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The Buffalo Bills played a lot of snaps against the Pittsburgh Steelers without using a running back, tight end or full back. The Bills love to use the wide receiver, and they went even further in Week 1 against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Staff use shows offensive philosophy
A quick breakdown of the number of snapshots clearly shows this.
The Bills played 85 offensive snaps in Week 1.
Total number of RB snaps: 74, 0.87 RB per snap.
Total TE + FB snaps: 52, 0.61 per snap.
Total number of WR presses: 296, 3.48 per press.
3.48 WR per snap, it’s crazy. The Steelers averaged 2.65 WR per snap in Week 1, nearly the 2.73 WR per snap they averaged in 2020 when they had the worst game in the NFL.
The Bills were going to receive a lot of receivers, but facing a Steelers team with questionable depth in their high school, the Bills went out of their way to force the Steelers to play less Devin Bush and Joe Schobert and guys like Tre Norwood, Arthur. Maulet and James Pierre more.
The Los Vegas Raiders’ instant tally shows a very different approach.
The Raiders played 86 offensive snaps in Week 1.
Total number of RB snaps: 86, 1 RB per snap.
Total TE + FB snaps: 161, 1.87 per snap.
Total number of WR snaps: 182, 2.12 per snap.
A very different look from the Bills. Bills had more than 5 times more WR snaps than TE + FB snaps, Raiders only had 21 more WR snaps than TE + FB snaps.
The Raiders used their TE and FB more than three times as often as the Bills. It was also not based on the score. The Raiders held the lead for 0 seconds in their victory over the Ravens. The second they finally took the lead, the game was over. They didn’t go too far and ran to milk the clock with a leash. And the Bills led for more than 3/4 of their game against the Steelers. Their use of staff was more about identity and talent than playing situation.
Steelers to adjust to Raiders offense
In Week 1, the Bills were the perfect team to exploit a Steelers secondary who had serious question marks. The Steelers’ high school has stepped up and more than risen to the challenge, they’ve been fantastic. In week 2, the Steelers will not be using nickel and dime defense for the vast majority of the game and will likely spend a lot of time in their 3-4 sets with just 4 defensive backs on the pitch.
This means the Steelers, who had 5 defensive linemen on the active roster in Week 1, will have that defensive line depth tested with Stephon Tuitt on the injured reserve.
The starting Steelers 3 will be Cameron Heyward, Tyson Alualu and Chris Wormley. But they will have to rotate these players. Cameron Heyward had a huge impact in Week 1, but the Steelers were able to pivot him off the field to keep him cool, Heyward only played 66% of Week 1’s snaps. They could do this because they had 5 linemen and only played two on most snaps. In fact, the Steelers played their defensive lineman a total of 174 snaps in the first week. That’s 2.05 per snap, or 81 snaps with 2 defensive linemen and 4 snaps with 3.
If the Steelers only dress 5 defensive linemen this week, they will need to play Heyward, Aualalu and Wormley much more than they did in Week 1, and will need to play both Carlos Davis and Isaiah Buggs more than the 25 combined snaps they received against Buffalo.
The Steelers have left Isaiahh Loudermilk inactive for Week 1, it is likely they will activate him against the Raiders, and they could go so far as to call Henry Mondeaux from the practice squad to carry seven defensive linemen in. the match, which they did a bit decent in 2020.
Size and speed are game-changing too
The difference, however, goes a little further than just using position. The Bills aren’t just heavy in WR, their main offensive weapons are all shorter, more changeable players. Discover their 4 best offensive weapons by snaps played.
Stefon Diggs, 79 snaps, 6’0 “190 lbs.
Emmanuel Sanders, 79 snaps, 5’11 “180 lbs.
Cole Beasley, 77 snaps, 5’8 “174 lbs.
Devin Singletary, 64 snaps, 5’7 “203 lbs.
These are their main offensive weapons and accounted for 39 of 48 targets (81.25%). The tallest is Stefon Diggs at 6’0 “and 190 lbs. And two are 5’8” or less.
Now check out the best Las Vegas Raiders guns by number of shots.
