Mixed bag of RPO results for Big Ben
PITTSBURGH — It’s not just defenses trying to catch up to the RPO craze that was furthered last February when the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl. Offenses are, too.
Count the Steelers as one of them.
If you watched Ben Roethlisberger fake a handoff to James Conner and continue his motion into a quick throw, you saw the Steelers’ RPO — or run-pass option — game, in which the quarterback reads a key and reacts with either a hand-off or throw.
It’s risen out of the college ranks and was ridden by the Eagles to a championship last season. The Steelers installed the basics last year, but it’s clearly evolving this season under new coordinator Randy Fichtner.
On Sunday, Roethlisberger threw half a dozen or so such passes, with completions for 13, 11 and 67 yards before the first RPO pass attempt of the fourth quarter, an incompletion into the dirt after a bobbled high snap.
It was an omen of things to come: a dropped interception off a Myles Garrett deflection, a gain of 17 yards, and then the final RPO pass attempt that was thwarted by Garrett with the sack and forced fumble caught by Joe Schobert.
Roethlisberger wouldn’t get into the nuts and bolts of it Sunday, but his backups were enthusiastic Monday about how it worked Sunday.
“I love it. I love it. We’re going to keep rolling with it,” said rookie Mason Rudolph, who directed a heavy usage of RPOs at Oklahoma State. “That’s the one thing I heard the whole way through the draft: ‘You used too many RPOs. It’s not going to translate to the NFL.’ Well, we just translated six of them on Sunday.”
Those were just the pass attempts. When Roethlisberger read his key — say Garrett, or seeing a second safety back in coverage — he also handed off to Conner and took what coaches call “free yards.”
“Ben has a great feel for when to pull the ball, when it’s safe to pull the ball, throw the ball down the field,” Rudolph said. “And you have to be careful not having a lineman down field by holding the ball too long. There’s that fine line with like 2.1, 2.2 seconds decision-making time when you either pull the ball, hand the ball off, or throw it. But usually your eyes are more active than just handing the ball off. You’re reading defenders. It’s fun stuff.”
Roethlisberger, according to Pro Football Focus, took an average of 2.23 seconds to throw Sunday, the fourth-quickest among qualifying quarterbacks on opening weekend.
PFF further calculated that Roethlisberger had a passer rating of 46.2 when throwing in 2.5 seconds or longer, and 79.0 when throwing in less than 2.5 seconds.
“Every year the offense is going to evolve,” said Joshua Dobbs. “You watch what people are doing around the league to create explosive plays and we’re going to try to add that to our offense, so we were able to take advantage of some of those (Sunday).
“I think more were called just based on the scheme the defenses were giving, and it’s something that’ll probably be a week-to-week thing based on the team we’re playing. If a team plays more zone, you’re able to take more advantage. If a team’s playing one-on-one man coverage, than you just have to go out and win your matchups.”
The Steelers’ defense will appreciate any work this week as they prepare to play the Kansas City Chiefs, who led the NFL last season by using RPOs 18.1 percent of the time. The champion Eagles were second at 18 percent.
Sure tackling
One of the NFL’s worst tackling defenses last season, the Steelers showed signs of improvement Sunday by missing only six tackles — by a strict count that included cornerback Joe Haden coming up to miss a pair of tackles on Carlos Hyde coming downhill.
Other misses included a miss by Vince Williams at the line of scrimmage, Cameron Heyward missing from behind on a tight end screen, and Stephon Tuitt missing a tackle seven yards deep that resulted in no gain. Otherwise, the Steelers were crisp and sure in their tackling.
“It’s something we emphasized all training camp,” said Mike Hilton, perhaps the surest tackler on the team. “We just know what we’re capable of as a defense. We’re able to get to the quarterback and we’ve got guys on back end who can make plays on the ball. If we don’t miss tackles and give up big plays, we can easily be a top five defense. We felt like we showed that (Sunday).”
Heyward re-watched the game Sunday night and begrudgingly agreed that the defense played well.
“We played well in some instances,” said the unit’s captain. “We were running some things that might have been advantageous to the situations. But there were plays we could’ve got the turnover, whether it’s an interception or I think we had a couple sacks where he did fumble and we didn’t take advantage. In a game like that, you’ve got to be critical of yourself and we just didn’t get the job done.”
Does Heyward agree that the tackling was improved?
“I think we just had more guys there,” he said. “Even if a guy missed, we were all there. That was our first opportunity to play as a unit. We’ll get better at it. I like our gang-tackling a lot better than leaving it to one-on-one, but we’ve just got to execute it for more than one week.
“The only thing that sucks is the 80 yards rushing by the quarterback. We clean that up, we’ll be in even better shape. But when you hold running backs to like a hundred, you’re in a better position.”
