only person who benefits from attacking vertically. Especially when he's such a dangerous player in the short game that can eat up 4-5 yards as we showed earlier. Watch the play below and take note of how it plays off the wide receiver screen:

Watch how the defenders above flow right to Brown on this play and open up space for James behind them. This plays off their aggressiveness and becomes increasingly frustrating to defenses as the game continues.

Now not only do they have to consider a run game and creative shorter pass options, as well as screens, but also the possibility that all of them could be a ruse to make them give up big plays.

Those shorter plays can force even the best players to get caught up in being overly aggressive, as it does to Collins on the play below:

Watch how Collins bites on the shorter route option by LaDarius Green and gives up the seam in the cover-one defense. Collins is on his way to being one of the best safeties in the league and is undoubtedly the best young safety in the NFL as is, but even he can be taken advantage of when multiple layers of the offense are successful.

What makes that play even more difficult is the situation; it's third-and-short, meaning the Giants have to decide whether to be aggressive and work to prevent short routes, or to keep the play in front of them to prevent the touchdown and possibly give up the play underneath. Collins opts to the former and is exploited.

Then there's what Roethlisberger has always had in his bag of tricks, and that's his own X-factor of being able to buy time for his receivers to get open down the field:

The above play is vintage Roethlisberger, as he rolls to the right and draws the linebacker closer to him, opening up space for Green deep. The linebacker is already at a disadvantage with an athlete like Green in coverage, but when he has to think this quickly on what to do, it's difficult for any player to make the right decision.

As the Steelers approach another dreaded road game, this time against the Bills, they will face a defense that ranks in the middle of the league. These same opportunities will be there, so it will be interesting to see if Haley and the offense keep the same pacing they have the past three weeks, or if they give more of the reigns back to Roethlisberger as they did earlier in the season.

Carter’s Classroom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday on DKPittsburghSports.com.