The Steelers have long been known as a blitz-heavy team that relies on sending at least one extra defender to attack the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball.
When you primarily run a 3-4 defense as your base plan of attack, that's the default. After all, on every play, the 3-4 starts with three defensive linemen and two outside linebackers at the line of scrimmage. If they all rush at the snap of the ball, technically you're blitzing -- even if you aren't.
But with the Steelers now primarily being a nickel defensive team, Mike Hilton now with the Bengals and Vince Williams -- another strong blitzer from the middle -- retired, the Steelers haven't blitzed nearly as much in 2021 as they have in previous seasons.
"We do. Some games we do more than others," Keith Butler said Thursday. "When you run the fire zone, you stress the secondary a little bit. The Chargers game, we didn’t beat them (on the blitz). We didn’t get to where we should have been that last play for us and it hurt us. You can’t live off that all the time. If you do, you’re doing no favors for your secondary."
The play Butler referenced was one of 13 blitzes the Steelers threw at Justin Herbert in that game in Inglewood, Calif. Unfortunately for them, slot corner Arthur Maulet got picked up coming off the edge and free safety Tre Norwood was late rotating over the top leading to a 53-yard go-ahead touchdown catch in the closing minutes by Mike Williams.
Such is the give-and-take when teams do blitz.
The Steelers blitzed 40.3 percent of the time in 2020, the third-highest in the NFL. This season, they're at 23.1 percent, a steep drop off for a team that was once known as Blitzburgh. Mike Tomlin spoke earlier this week about making "subtle" changes in what the Steelers do and who they do it with. But with personnel changes being somewhat limited 13 weeks into the season, the easiest change might just be to start blitzing again Sunday when the Steelers (5-5-1) host the Ravens (8-3) at Heinz Field.
After allowing 41 points in each of their past two games, simply sticking with what they've been doing doesn't seem to be a smart move.
"What you can't do is continue to do the things that you've been doing and expect a different result," Tomlin said. "We're open to some schematic changes. We're open to some personnel changes."
The Steelers have had success limiting the success of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson in his previous two starts against them, sacking him nine times and intercepting him five times. But they have typically done so by using their outside linebackers to make sure they hit Jackson every chance they get, even when he's not passing.
Still, they have blitzed him 20 times in those two meetings, a big number when you consider he's only attempted 56 passes.
The Ravens use a lot of run-pass options with Jackson. And the 2019 NFL MVP does it as well as anyone, rushing for 3,613 yards in his first 56 career games. He has 707 rushing yards this season and is averaging a career-high 261.2 passing yards per game -- 50 yards more than he did in his MVP season in 2019 -- but things have slowed for him of late.
After averaging a very robust 9.1 yards per pass attempt over the opening five games this season, Jackson has now averaged 6.3 over his past five games. The difference? Starting with a Week 6 win over the Chargers, opponents were blitzing Jackson more.
Jackson, who missed a game two weeks ago with an illness, was blitzed 54 times in the first five weeks of the season. But that included a game against the Broncos in which he was blitzed 27 times, which skew those numbers. Over his past five starts, opponents have blitzed Jackson 77 times. He's now the most blitzed quarterback in the NFL and has thrown five interceptions, taken six sacks and led just two touchdowns drives in his past two games.
The Dolphins took that to the extreme in a 22-10 win over the Ravens Nov. 11, blitzing Jackson 26 times. They sacked him four times, and pressured him 10 times.
It led to plays such as this:
On this particular play, the Dolphins showed six players at the line of scrimmage and five defenders at the first-down marker like a picket fence. But at the snap, they dropped two defenders off the line of scrimmage and only rushed four. Jackson, reading the blitz, got the ball out quickly. And when a defender got his hands up, the pass was batted down.
But Jackson thought the Dolphins were coming because, typically, they were.
And it led to plays such as this:
Miami again showed the blitz with five defenders across the first-down marker. Four defensive linemen rushed upfield, while two others laid back at the line of scrimmage, trying to cut down the escape lanes for Jackson. It led to a sack.
Typically, Dolphins rookie safety Jevon Holland was the main blitzer. His 26 blitzes in that game were the most by any secondary player this season. And the Ravens had no answer.
"I watched the Miami game. I watched all the games," Butler admitted.
Might the Steelers try some of those tactics against Jackson this week?
Last week against the Browns, Cleveland blitzed Jackson just 11 times. But with Myles Garrett and Jadeveon Clowney on their defensive front, the Browns felt they could pressure Jackson with their four-man rush.
The problem is that if you don't get Jackson on the ground or force him to throw the ball before he wants, he's capable of doing things such as this:
The Browns brought the blitz on third-and-10 -- after sacking Jackson on a corner blitz on the previous play -- but don't get home.
Jackson bought time with his feet by running away from the line of scrimmage and the Browns didn't have enough coverage remaining on the back end to keep the play contained. It ended in a touchdown for the Ravens, their only one of the game.
"If you blitz him, you’ve got to get home because you’re leaving your corners on an island," Cam Heyward said. "If they have to defend for a long time, that’s not a good decision. I think for our outside linebackers, it’s keeping him on our inside shoulder. Inside, it’s getting pressure up the middle and not creating those vertical lanes. It’s a group effort. He really stresses a defense at all three levels. You’ve got to tackle well. You’ve got to have guys running to the ball."
But the blitz also can help contain a runner such as Jackson when he isn't throwing the ball.
In fact, because he runs so often -- he's averaging 12.3 attempts per game -- it might be necessary, especially for a Steelers defense that has fallen to 28th in the NFL stopping the run.
"That’s one of those things that there’s eight gaps you usually have to defend in the running game," Butler said. "When the quarterback runs the ball, he creates another gap, so there’s nine gaps. We’ve got to fire people through or fit those gaps in order to stop the quarterback from running the ball. You’ve got to do certain things to try to combat that."
They all seem to come back to using the blitz more.
The question remains, however, will the Steelers step outside what they've done this season to do it?
"I'll tell you after we play," Butler said.
THE INJURY REPORT
PITTSBURGH STEELERS
Ben Roethlisberger and Chase Claypool were full participants during Thursday's practice while Joe Haden and Zach Banner were held out once again. Arthur Maulet was added to the injury report and missed practice with an injured quad while end Isaiah Buggs was added with an ankle injury, though he was a limited participant.