The Steelers held Browns running backs to 100 yards on 38 carries, an average of 2.6 per carry. They did allow Tyrod Taylor 77 yards on 8 scrambles to bring the Browns’ overall rushing average to 4.7 per carry, just below their poor 4.9 yards per pass attempt.
Also, the Steelers allowed only seven points off six turnovers, and those seven points came on a 1-yard drive.
There’s something good about that, isn’t there?
“There’s something good about that, but shoot,” Heyward said, “let’s turn that touchdown into three points, you know? That’s where we’ve got to grow. You set the bar too low, and you’re happy with that, than you’re not striving for more and you’re creating an illusion for yourself.”
Settling in at FS
When Sean Davis was moved from strong safety to free safety early in training camp, he told reporters he anticipated several more opportunities for turnovers. Well, in the opener he had the potential for three — but came away with none:
1.) An interception was negated by a questionable defensive holding call on rookie strong safety Terrell Edmunds.
2.) The recovery of a muffed punt was overturned by a poor replay review.
3.) A potential interception of a high pass was dropped in overtime.
Davis was disappointed he didn’t come away with any, but is optimistic because of the opportunities.
“I’m definitely liking this new position change,” he said. “I like being back there patrolling deep and having everyone’s back. Just wish we could’ve come out with a victory.”
Davis said he’s “adjusting well and getting better each week,” and that more time will allow him to get from center field to the pylon to break up touchdown passes, such as the one caught by Josh Gordon.
“I just have to continue to get better, get better reads to be able to help my corners out on fade balls,” Davis said. “I feel like I have the skill set and the speed to get sideline to sideline. That’s something I have to improve on.”
Bad calls
The recovered muff by Davis and subsequent overturn was perhaps the biggest error of a poorly officiated game for both sides.
The punt with 8:42 remaining in regulation bounced up and hit Cleveland’s Nick Chubb in the facemask and was recovered by Davis. Up in the booth, game analyst Trent Green laughed about not needing his “readers” all the way up in the press box to see that the ball had changed direction after making contact with Chubb. Fellow analyst Bruce Arians chimed in with “I think that’s obvious.”
But, the call went against the Steelers and the Browns took possession at the Pittsburgh 47.
“I saw the ball hit the dude,” said Davis. “It’s a turnover. A turnover is a turnover.”
“It hit the guy, absolutely,” said Hilton. “I was right there on the sideline. They got away with that one.”
Heyward was asked about the play but went in another direction.
“The one I really didn’t like was the one where they didn’t call the peel back block on Bud (Dupree),” Heyward said of Taylor’s 24-yard fourth-quarter run on third-and-10, three plays after the overturned muff.
“That’s something they’ve outlawed,” Heyward continued. “You’re not supposed to be able to do that, and you’re not allowed to hit in the head and neck area. Bud got nailed. He was turned the other way. He could’ve got hurt.”
Another questionable call — or at least one that didn’t receive as much replay attention as it probably deserved — was the fumble return less than a minute later by Jabrill Pepers to the Pittsburgh 1. Peppers appeared to fumble the ball out of the end zone, but a quick replay of the original turnover didn’t result in a change of the return, when it might have been Steelers ball at their 20 instead of Browns ball at the 1.
“I thought that was a touchback also,” said Hilton.
“I thought so too!” said Heyward. “When did Ohio start taking care of Michigan guys?”
Peppers, of course, played at the University of Michigan, Heyward’s primary collegiate rival.
Quick hitters
n Terrell Edmunds wasn’t the only Steelers rookie to start his first NFL game. Third-round pick Chukwuma Okorafor started at tight end in the jumbo package. “I think I had a pretty good game, but we’ll see what the coaches say,” said Okorafor, who played 17 snaps and threw a key block at the second level on Conner’s 22-yard touchdown run.
n Ryan Switzer returned five punts at 11.2 yards per return and three kickoffs at 23.0 yards per return. He made heady decisions, deked gunners with false catch signals, and didn’t show a hint of a bobble despite the all-game rain storm. “It didn’t have as big effect as I thought it would,” Switzer said. “I’m not saying it wasn’t tough, but rain and wind kind of make it more difficult than if it was sunny and dry. But, no, we had a good game as far as return units go. It’s something we can build on.”
n Cameron Sutton, a candidate in training camp to return kicks, thought Switzer played well. “We always preach about stealing 10 yards and getting the offense going in the right direction, and he did a really good job of that,” Sutton said. The Steelers traded for Switzer because players such as Sutton are needed elsewhere, and on Sunday Sutton replaced the injured Haden (hamstring), who walked without a limp Monday.
n Mike Tomlin said Tuesday that Haden is still undergoing evaluation for his hamstring injury but could practice this week. Also, RG David DeCastro will play with a fractured hand; Roethlisberger has an elbow injury that may cause him to miss an early-week practice; and reserve DT Tyson Alualu injured his shoulder.