Darren Waller, 81 snaps, 6’6 “255 lb.
Bryan Edwards, 57 shots, 6’3 “212 lbs.
Henry Ruggs III, 56 snaps, 6’0“ 190
Hunter Renfrow, 47 shots, 5’10 “185
Foster Moreau, 46 snaps, 6’4 ”250
Kenyan Drake, 41 snaps, 6’1 “211
Alex Ingold, 23 snaps, 6’1 “240
I added Moreau, Drake and Ingold as they will likely play a big role in week 2. Looking at the Raiders targets, players 6’1 “and over made up 35 of 52 targets (67.3%)
While the Bills attacked the Steelers by expanding the field with large receivers and attacking space with smaller, more shifting receivers, the Raiders attack vertically with size and speed. The Raiders are old school with a quick outside receiver approach that supports the defense paired with the powerful run from Josh Jacobs, a tough FB to Alex Ingold who is also a receiving threat (4 catches, 22 yards over week 1), and their main threat, a tight 6’6 “, 255 lb winger with good hands and a road run that runs a 4.46 forty-yard dash, along with Minkah Fitzpatrick, safety Steelers All-Pro 6’1 “207 lbs, recorded.
With quick receivers supporting the safeties and the running game pulling the linebackers forward, the threat created by Darren Waller in midfield is a big deal.
How will the Steelers react?
I’m not Mike Tomlin, Keith Butler, or Teryl Austin, and I don’t have a crystal ball or ‘anonymous inside sources’, but there are a few things that seem clear to me that we’ll see in week 2 .
First off, the Steelers are going to play a lot of 3-4 sets to counter the Raiders’ staff groups. This means there is no money to defend Waller. That job will go to a linebacker, probably Joe Schobert or one of the outside linebackers. But don’t panic, a linebacker on Darren Waller is only half the coverage, as there will be some safety behind Schobert on those plays to frame Waller. You can watch this on the show and look for the leverage of the linebacker covering Waller, who will tell you where they have help and which roads they are tasked with defending themselves on.
The other option will be security on Waller. While at first glance this looks like a better match, it does mean that security will largely be on an island against a physical monster of a target with ridiculous size and range. It also means the Steelers only have one deep security with Joe Haden and Cameron Sutton largely on islands with the Raiders’ quick outside receivers. These receivers aren’t great, but with deep balls you only need one to turn the court or open a game. When the Steelers are in 3-4 and using a safety on Waller, it will likely be Terrell Edmunds and Minkah Fitzpatrick in depth, with the possibility that the Steelers will spin Tre Norwood in some, but I doubt the Steelers will trust Norwood or Edmunds. single-high security too often against the speed of the Raiders.
Expect the Steelers to change and disguise the cover. But more importantly, expect them to rely on pressure in the middle of the pocket to keep the quarterback from going for deep throws. It emerges from the movie that while the Ravens were pressuring the Raiders, they weren’t getting as much in the middle, and they gave up a good number of plays when Derek Carr was able to step up in the pocket, dodge the rush and shoot towards the bottom of the field (138 yards, 1 TD on 13 deep passes in week 1). If Derek Carr can’t get in his deep throws, those throws won’t be as good, and covering those deep receivers won’t be as difficult.
With Stephon Tuitt out and the Steelers probably playing 3-4 sets, the Steelers are unlikely to repeat their lack of the Week 1 blitz. Rushing 4 men in 3-4 sets means that at least one of the outside linebackers or a defensive lineman has to fall into cover. While an outside linebacker as part of a support blanket on Darren Waller will occur, it is not a blanket strategy. But the focus will be on the inside line and its ability to generate pressure in the middle of the line. Firstly because it disrupts the Raiders’ ability to run, leaving the rest of the defense to focus more on Darren Waller’s defense, but also to disrupt Derek Carr’s ability to throw balls at the target at the bottom of the ground.
This means that whatever the Steelers do to defend the Raiders’ offense this week, the real story will be Cameron Heyward, Tyson Aualu and the depth of the defensive line, and winning the battle in the trenches. Old fashioned football.
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