The Jaguars' Leonard Fournette stiff-arms Bud Dupree earlier this season at Heinz Field. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

Steelers

Kovacevic: Is Fournette the threat? If so, how?

By Dejan Kovacevic

Jan 9, 2018 • 12:00 am

9.3K

Blake Bortles won't beat the Steelers.

We can agree on that much, right?

No deliberate disrespect to the Jaguars, but show me a quarterback who's misfired on 30 of 57 passes over his past two games, who's got an 84.7 passer rating that's below Landry Jones' career 86.2, who's completed more than 20 passes in six of his team's 17 games, who's won six of 30 road games he's ever started ... and I'll show you the guy who won't beat you.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Ask Doug Marrone and the Jacksonville coaching staff, because it was their call to basically forbid him from participating in their team's 30-9 victory Oct. 8 at Heinz Field. Unless anyone could count eight completions for 95 yards as some critical contribution.

And don't worry about the scrambling, either.

No need to pile on. He just isn't very good.

Which means that the threat has to be Leonard Fournette.

I mean, he's the guy who stomped all over the Steelers for 181 yards in that first meeting, including this 90-yard sprint in the fourth quarter:

Well, not so fast.

To start, that play is machine-like in its execution on Jacksonville's part. Watch over to the left how Artie Burns overpursues then gets shoved out by the fullback, Tommy Bohanon. Watch Cam Heyward get swallowed up by the double-team he faces so often. Above all -- and this is the red circle -- watch the right guard, A.J. Cann, pull to his left to seal Mike Mitchell for the vital hole. Vince Williams might have helped plug that hole had he seen Cann pulling, but he clearly didn't see it.

My point: A whole lot of things had to go right and wrong for that to develop, and Fournette's role involved little more than not tripping over Cann's feet.

Otherwise, as one of the Steelers' veterans told me Monday, "He didn't really do much of anything against us."

Nope. That's not even an opinion. Fournette had 27 other carries that day for 91 yards, an average rush of 3.3. He also was held to one catch for 3 yards. And, as the veteran further noted, "He got the big run after the game was out of hand."

What's more, as laudable as any 1,000-yard season is for a rookie back -- Fournette finished with 1,040 after being the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft out of LSU -- his 3.9 average rush ranked 30th among the league's 40 running backs with at least 100 carries. Against the Bills' 29th-ranked rushing defense this past weekend, his 2.7 average rush came after 21 stubborn carries for 57 yards, with a long of 16. All year long, he had four runs of 20-plus yards and 46 runs that resulted in first downs, the latter being 28 fewer than Le'Veon Bell's league-high 74.

That's not comparing Fournette to Bell and, again, it's not a knock. It's intended solely to underscore that, if he's Jacksonville's only threat, then there's no threat at all. Because the Steelers can stop him on the ground and, since neither he nor his quarterback are capable of connecting through the air, they can stop him any which way.

So, how many points will the Steelers need to score to win? Fourteen? Seventeen?

• Can't emphasize this enough: I'm not making light of the Jaguars as a whole. They're in the Divisional Round for the same reason they were able to beat the Steelers by three touchdowns, and that's Jalen Ramsey and the rest of that dynamic secondary.

But I'm struggling to conceive of any scenario in which Ben Roethlisberger throws five picks again. And that's what would be needed for an upset here.

• Antonio Brown's just fine.

• Mike Tomlin gets at least some credit as a coach, even from his most ardent critics, but one seldom hears about him as a teacher. Well, at one point during a routine practice drill Monday, as I'd later confirm, he vocally summoned Mike Hilton his way to the sideline to share a few words of advice about a specific technique. Hilton sprinted over, respectfully removed his helmet and didn't speak a word while absorbing it all.

This happens all the time, from the first day in Latrobe to prep week for the playoffs, collectively and individually.

The Oilers' Connor McDavid in Pittsburgh. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS

• If Claude Giroux taught hockey fans anything, it should have been caution against premature declarations about Sidney Crosby no longer being the best player in the world.

Don't look now, but the Oilers stink all over again. They're 18-22-3, sixth in the Pacific and well out of a Western Conference playoff spot. And now, people could get fired.

Great players can play on bad teams, of course. Mario Lemieux missed the playoffs in his first five seasons in Pittsburgh. But great players -- in particular the greatest players -- also find a way to carry them higher. Connor McDavid is a great player, and he did win the NHL's scoring title lead Edmonton back to the playoffs last spring, but he's currently ninth in the league in points -- tied with Phil Kessel at 47 -- and his team's making a big backward step.

This is why, in my two trips to Edmonton the past couple winters, I've rolled my eyes at all the succession talk up there. Greatness is earned over time. The hockey media and fans up there, of all people, ought to know that.

• Hilarious but true: Giroux is now second in the league in scoring, behind Nikita Kucherov.

Charlie Morton in Game 7 of the World Series. - AP

• So the World Series champion Astros are seeking a top-end starter capable of smashing radar-gun readings but who hasn't quite gotten it all together to this point in his career?

Hm. Where might a pitcher like that be found for little to no return?

Oh, right.

WHAT'S BREWING

• Taylor Haase is doing more than tracking goals and assists in the Penguins' system. She's finding real stories. Today's Wheeling Watch uncovers Gary Rissling's nephew, for heaven's sake. And if you don't know about the Riz, I'd advise reading up.

• Tons of Steelers-Jaguars coverage coming all week. But as I'll always emphasize, the quality is the goal every bit as much as the quantity. And we'll definitely be focused on the former with the Midweek Reader we're building toward tomorrow. A big chunk of the staff is contributing.

• Lance Lysowski is in Bradenton covering Pirates minicamp for us all week. Send flowers.

• Do you follow us on social media? If not, we're available on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. We'll make it worth your while, as we've got some fun initiatives planned on those fronts toward signing up new subscribers.

VIDEO

Matt Gajtka and Chris Bradford on an all-pucks Java: