The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to match up against the New England Patriots in Week 2. The Steelers secured a win in Week 1, while the Patriots dropped their season opener to the Seattle Seahawks.
Regardless of what happened last week, everyone is focused on the task at hand, and every team has a couple of flaws after the first game. I asked Musket Fire's editor, Sara Marshall, what the weak spots are for the Patriots, and she pointed out three things.
"I would say their biggest flaws right now are establishing the run - that was a problem in the Super Bowl and last week, so the fact they're facing another good defensive front spells trouble there," Marshall wrote.
She then added, "Turnovers have also been an issue, for Drake Maye especially. And I'd say probably giving receivers too much room to make big plays, as we saw with JSN's 45-yard touchdown last week."
What should excite the Steelers is that these are things that they can exploit and take advantage of to get them an edge in this contest.
Patriots expert identifies areas Pittsburgh Steelers must exploit New England in Week 2
The Steelers' defensive line is one of the strengths of this team, and that should be a weapon in this contest. The Patriots have struggled to find a consistent run game dating back to last year's Super Bowl, and that trickled into the season opener.
In the loss to the Seahawks, New England had 109 rushing yards, averaging 3.5 yards a pop. Quarterback Drake Maye accounted for 47 of those yards, meaning that only 62 yards came from running backs.
Rhamondre Stevenson couldn't find his footing and looked a tad slow in Week 1. TreVeyon Henderson is dealing with an ankle injury that forced him to miss last week's game. While he's back at practice, he's still 1B in the rotation behind Stevenson and will need to knock off some rust if he does play.
Shutting down New England's rushing attack will be a major point of emphasis, and considering the talent Pittsburgh has in the front seven in combo with the question marks New England is facing on the ground, the Steelers should be able to limit this run game.
Turnovers and big plays will go hand in hand
Things didn't look great for Maye last week, as he threw three critical interceptions, all coming in the fourth quarter. Instead of doing his job, he looked to play hero ball, and that resulted in a game-sealing interception.
And that's just another thing that has gone from last year to this year. During last season's playoffs, Maye had eight turnovers in four games. Now, in the first game of the year, he committed three more.
Pittsburgh's defense is an opportunistic group, as shown against the Falcons. They caught two interceptions, one by T.J. Watt, who then returned it for a 35-yard touchdown. There's a great chance that Maye will give this defense a chance to take the ball away, and it will come down to whether the Steelers can make the play or not.
They will be without A.J. Brown, and the rest of the receiving corps struggled to make an impact against Seattle once he left the game. If they can't step up and play similarly to what they did in Week 1, Maye may be inclined to try to put on his Superman cape again.
Something interesting that Marshall said was that the defense gives receivers too much space in coverage that can result in a chuck play. They gave up a 45-yard touchdown to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who caught a short pass before running away from every defender for the score.
The Steelers have DK Metcalf, who is a big-play threat with the speed to blow past defenders. Aside from him, Michael Pittman and Roman Wilson are other receivers who could be given a chance to do damage in the open field.
This matchup won't be easy for the Steelers, but there's a pathway to victory. Marshall laid out three flaws for this team, and it'll be interesting to see if Pittsburgh exploits any of them.
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