Thursday morning, I had an outstanding phone call with Adam Crowley (@_adamcrowley) of ESPN Radio in Pittsburgh to preview the upcoming playoff match. Adam is a Pittsburgh native and hosts “Locked on Steelers” and also covers the Penguins for ESPN’s iHeartMedia Radio cluster. Adam is a smart guy with lots of knowledge on the team so I figured he’d be the perfect guy to go to for an inside look on this playoff team. Below is the transcription of our conversation where we talk about the Steelers players you haven’t heard of before but should know, Tedy Bruschi, Steelers red zone percentages, ridiculous Le’Veon Bell stats, and the similarities between Marty Bennet and Big Ben.
ADAM MAGNACCA: So we all know about Big Ben, Le’Veon Bell, and Antonio Brown, but give us some background on some other weapons on the Pittsburgh offense and who you think the #4 guy is.
ADAM CROWLEY: Yeah that’s interesting, if Ladarius Green is healthy, it’s certainly him. He’s a big play guy, he’s got height, he’s got speed, and he’s deceptively fast. you watch him running down the football field and it doesn’t look like he’s going all that quickly, but he’s got long legs. He’s able to go up and make combatted catches and is a big time red zone target. We’ll find out as the week progresses whether or not he’ll be able to go in this game on Sunday. If I’m a Steelers fan I wouldn’t be optimistic that it would happen. We’ve seen this before, he did practice in a limited capacity and if he were able to go he’d be a big time weapon for the Steelers offense. If not him, I really think its a committee. The Steelers don’t really have another option other than Bell and Brown who is going to terrify New England, but they guys who can get it done. Eli Rogers is productive out of the slot. Really good football player, shifty after the catch, as is Demarcus Ayres, who is very similar. One of the PR/KR guys as a 7th round draft pick for the Steelers this year out of Houston. He’s a guy that can make you miss in the open field. Cobi Hamilton is a guy who can be utilized in the red zone, can get down the field sometimes on the deep route. He has made some clutch catches for the team this year as has Jesse James, the other Steelers TE who has filled in admirably for Ladarius Green since he went down. Darrius Heyward-Bey is the guy who can be used to stretch the field. Same thing with Sammie Coates although he hasn’t been used since the early part of the season because of injuries and some inconsistencies with him. So the Steelers really don’t have an elite weapon after Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown except for Ladarius Green and he very well might not play on Sunday.
AM: So the last time the two teams played in the regular season, you could throw that tape out because Roethlisberger and Landry Jones are two different worlds. Also, the Pittsburgh team looked different, with Artie Burns and Bud Dupree not being key contributors for the team in Week 7. How do you think this different defense will try to attack Brady this time around?
AC: It’s interesting you brought up the differences in the Steelers defense because there are a bunch. You got Bud Dupree the LOLB who didn’t play back then. He’s been an absolute stud since coming back with 4.5 sacks down the stretch in the regular season. He really has created a lot of havoc on that side of the defensive front. James Harrison is playing a lot better since then and a lot more frankly since then. He was playing about half the time back then when the teams played and now he’s playing full time. Artie Burns, is a much better player this time around, as is Sean Davis the safety. Javon Hargrave, the rookie NT, is also playing a lot better. So, the Steelers defense has evolved from that standpoint.
If I’m the Steelers defense, I attack Tom Brady up the middle. I don’t think you typically see a lot of edge rushers getting to Tom Brady, Von Miller last year being the exception. You have to create pressure up the middle. I expect the Steelers to bring a lot of A-gap pressure with Ryan Shazier and Lawrence Timmons. I’d expect Stephon Tuitt to be move around strategically on the inside, trying to attack the inside of the Pats O-Line, much like what we saw last week with the Houston Texans. That’s how I think the Steelers will attempt to get pressure on Brady. Whether it can be done, we shall see.
As for the differences with the teams of course Jamie Collins was on the field, you had Rob Gronkowski. He made a couple of big back breaking catches…that’s my unfortunate pun whenever talking about Rob Gronkowski but those catches really put the dagger in the heart of Pittsburgh Steelers the first time around. So these two teams are definitely different than when they sized each other up the first time around, so it should definitely be a great match on Sunday.
AM: Is there really any way to stop Bell? Or can you just only hope to limit him? When I watch him play, obviously his patience is insane, so gap integrity is so important. But is there an unknown way to keep him at bay with maybe a sort of mush rush, like you would with a mobile QB?
