Welcome to Steelers Morning Rush, our new daily short-form podcast with Alan Saunders, giving a longer perspective on a single news topic surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers or the National Football League. Today’s it’s how the Steelers defense might be able to better match up against the Baltimore Ravens with Zay Flowers looking likely to be out of the starting lineup.
Flowers is Baltimore’s best and shiftiest wide receiver, and the toughest player for the Steelers to match up with in zone coverage.
After their communication problems that greatly hindered their efforts last time around, the Steelers could just play a simpler defense with less communication required, focusing on man-to-man coverage.
Usually, it’s hard to play against Lamar Jackson in man coverage, because he can beat you with his legs, but Patrick Queen has shown the ability to take that away as a spy. The rest of the Ravens receivers don’t look like tough 1 on 1 matchup for Teryl Austin’s defense, so it could be a ploy Pittsburgh uses to gain a leg up on Saturday.
Alan breaks it down.
