It’s October, which means it’s time to watch all the scary movies you can get your hands on. In the Pittsburgh Steelers’ case, that kind of horror film might just be the game tape of tight end Rob Gronkowski and his New England Patriots after Sunday’s game.
Gronkowski has long been the Steelers’ kryptonite. In his four games against them, he’s averaged 100.8 yards/game and has seven touchdowns.
Only the New York Giants, Washington, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams have given up more yards per game in a total of five games. And the seven touchdowns Gronkowski has scored against Pittsburgh are his second-most against an NFL team.
Pittsburgh often seems helpless when facing the 6’6”, 265-pound behemoth of a man who can score with three or four defensive backs hanging onto him.
Before the 2015 season opener, the Steelers said their plan was to slow Gronkowski by jamming him and messing with his timing. They also planned to get their hands on the tight end because Pittsburgh felt he has trouble when that happens.
New England won the game, 28-21, and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady threw four touchdowns — Gronkowski only had five receptions in the game, for 94 yards, but turned three of them into touchdowns. The Steelers looked sloppy and just let New England’s tight end essentially do whatever he wanted. He occasionally wasn’t even covered at the line of scrimmage, and he was often allowed to go free with no help arriving over the top.
The game showed the problem with trying to jam Gronkowski. Because he’s a freak of nature, he can fight through opposing defenders all too easily, which makes him a coverage disaster. Occasionally the play works when he’s lined up in the slot as a wide receiver, but trying to jam him when he’s lined up as a tight end is just going to be the stuff of nightmares.
You can try to jam with with a linebacker who then drops into the flat to cover the running back and let the defensive back play off him — but the key word there is “try.” New England often splits Gronkowski wide as an isolated receiver and forces one-on-one matchups.
You can’t tire him out because he has a cold-fusion-reactor for a heart. His physicality is impressive, and he’s able to out-muscle and blow by any defender the opposing team dares to put on him. But even if opposing defenses are able to cover him 75 percent of the time, that means he’s going to get free 25 percent of the time — and he’s going to make you pay.
And New England is smart about how they use Gronkowski. He’s often in a scheme where, if a team manages to double him up, Brady has a whole host of other options open.
Pittsburgh did get some good news with the return of linebacker Ryan Shazier. Shazier, who missed the last three games with a knee injury, is another freak-of-nature athlete known mostly for his speed. Shazier is probably the Steelers’ best hope to run with Gronkowski and be physical.
Teams often struggle to “hit Gronkowski hard” because big guys aren’t fast enough to stay near him, and the fast guys aren’t big enough to bring him down. Shazier is both fast and big and could be the key to stopping — or, at least, slowing — Gronkowski. Shazier is also incredibly versatile as either a blitzer or a zone-coverage tackler, which is a huge help to Pittsburgh’s defense.
Defensive coordinator Keith Butler said he wants his defense to not be sloppy like it was in last Sunday’s loss to the Miami Dolphins, where there seemed to be several lapses of judgement and mental mistakes. Against New England — and, especially, an out-for-blood Brady — that just can’t happen.
“We have to be able to play more than one defense,” Butler said. “They’re very good, and they’ll pick you apart if they can figure out what you’re doing.”
Pittsburgh knows it has to give the Patriots’ offense lots of different looks and will try to speed up New England’s play clock.
But perhaps the Steelers’ best option for stopping Gronkowski is the simplest: just sack Brady on every play.
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