AC: That’s a great point and that’s something that Tedy Braschi went over actually a little bit actually on Sportscenter, I just heard the audio today where he said, “Look, Bill Belichick is in the meeting room right now talking about a mush rush,” talking a little bit about gap integrity and just making sure you make Le’Veon Bell make the first move. Too many times you see, and this is what players are taught to do, you read what the OL is doing, whether there is a guard pulling, or even with the Steelers a tackle or Maurkice Pouncey pulling since their OL is so athletic, you got to read your keys. Well, you can read your keys against Le’Veon Bell and you can go where you think the football is going to be and Bell is not going to be going where the play is designed for him to go. So I think staying in your lane, being patient, allowing him to make the first move is going to be critical for the Patriots stopping Bell. Easier said than done, haven’t seen him stopped in the last 8 weeks. He’s as important to the team as anybody. He’s gained 1,200 yards in those games which is just staggering. He’s a threat out of the backfield to catch the ball as well. The only game he didn’t rush for 100 yards rushing in that streak was against the Bengals where he ran for 93 yards and they were very sound but even they couldn’t stop him. I think the Patriots can slow Bell down. I don’t if they can stop him but maybe slowing him down is good enough.
AM: What scares you the most about playing the Patriots?
AC: Oh, you know that guy who wears 12…he’s not bad.
What really scares me is there isn’t one guy you can try to take away and feel like you’re okay with that. I feel with the Steelers, if the Patriots were able to take Bell out of the game or slow him down, and then bracket Antonio Brown and take him out of the game, they’re winning. If you’re the Steelers and you take Julian Edelman out of the game…okay. Tom Brady is still going to find other ways to beat you. We know that they are able to get mismatches with the RBs coming out of the backfield. We saw the wheel route work to perfection last week against Houston, something I could certainly see working against the Steelers defense, particularly because they have some younger guys on the team that maybe you can scheme against them to get them to fall for tricks.
I think the Steelers can move the ball against the Patriots defense, but the question is can they punch it in the end zone, something they struggled with recently. Not a big problem all season long, but certainly a problem on the road. At home, I think the Steelers are second in the NFL in terms of red zone percentage, on the road, they’re close to 27th which is not good enough. They have to score to keep up with the Patriots, because they’re gonna be able to score points.
AM: Yeah, I tend to think if the Patriots can get into a shootout situation, they can win with Brady. You mentioned the running backs in particular, but with their “Pony” Package, with Dion Lewis and James White and they don’t use it too often but I think it’s so dangerous and exciting. Most people consider Dion Lewis a pass catching back but Belichick himself said he views Lewis as more of a change of pace guy. More of a Danny Woodhead than a Shane Vereen.
AC: That’s the thing about these guys, they just find different ways to beat you man. They can line up and have their jumbo set and run the ball down your throat, or line up 3 wide (receivers) and throw the ball, or line up in goal line and throw it and vice versa. The thing with the Steelers, is if they show something on tape, they’ll do it again. They don’t have all that many wrinkles. You look at the Patriots and they game plan specifically for the opponent and do things before they haven’t seen on tape. You know darn well the playoff game from a few years back with the Baltimore Ravens when the tackle caught the ball. Look I think Tomlin is a hell of a coach, but if there’s a coaching advantage, it certainly goes to the Patriots, there is no doubt about that.
AM: I’m looking at my notes from the last Steelers game, and at the top in big bold letters i said “You can bait Roethlisberger into bad throws.”
AC: Absolutely. Yeah he’s very Farve-like. He’s great against man coverage, but if you muddy things up with zone, particularly in the middle of the field, that’s where you can bait him into some picks. We’ve seen it all year long for him, when he’s at home, one of the best in the game. When he’s on the road, he’s very very average. He’ll have to be far better than average to get out of Foxboro with a win.
AM: I don’t know if you’ve watched much of Marty Bennett this year, but there’s a joke floating around that he has some Roethlisberger in him. He’ll go down, clutching his knee, injury looks season ending, then all of a sudden, he hops up and jogs off the field only missing one play.
AC: Oh Roethlisberger, he hates this, he is a drama queen a little bit. He got hurt at the end of the game against Miami and he’s walking off the field and he’s flexing his shoulder, like it hurt. Then after the game, shoulder seems fine, and he’s walking out to the podium to talk to us media schlubs and he’s wearing a boot. Then he was fine all week in practice. He’s maybe the toughest QB in the game in terms of playing through pain, coming back from injuries early…but I’ll tell you what, he does play things up from time to time, no question about that.
AM: My last question for you: What’s your score for this game?
AC: I got Pats 34-28…34-27…somewhere in that area. I think the Patriots score points, the Steelers score points also. I think Patriots are more prone to making mistakes this year than they have been in the past. That being said, they were 14-2. So even though they make mistakes, they’re still a damn good football team. Ben Roethlisberger, great QB gonna be in the Hall of Fame one day, he has a penchant for throwing interceptions on the road. 9 TDs, 9 INTs (on the road this year). I think he probably throws one or two, and that winds up being the difference in a very close football game in the fourth quarter.
AM: Well listen Adam, thanks for your time a lot of great stuff here.
AC: Thank you man, had a lot of fun doing it.
Be sure to follow Adam on twitter @_adamcrowley for more awesome insight on the game this weekend
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and remind him how good the Patriots are. Tell him I sent you.