Steelers Front 4 vs. Josh Allen; Why History Favors the Steelers

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Steelers have had struggles against the run on defense in the first four weeks of the season, with the New England Patriots running it down their throats to salt away a win in Week 2 and Nick Chubb taking over the game in loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 3.

The run defense won’t face a typical challenge in Week 5, as the Buffalo Bills are not a run-dominant team. Top running back Devin Singletary has just 129 yards on 34 carries this season. 

But there’s still a significant ground game in the form of Bills starting quarterback Josh Allen. Allen is actually Buffalo’s leading rusher, with 30 carries for 182 yards for a 6.1 yards per carry average and two touchdowns. Allen is sixth in the NFL in yards per attempt, and he has the ability to take over a game with both his legs and his arm.

In one play in Buffalo’s Week 4 win over the Baltimore Ravens, Allen beat Odafe Oweh and Marlon Humphrey all by himself to convert a fourth down for the Bills.

A lot of candidates, but a QB1 double-pump fake 4th down conversion is YOUR @picassospizza Play of the Game! pic.twitter.com/dEnfzZMfAq

— Trainwreck Sports (@TrainwreckSprts) October 4, 2022

Asked specifically about that play on Tuesday, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said there’s really no good way to defend a player like Allen 1-on-1 in space like that.

“Yeah, build a fence,” he said, referencing the need to bring more than one defender to the ball in order to stop him. “Those are his talents. It’s just like trying to tackle Lamar Jackson. I was watching them on the other side of the ball deal with Lamar, and when you’re dealing with guys at the quarterback position that have arm and leg talent, it’s challenging. 

“You can coach all you want about near leg and building a fence and all of those things, but when they get you in one-on-one circumstances, they’re going to win a lot of those. They’ve been winning a lot of those at every level that they’ve ever played at since little league I would imagine.”

The Steelers have done pretty well with the challenge of running quarterbacks in the past. Allen rushed seven times for 28 yards against them in 2019, six times for 28 yards in 2020 and nine times for 44 yards in 2021. In total, he has averaged 4.55 yards per rush against the Steelers. Of teams Allen has played three or more times, only the Tennessee Titans (3.57 yards per attempt) have done better than the Steelers.

The same is true of Jackson, whose 4.62 yards per carry against the Steelers is lower than every team he’s played three or more times.

The Steelers have struggled against the run in general, over the last two seasons, finishing dead last in yards per rush against in 2021, but this type of run they’ve excelled at stopping.

“He’s definitely a tough guy to bring down,” Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith said. “I remember going into last year, we had a good plan, got after him with a four-man rush. We’ve got to do the same thing. Get after him and create pressure.”

The Steelers have succeeded against athletic quarterbacks by getting pressure with four guys so that there is pursuit remaining when he flees the pocket. They’ve struggled to get that pressure since T.J. Watt went down with a pectoral injury in the first week of the season. Not needed to blitz to get pressure allows the Steelers defenders to better maintain body control and stay in lanes to prevent Allen from breaking free.

“You’ve gotta be in control,” Highsmith said. “You can’t be running free, running blind. He’s shifty. He can move. He’s fast.”

The 1-on-1 situations will still be difficult to handle, but the Steelers have proven they can meet the challenge of an athletic quarterback in the past.