While the Steelers prepare for their playoff matchup with the Jaguars, NFL fans everywhere are in for a treat when one of the league's top cornerbacks in Jalen Ramsey will line up across from the league's best wide receiver, Antonio Brown.
The two met in October, when Jacksonville defeated the Steelers, 30-9, at Heinz Field. Their battles during the game made for an elite back-and-forth that provide a solid preview of what should be one of the best personnel matchups of this year's playoffs:
While the Steelers did lose the game, failing to score a single touchdown, Brown did record ten receptions for 157 yards. That's impressive against a cornerback like Ramsey, who earned first team all-pro honors and a spot as one of the AFC's starting cornerbacks in the Pro Bowl.
Ramsey's numbers won't jump out in comparison to other cornerbacks. Much of that has to do with how quarterbacks started to avoid targeting Ramsey. He recorded only four interceptions on the year and 17 passes defensed, but throughout the season his coverage allowed the Jaguars' defense to focus assistance to stopping the run thanks to their leaving Ramsey in zero coverage.
But what Ramsey has to face in Brown is the NFL's best route runner. Ramsey has all the tools of a great cornerback in only his second year in the league, but even with that, Brown was able to beat him on routes. The key to Brown's success is how well he sets up his patterns while running them hard and using consistent footwork to force his opponent to honor a wide variety of possible routes.
Here's an example of when Brown (highlighted in red) used a comeback route to beat Ramsey. The comeback is set up by Brown aggressively pushing Ramsey deep as if he is running a fly route. When Brown gets to the 35, he uses a single jab step to turn and pivot to execute the comeback.
The difference between a comeback and a simple curl route is that a curl only requires the receiver to turn and stop; but a comeback route has the receiver run back to the quarterback after turning around.
This is a textbook example of how to use a comeback:
Brown works best in space, but Ramsey is a cornerback who challenges the ball whenever it's within reach. That's where Ben Roethlisberger has to be extremely accurate in his passes to Brown, because if he's late on a pass or misses his target by too much, Ramsey often finds a way to turn that mistake into an opportunity.
Here's an example of that when Roethlisberger was just a little late on his pass to Brown and sailed it high enough for Ramsey to come back to the ball and swat it away. Brown beat Ramsey in his route and was open, but by the time the ball got to Brown, Ramsey had the time to recover and swat the ball away:
While Barry Church ended up with the interception, Ramsey was the one who created the play. When Ramsey can limit a receiver's space or anticipate what he's about to do, he plays aggressively against the point of attack and his athleticism makes him difficult to beat in a hand battle.
Here's an example of when Ramsey did a superb job of limiting Brown in the end zone. Brown ran an out-and-up, something he did a lot of in training camp and often won. Ramsey played it perfectly by not biting on the out fake and engaging Brown to fight for the back corner of the end zone:
When Roethlisberger targeted that corner, Ramsey was in the perfect position to defend the pass. This is where the Jaguars can rely on Ramsey to limit Brown, because the receiver has limited space to operate and therefore not as much room to force Ramsey to honor.
But take that advantage away from Ramsey and Brown has his full arsenal of routes and setups to work against the Jaguars' young cornerback. Watch how he set up Ramsey with a myriad of potential routes. Upon his release from the line of scrimmage, Brown worked to get leverage outside and force Ramsey to watch for the back shoulder pass.
When Brown got to the 30, he broke towards the middle of the field to set up a post route. Ramsey trailed Brown sharply, but as soon as Ramsey thought that Brown's true intention was the post, he broke back into a corner route and lost Ramsey entirely:
This is the ultimate threat of Brown and why he receives so many targets throughout the season. Roethlisberger knows that he can rely on Brown to employ several different routes while maintaining the primary objective of getting open where his quarterback expects him.
Ramsey is only 23 years old and looks to be getting better. He is learning more tricks, and developing more skills and experience that help him against crafty receivers like Brown. After facing Brown once, how he does in their rematch will show how fast a learner Ramsey is.
But early in the season the Steelers were dealing with a version of Roethlisberger that was less than proficient. After the Jaguars game he had six touchdowns and seven interceptions on the year, and the Steelers' offense had yet to take flight.
Since then, Roethlisberger has thrown 22 touchdowns and only six interceptions. He's been a much better quarterback, especially since the Steelers' bye week in early November, and has had seven consecutive games with multiple touchdown passes.
If Roethlisberger maintains that pace of play, we all could see a great show of an elite young cornerback who has done well against the likes of DeAndre Hopkins, A.J. Green, and Larry Fitzgerald against the NFL's top receiver over the past five years.
