3 things you must know about the Steelers Week 5 match up vs the Eagles
The Pittsburgh Steelers have to be on their toes against this uber-talented defensive line in Week 5.
This defensive line is elite. It very well may be the best defensive line in the league. It all starts with Fletcher Cox. He is the best defensive tackle in the league aside from multiple time defensive player of the year award winner Aaron Donald. He is as dominant in the center of a 4-3 as they come.
While he may be starting to age, Fletcher Cox has accumulated a stellar 49.5 sacks in his now 9-year career. For a defensive tackle that is huge. Not to mention, his ability to stuff the run with a whopping 64 tackles for a loss. He isn’t the flashiest player, but he is incredibly disruptive and he needs to be a priority for the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line.
The problem is that opens things up for players like Malik Jackson and even Javon Hargrave. Malik Jackson is a former pro-bowler who has accumulated 55 tackles for loss and 33 sacks. While he isn’t as disruptive of a pass rusher as Cox, he is almost as good at stopping the run. That is saying something considering just how talented Fletcher Cox is.
Javon Hargrave isn’t as stout against the run as some of the other DT’s on the roster. However, he can easily make a push as the best pass rusher from the interior of the whole group. As Steelers fans, we have to remember how many big sacks he came up with in crucial games, even at a limited capacity. Hargrave has never started more than 14 games in a season, and he still has totaled 15 sacks coming into his 5th year. Injuries have definitely kept him from living up to the contract he signed in Philadelphia this offseason, but he is finally healthy and that spells big trouble in passing situations.
With how talented the interior of this defensive line is, there is a forgotten man that is likely going to cause trouble for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Brandon Graham has had a good enough career to demand attention. But the guy most likely to get after Ben on Sunday is actually the defensive end on the other side of that 4-3 front and that is, Derek Barnett. He is entering his 4th career year and he has already tallied 16.5 sacks in his career leading up to Sunday’s game.
It’s worth noting that he has 2.5 sacks on the season which may not sound like a lot, but he put up the same amount of sacks through his first 3 games of the season as Bud Dupree and more than anyone else on the roster not named T.J. Watt. He isn’t the caliber of player as Watt or possibly even Dupree yet. However, he is taking tremendous advantage of all the favorable matchups he is getting with the amount of attention the rest of the defensive line is commanding.
The Steelers offensive line has to be ready for this Eagles front. I can’t think of a better group of 4-5 defensive linemen in the NFL off the top of my head and that worries me coming into Week 5.