The Pittsburgh Steelers will play the fourth game of the 2024 regular season on the road against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday afternoon. They will enter that contest listed as slight favorites. Below are the five important things I think the Steelers need to do in Sunday’s road game to get their fourth straight win in the 2024 season.
TAYLOR MADE TO BE QUEEN FOR DAY – The Colts offense will likely rely heavily on the running game against the Steelers on Sunday. Jonathan Taylor ran for 261 yards and three touchdowns on 51 total carries through the first three games of the 2024 regular season. Taylor already has eight runs of 10 yards or more this season, and as a team, the Colts’ offense has allowed 15 yards, the third-most in the NFL in 2024. The Colts will use Taylor in the passing game, where he has three receptions and six total targets in Indianapolis’ first three games of 2024 for 57 yards.
The Colts like to use 11 personnel on offense quite a lot, so they operate well with just one tight end and three wide receivers on the field. The Colts’ use of 11 players against the Steelers’ defense will be countered by a large number of nickel subpackage personnel. There is one inside linebacker on the field in Patrick Queen, who will likely need a big day at tackle. Department. Queen will be tasked with getting off second-level blocking by the Colts’ offensive linemen and then finding Taylor with the football most of the time. How the Steelers defense handles the Colts’ running game on Sunday could go a long way in determining which team ultimately wins. A big game by Queen within four yards of the line of scrimmage will probably have to be part of making that happen.
Lucas Oil Field’s Footloose Oil Field – Through three games, the Colts defense has allowed opposing quarterbacks just 62 yards on 11 rushes. Still, the most mobile quarterback the Colts defense has faced thus far is Malik Willis of the Green Bay Packers, who had six rushing attempts for 41 yards and a touchdown in Week 2. On Sunday, Steelers QB Justin Fields was one of the QBs. Most mobile quarterbacks in the NFL right now should be planning on making quite a few runs to attack the Colts defense. So far this season, Fields has 28 passes for 90 yards and a touchdown, but several of those were clear scrambles and just 11 of those were intentional or part of a read option.
Fields admitted in a media session last week that he needs to move his legs a little more than he has so far this season. The quarterback runs and read-option plays Fields has been asked to make so far this season haven’t yielded amazing results, but Pittsburgh OC Arthur Smith says those attempts need to stop. Not really. The Colts defense will be without several key defensive players due to injuries in Sunday’s game against the Steelers, so they need to have that unit ready to go in Indianapolis. Fields should be part of the game plan for Sunday’s running attack and should have a chance to stop some big plays because of his athleticism. At least Fields shouldn’t be afraid to use his legs. He could just leave Sunday’s game against the Colts as the team’s leading rusher.
Stand up to the Big Lyman – The Steelers will be without starting OLB Alex Highsmith for Sunday’s game against the Colts, who will miss the Week 4 road contest with a groin injury. With Highsmith out, second-year OLB Nick Herbig will likely start in his place on Sunday. Herbig has been great defensively in the 20 regular season games he has played, with 31 total tackles, 7 lost tackles, 5 quarterback hits, 5 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and 3 regular season games. He recorded one fumble recovery. seasonal action. Still, Herbig only played a total of 244 defensive snaps in his NFL career. He could easily add at least 50 more defensive snaps to that total against the Colts on Sunday in Indianapolis. Therefore, as a result of Highsmith’s absence, he will have a much larger single-game sample size to examine.
Helbig will primarily be playing right outside linebacker on Sunday, but he should play against Colts big T Bernhard Reimann in the Week 4 contest. Lyman, currently in his third NFL season, has performed well at left tackle for the Colts through the team’s first three games, allowing only one sack and four total pressures. That means Helbig will have to step up big against Lyman on Sunday, but Lyman will need that kind of help on the other side of the opposing field with OLB TJ Watt, who ruined the game for the Steelers, chipping tight end. He’s not likely to get much help from the running backs. offensive line. If Herbig has a big game on both the run and the pass on Sunday, the Steelers defense could have another super dominant performance for the fourth straight game, and perhaps its best performance of the season.
Deep shot to Pickens – The Colts should be expected to play a lot of single-high safeties on defense against the Steelers offense on Sunday. That’s how they played through the first three games with DC Gus Bradley in charge of the football team. That means the Steelers should be playing a lot of Cover 3 defense on Sunday, with a bit of a mix of Cover 1 and Cover 2. Overall, opposing quarterbacks haven’t attacked the middle of the field much against the Colts until Week 3. Especially more than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see Fields and the Steelers offense follow suit Sunday. This is because they are more likely to attack from the air towards numbers on and off the field. While it’s unlikely we’ll see Fields and others throwing deep down the middle of the field against the Colts on Sunday, we should see Fields picking his spots near the numbers or with deep passes to the outside, especially to WR George Pickens. is.
So far this season, Fields has connected on passes of 20 or more yards to Pickens three times in three games on plays that weren’t wiped out by penalties. Those three to Pickens are the only ones Fields mentioned when talking about 20 or more air yard throws. Meanwhile, the Colts’ defense has allowed five deep throws of 20 or more air yards in the first three games. Three of those five were allowed in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears. Coach Fields should give his star wide receiver a chance to play deep on the field, especially in press man situations, when he saw Pickens single up on the outside on Sunday. Pickens might also be worth a deep shot or two outside the zone on Sunday. So far this season, the Steelers offense has only had six explosive passing plays of 20 yards or more, three of which have Pickens on the receiving end. Pickens needs to make at least two more plays Sunday, with at least one of them being a double or triple explosive play.
accept Anthony’s alms – Colts second-year QB Anthony Richardson had a very interesting start to the 2024 regular season, but it was literally feast or famine for him when it came to his passing. First, Richardson, a 2023 first-round draft pick, has completed just 49.3 percent of his 73 total pass attempts through the first three games of the 2024 regular season. As part of that, Richardson has already made six interceptions. Perhaps a few more attempts from him in the Colts’ first three games of 2024 could have been successful.
Richardson isn’t afraid to throw deep, and despite a high interception rate, he completed seven of his 18 pass attempts at least 15 yards from the line of scrimmage, including two for touchdowns. Connected. However, three of his deep throws were intercepted. Richardson’s deep throws, at least through the first three games of the 2024 regular season, have almost always appeared to be either inherently inadequate or wildly off the mark. So it’s not hard to reason that Richardson will provide the Pittsburgh defense with at least a few turnover-worthy pitches against the Steelers on Sunday. Assuming that happens, the Steelers defense will need to take advantage of such talent. As a team, the Steelers entered Week 4 with four defensive interceptions and should have some chances to increase that number Sunday in Indianapolis. The defense will have to accept any gifts Richardson offers Sunday to counteract some of the deep throws that are likely to connect during the game.
