From the beginning of the game to the end, the division rivals of the Cleveland Browns from Pittsburgh were outmatched against the 49ers. San Francisco’s offense did whatever they wanted whenever they wanted as they marched up and down the field on Sunday. The Steelers will now also be without their second-best defensive player Cameron Hayward against the Browns on Monday night.
The offense led by second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett didn’t fair much better as they were only able to muster seven points. Granted you can’t make a sweeping declaration about a team after one game but the Steelers looked awful last week.
Buy Browns TicketsAs I watched through the all-22 film of this game it became apparent that some of the Browns’ strengths match up well with some of the Steelers’ weaknesses. Mike Tomlin remains one of the better coaches in the league and the Browns must bring their best game if they want to win, just because they had a bad week doesn’t mean they are a bad team.
Let’s take a look at some of the key takeaways I had looking back on the Steelers opening week loss.
The offensive line was terrible
Kenny Pickett had plenty of his struggles against the 49ers but he honestly didn’t stand a chance. San Francisco was in the backfield on nearly every snap both stuffing the run and pressuring the quarterback. In total Pickett was pressured a ridiculous 29 times.
They couldn’t run the ball as Najee Harris, and the other backs were getting hit behind the line of scrimmage time after time. They are dealing with injuries on the line and if the Steelers have to play Dan Moore Jr. against the Browns, Jim Schwartz and his defense will have a field day.
This is an area the Browns have to test early and often and get creative in pressure packages to exploit an offensive line that struggled from start to finish last week.
T.J. Watt and that pass rush remain elite
T.J. Watt continued to do what he always does totaling six pressures and sacking Brock Purdy three times. Now he will look to matchup against rookie right tackle Dawand Jones making his first career start. In total, the Steelers found a way to create 19 quarterback pressures showing it wasn’t all bad for the defense last week.
This is the area that I find the most concerning, this past rush even late into the game when they were tired is still really good. Jones’s matchup with Watt will be tough but Alex Highsmith on the other side is as good of a number two pass rusher as you will find. The team must find a way to limit Watt and take advantage of a weak run defense on Monday.
The secondary struggled to communicate
At times it looked like a Joe Woods defense as the Steelers secondary failed to communicate and pass off receivers properly last week. It led to several wide-open easy throws for Purdy and the offense of San Francisco. Now Mike Tomlin likely focused on cleaning some of these issues this week but if the opportunities present themselves the Browns must capitalize.
Deshaun Watson and the passing attack are looking to get right after bad weather and some early-season struggles against the Bengals. Minkah Fitzpatrick remains one of the better safeties in the game but he doesn’t have a ton of help around him. The Browns will look to avoid Fitzpatrick and have a good chance to get the passing offense right this week.
