Film Room: Special teams helps Steelers win field position battle over Minnesota

For quite some time, the Steelers’ units on special teams were a liability, preventing the team from succeeding with hidden yardage. This “hidden yardage” is crucial to winning field position and helping put your team in a position to score or to make it harder for you opponent to put points on the board. The Steelers succeeded with this against the Vikings, particularly on two impact plays. Two recent late-round draft picks for the Steelers were on display on these plays, which is huge for players trying to make impressions on the field. So lets break down these two specific plays.

Matakevich and Hilton show off excellent football intelligence

Going into the second half down 14-3, the Vikings thought they would be sneaky and attempt a fake punt to keep an otherwise dead 3-and-out drive alive. The issue with this play call is the fact that they Vikings were backed up at their own 36 yard line. Before the snap, Vikings gunner Marcus Sherels went in motion and shifted into the slot, with Mike Hilton and Coty Sensabaugh promptly came down the line with him. On the snap, Hilton rushed into the backfield to put pressure on punter Ryan Quigley. At the snap, it became clear that the punt was going to be a fake punt pass, causing Hilton to go into a full-out spring towards Quigley.

Pre-snap, Tyler Matakevich was prepared to rush the punter off the edge. As the play developed, Blake Bell, the “right tackle” that would be responsible for blocking Matakevich before sprinting down the field in coverage, turned from would-be blocker into a receiver in the flat. Matakevich never took his eyes off of Quigley and when the 2nd-year linebacker felt Bell begin working out into the flat, he made the quick adjustment to drop into coverage with him and played Bell’s hip the entire time.

With Hilton rushing Quigley, there was little time to get a solid pass off, giving Matakevich the perfect opportunity to jump the pass for an excellent pass breakup. Preventing the Vikings from converting this play on 4th down gave the Steelers fantastic field position and took some wind out of the already struggling Minnesota squad.

Berry pins the Vikings deep in their own territory

Over the past season, Jordan Berry has quietly become one of the most underrated punters in the NFL. He has developed a nice blend of power and accuracy that is needed by quality punters in the league. But the most important trait that he has displayed has been his fantastic control, combining awesome hang time and ball placement to pin the opposing team deep in their own territory. On this particular play against the Vikings, he showed off this ability.

Working with a short field, the ball was placed on the Minnesota 35 yards line, with Berry punting from just in front of the 50 yard line. On the punt, Berry was able to get the ball off quickly before pressure came down on him (he was ultimately knocked over after the punt, leading to a running into the kicker call). With great hang time and a lucky bounce, the ball was downed by Brian Allen between the 1 yard line and the goal line. With the Vikings playing desperate football this late in the game trying to mount a comeback, this is exactly where you want to put your defense.

What might have gone unnoticed was what Allen did during the play to stop the ball from bouncing into the endzone. As a gunner on the left side of the field, Allen took an immediate inside route off of the snap to work towards the middle of the field. He was able to beat his man down the field and didn’t allow the coverage to wash him out of the play. Allen displayed great awareness about where the ball was in the air and once he located it, was able to catch the ball before it took an unfavorable bounce. This was a great heads-up play by a young player trying to make an impact on the field.

A great football team is able to perform well in all three phases of the football game. The Steelers have put a lot of emphasis on improving their special teams units and we are starting to see the results of these efforts.