Steelers Seek to Shut Down Red Hot Clinton Portis

I can’t believe that 45% of the voters thought that Portis will go over 100 yards. I am not saying that it can’t happen but that seems like a high percentage of Steeler fans that think Portis will go over a 100 yards.

For the record, I voted that Portis will get between 51-75 yards.

I agree with those who are unimpressed with the run defenses that Portis has faced to date. Most of those defense are poor. The 3 run defenses that Portis has faced that should be at least decent are NYG, Arz and Dallas. The Giants and Cardinals held him in check. The Cowboys didn’t, but they are clearly not playing as well as they should be.

And I wanted to post something about the Eagles run defense. I know that they are ranked high, or at least I will assume that based on the previous posts (I’m not going to double check those claims), BUT their approach to run defense needs to be considered.

The Eagles play a 4-3 where their lineman are small and active. Their defense is designed to take away the pass. They do this with quality corners who play aggressively and take their chances by even playing cover zero at times. In the meantime, they have their linemen shoot gaps towards the qb and try to fill run lanes with a lb or db. In effect they are selling out by run blitzing on the way to the qb. But if your offense can show the ability to beat them over the top (forcing them to drop their safeties) and the offensive line can lean on them, you will wear them down.

This is what happened in the Dallas game. Dallas showed the ability to pass protect and was able to go deep in the beginning of the game. As a result, Jim Johnson was forced to play more coverage. By the 2nd half, the Eagles front 7 couldn’t hold up and Barber and Jones were gashing the Eagles consistently.

Contrast that to the Pittsburgh game. Our offensive line obviously couldn’t pass protect at all and therefore we couldn’t go over the top. As a result Philly kept running their stuff and stopped Willie on the way to Ben. And it didn’t help that we didn’t continue to keep running in an effort to wear them down.

Pittsburgh’s run defense on the other hand is completely different from Philadelphia’s. It’s brawnier if that makes sense. Aaron Smith and Casey Hampton are much bigger than any of Philly’s def linemen and are much better against the run. Keisel probably would be one of their better run defenders, although he is our weakest. And our linemen mostly two gap. And while we often have Pola up at the LOS, we don’t rely on run blitzing dbs nearly as much as Philly. We have the personnel and scheme to play the run well while still being able to prevent the big pass play. That’s why we almost always have at least one safety back and often have the corners play off the LOS.

Anyway, this is my long winded way of saying that I’ll be surprised if Portis has a big day against us. Now I suppose there is a chance that he may break one long run to make his overall numbers look good, but I doubt that he consistently gashes us for 5+ yards, or even 4+ yards.