Matchups Revisited: Patriots Exploit Steelers In Run Game, Limit Le'Veon Bell
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots found a way to exploit the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Sunday, just not in the way you might have expected.
After looking unstoppable for the first two games of Tom Brady's season, the Patriots' dynamic tight end duo of Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett was mostly held in check by the Pittsburgh defense. Gronkowski ultimately stepped up and made a few big-time plays in the second half to help the Patriots seal the victory, but for the most part, the Steelers did a surprisingly good job limiting Gronk and Bennett to just five combined catches on the day.
The Patriots really took advantage of the Steelers defense with the run game, led by LeGarrette Blount's season-high 127 rushing yards on 24 carries (a 5.29-yard average) and two touchdowns. James White also made his presence felt with a 19-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Tom Brady to put the Patriots up 7-0 in the first quarter.
On defense, the Patriots played the Steelers just as expected, but had a few hiccups mixed into an otherwise solid-enough afternoon against backup quarterback Landry Jones and the Steelers' elite weapons. Antonio Brown made his share of catches, but cornerback Malcolm Butler had one of his best games of the season as he competed hard against Brown all day and got the best of him with a first-quarter interception in the end zone. As for Le'Veon Bell, the Steelers running back made only three plays over 10 yards and the Patriots kept him out of the end zone.
Let's take a closer look at how our matchup predictions went in Pittsburgh on Sunday ...
ELIMINATE: Le'Veon Bell and big plays. Bill Belichick always wants to eliminate big plays from the game for the Patriots defense, but with Jones under center and the Steelers depending on their playmakers to gain big chunks of yards with the ball in their hands, wiping out the big plays was paramount for Matt Patricia's unit.
The defense mostly held the Steelers down in the big play department, except for one key play: Jones made a play-action fake to Bell before heaving a 51-yard pass to hit Antonio Brown in stride. Amazingly, it was the first catch of 40-plus yards allowed by the Patriots all season. Butler otherwise had a great day, earning a 92 grade from Pro Football Focus and vaulting him into the top-five highest-graded cornerbacks in the league for the season.
Bell was kept in check for most of the game as the Steelers fell behind early, which forced Jones to make more pass attempts (47) than the Steelers probably ever would have wanted. But the big Brown catch led directly to Darrius Heyward-Bey's touchdown to cut the Patriots' lead to 14-7 so, reluctantly, the Steelers get the check-mark here.
EXPLOIT: Steelers linebackers and young defensive backs. The Steelers showed off their speed on defense on Sunday, not by blitzing or rushing Brady but by closing quickly on the ball and limiting the Patriots playmakers when they had the ball in their hands. Brady eventually beat the Steelers over the top to Gronkowski for a 36-yard touchdown in the third quarter, but the Patriots' passing game was surprisingly un-explosive for much of the game.
The Patriots really earned their keep on offense with the run game. Blount powered through for 127 yards and, for the most part, enjoyed one of his finest days as a Patriot. The Patriots' blockers, however, also had themselves a day. Besides committing five more penalties, which has been an issue for much of the season, the offensive line did a good job opening up running lanes for Blount, who did have seven carries of one yard or fewer but made the most of his best opportunities, especially at the goal line.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed after the game that the Steelers were willing to live with Blount gaining some yards as long as they stopped the tight ends and limited the Patriots' ability to move the chains. They obviously didn't do a good-enough job in that department, as Tomlin admitted the Steelers struggled to shed blockers and make tackles against the run.
Blount had high praise for the way the offensive line played on Sunday.
"They're great. They're amazing. They're always amazing," said Blount after the game. "They played as good as we can ask them to play. They did everything we needed them to do to open up the holes and put us in a good position.
"On a few of my runs, I didn't get touched until I got tackled, so they played a really good game."
All in all, a check-mark for the Patriots offense in finding a way to exploit the Steelers' faster but smaller personnel with the power run game.
Next time ...
The Patriots head to Buffalo in Week 8 for a huge divisional matchup against the Bills. Rex Ryan's squad beat the Patriots 16-0 at Gillette Stadium in Week 4, making this a crucial opportunity for the Patriots to even things up in the season series. But the Bills will also be coming off a letdown loss at Miami, so expect them not to be riding too high and be focused coming into this one. Parsing out the matchups will be tricky if LeSean McCoy can't play for Buffalo.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Have a news tip or comment for Matt? Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
