JuJu Smith-Schuster

Second-year receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster currently leads the Steelers in receiving yards this season with 672 along with two touchdowns on 53 catches. He’s the slot guy for Pittsburgh, and while he’s not at Brown’s explosive pace, he’s gotten even better in his sophomore season and is an extremely consistent pass catcher.

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On occasion, Smith-Schuster has flashed insane athleticism, such as on this catch against the Bengals. His toughness, gravity, and concentration against tight man coverage stand out here.

Vance McDonald

Since Heath Miller’s retirement, the Steelers really haven’t had an explosive tight end they can rely on – at least not until Vance McDonald showed up. When Ladarius Green signed a four-year deal with the Steel City back in 2016, he was supposed to be the big athlete at tight end the team needed, but concussions and overall health forced the team to move on from him the following offseason.

McDonald is looking like what Green’s role with Pittsburgh should’ve been. He has 346 yards and a touchdowns in seven games this season, and is on pace for a career high in yards in a single season.

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McDonald gives the Steelers a Gronkowski-esque pass-catching tight end. He has the toughness and aggression of Gronkowski, as well as the more fluid athleticism and ball skills of a Travis Kelce. On this TE dumpoff against the Bengals, McDonald makes a nice spinning catch, using his pad level and bull rushing athleticism to get loads of yards after contact and after the catch.

Unlike past seasons where the Steelers would rely mostly on Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, a more balanced game plan has allowed them to equally rely on Brown, Conner, Smith-Schuster, and McDonald for a four-headed attack on offense. This creates a lot of mismatches the Panthers must overcome, as there’s speed and toughness for the big four playmakers on the Pittsburgh offense.

The Steelers also have the depth to match their star playmaking weapons as rookie James Washington, gadget player Ryan Switzer, and backup tight end Jesse James have all done well as role players in this stacked offense. Combined with an offensive line that is arguably the best in the league, and it’s easy to see why this is an intimidating matchup for Carolina.

Ben Roethlisberger

This brings us to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

As you may have guessed, Roethlisberger’s job is pretty easy with the great protection on offensive line and the loads of weapons he has to throw to – he’s been a prolific passer for his career, but his share of injuries over the last four years have taken a toll on his consistency.

This season Roethlisberger has completed 64.5% of his passes for 2,560 yards, 16 touchdowns, seven interceptions and has a 93.9 passer rating. At his age, he hasn’t completely fallen off and still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

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Roethlisberger’s trademark move on the field has been his ability to buy time and extend the play. When the offensive line play was horrible in his early years, Ben would often scramble outside the pocket in attempts to keep the play alive; he’s finding himself doing that far less, due to the high quality of the offensive line these days, but has shown fantastic pocket patience and ability to settle until a receiver gets open, as shown above.

But with the injuries piling up, Roethlisberger’s decision making hasn’t been as sharp as it once was.

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Roethlisberger these days has little trouble extending the play in a clean pocket, but under pressure is a different story. His first read isn’t open on this play and the interior pressure cranks up a notch, forcing him out of the pocket.

Linebacker Vontaze Burfict is staring Roethlisberger down all the way but it looks as if Ben never sees him. Burfict stays in his spot to bait Ben – and it almost works – as the quarterback forces this throw to Jesse James that Burfict almost snags for an interception. The ball goes through his hands and is almost caught by James himself.

Roethlisberger’s decision making here resembles Joe Flacco – this is not what a future Hall of Fame quarterback is expected to make, and at times it’s really dragged down a talented Steelers offense.

So you may be wondering: Just how can the Panthers defense contain this powerful Steelers offense? The answer comes less from shutting down one particular option and more from forcing the offense to start the game ugly.

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Over the last few years, the Steelers have been notorious for either playing to the level of an opponent they should beat easily or starting the game off ugly. Indeed, this season the Steelers have only 3.2 first quarter points per game, the eighth-lowest ranking in the league thus far. That’s around the nightmare quality of offenses such as the Giants, Bills, Browns and Raiders.

In addition to forcing the Steelers to start off ugly, the Panthers must bait Ben Roethlisberger into throwing deep. That seems strange to say considering that – for a while – the identity of the Steelers’ passing offense has been in it’s vertical passing. But Big Ben’s downfield accuracy currently resides at 41.67% regardless of whether the pass is caught or not – for those of you wondering, that’s not a good number to be associated with.

Roethlisberger has been errant with his passes thrown vertically – such as the one above. With secondary members such as Donte Jackson, Eric Reid and James Bradberry all playing well, this creates an intriguing matchup against a talented, diverse receiving corps in Pittsburgh. This doesn’t mean Carolina shouldn’t play tough when the passes are thrown downfield, but Roethlisberger’s downfield accuracy hasn’t looked at all like it used to.

However, this might be easier said than done.

Pittsburgh has one of the best offensive lines in the league, and if the vertical passing game fails they still have a bunch of short/intermediate threats to fit the ball into. Defending Antonio Brown, James Conner, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Vance McDonald, Jesse James, et al. is not a simple task, especially on the road in a short week.

Are the Steelers the second coming of the 2007 Patriots? No.

But the Panthers defense will have their hands full, so they had best be prepared for a versatile, explosive offense that’s looking to provide Pittsburgh with a five-game winning streak and end the three-game streak Carolina is on.

Johnny Kinsley
Contributor
In addition to The Riot Report, Johnny Kinsley writes for The Phinsider, Dynasty League Football, and 49ers Hub. He is a devoted member of the Church of Curtis Samuel.