One Area Steelers Offense Must Watch vs. Seahawks

PITTSBURGH — The Cincinnati Bengals gave the Steelers seemingly any look they wanted last Saturday. Pittsburgh forced them out of Cover 2 and into single-high, granting looks for George Pickens and others. Because they have been able to move guys around and acquire those looks, Pittsburgh has found success.

But the Seahawks don’t deviate much from their plan. They have tweaked their defense recently to allow less explosive plays, which has worked. In the last two weeks, the Seahawks have not allowed a pass of over 20 or more yards. Previously, they were near the league’s top in that metric, allowing 50 such passes. A lot of it comes down to safety play, where Quandre Diggs and Julian Love are playing well.

“Really impressed with their two safeties. I mean, (Quandre) Diggs and (Julian) Love, I mean, we have to make sure they have great vision and vision to break,” quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan said. “And so, we have to make sure we’re on time, and we’re not taking too many hitches or anything else.”

The Seahawks do let their safeties play aggressively while switching in match concepts to not put their linebackers in tough spots. They run mostly out of Cover 3, Quarters, Cover 6 looks. Allen Robinson II revealed just how they play the hook zones so the quick game does not kill them.

“They have different nuances to their single-high. Sometimes, they play more hook (zone) and bring a safety down to take away any kind of speed and different things like that. They take away the quick game,” Robinson said. “They have their safeties coming up more and being involved in certain things.”

That means those middle hook defenders will play aggressively and Mason Rudolph better be prepared for that. Love and Diggs are both ballhawks. Without Jordyn Brooks, it makes things a bit easier since the Steelers could exploit some matchups in the middle of the field. But don’t expect a ton of hitches, and slants better be thrown with anticipation.

Those safeties are having more concepts run to them,” Robinson said. “They aren’t having those linebackers wheel back and instead they will have a safety catch it from depth.”

In other words, those linebackers aren’t carrying guys to depth much anymore. They are passing it off to safeties, limiting explosives. That makes it a bit tougher since Carroll will be cognizant of that. But running backs and tight ends have sometimes succeeded against the Seahawk linebackers. More than that, the running game is what can help crack that scheme, and it will come down to those guys making the plays necessary to get the ball moving early.