National Football League

Steelers vs. Patriots: Coordinators Comments

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:47 p.m. ET

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The Steelers are in the awesome position of having to rebound from a crappy loss without their starting quarterback to face their main competition in the AFC.

Jan 17, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler against the Denver Broncos during the AFC Divisional round playoff game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

To accomplish the feat of taking down the New England Patriots the Steelers will need positive contributions from all three phases of the team. Not an easy task when you’re playing without Ben Roethlisberger.

The defense gave up some long passes, got absolutely blasted on the ground and surrendered 30 points to a Dolphins team that had only previously won against the Cleveland Browns. Defensive coordinator Keith Butler admitted to Missi Matthews that tackling was a problem, unfortunately again.

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He asserted that this wasn’t a situation where he felt the team overlooked the Dolphins, knowing they were facing the Patriots this week. He said the team went into the game with their “eyes open” as opposed to how they were just blindsided in Philly earlier in the season.

Butler remarked about how difficult it is to prepare against an offense that is headed by Tom Brady. He cites Brady’s ability to study defenses and he and coach Bill Belichick’s creative ways of skirting around the rulebook as part of their success.

The defense will be without defensive end Cameron Heyward, who is ruled out for a second straight week and without having Roethlisberger in there to put points on the board.

Butler’s gonna need to get a body on Rob Gronkowski unless he wants to see that dummy in the end zone over and over again list last year’s season opener.

Special Teams

Oct 16, 2016; Miami Gardens, FL, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons (94) breaks up a pass in front of Miami Dolphins tight end Dion Sims (80) during the first half at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports

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Special teams had an actual good week last week in terms of a blocked field goal. Anybody remember that? Yeah, totally happened. Daniel McCullers blocked Andrew Franks’ 24-yard field goal attempt so yeah, good stuff.

Special teams coordinator Danny Smith talked to Mike Prisuta about how the punt team kind of had their first bad game of the season. Jordan Berry didn’t fail at an attempted fake field goal or anything like that but he certainly wasn’t booming his kicks like he has been so far this year.

Smith talked about Tyler Matakevich’s recovery of the Dolphin’s onside kick that was called back for referee stupidity early on in the game. “Dirty Red” is making his way so far on special teams and that’s the way most Steeler linebackers have established their careers over the years.

The object for Smith’s unit this Sunday against New England is to create that field position advantage the punting team was giving the offense in previous games. This won’t likely be the shootout we all expected it to be so field position will be extremely important.

Offense

Oct 2, 2016; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley looks at his play chart against the Kansas City Chiefs during the third quarter at Heinz Field. The Steelers won 43-14. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Todd Haley has an interesting job this week to attack the New England defense with Landry Jones as opposed to Ben Roethlisberger. He explained that the team yet again abandoned the run game in the loss to the Dolphins like they had against the Eagles.

That seems to unfortunately provide an easy blueprint for teams on how to beat Pittsburgh. They’re going to not need to allow another team to dictate their strategy.

Haley discussed the confidence level in Landry Jones and how he addressed the team this week as a veteran would. It’s easy to think of Landry as a young guy but he’s been with the team for four years and he’s very capable of handling this moment.

Haley described his time with working on the New York Jets staff with Bill Belichick and about how he learned from him to focus on the details. Haley worked as a receivers coach on the Jets team when Belichick was the defensive coordinator.

Haley describes a Belichick defense as a disciplined one that doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. Haley says they’ll be focused on looking out for linebacker Jamie Collins and Devin McCourty in the secondary.

For Pittsburgh to have a chance they’re going to need to play smart and not make any mistakes. If they keep the ball out of Tom Brady’s hands they can legitimately win this game.

You can listen to each of the coordinator’s interviews right here.

Let’s do this. Here we go Steelers! Here we go!

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