Weekly Bold Prediction: Steelers defense racks up six sacks against Washington
The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to face the Washington Football Team this upcoming Monday – and looking into my crystal ball get more difficult as each week wears on.
Despite a lowly record, the Football Team (as they’re now called) matches up fairly well with the Steelers. I believe this game will be a tale of two pass rushes, as Washington is tied in second place in the league in sacks with 36, which trails the first place Pittsburgh who has five more with 41 total in the same amount of games played (11).
With that in mind, Washington quarterback Alex Smith has appeared in five games with three starts since making a miraculous comeback to football.
Smith has also been sacked 15 times – which is quite remarkable seeing as he’s only attempted 155 passes (and played 292 snaps).
The translation is Smith getting sacked once every ten pass attempts. Now, the Football Team isn’t likely to game plan Smith throwing 55 passes (his season-high in Week 10 against Detroit) and has managed to keep him to 51 total attempts combined in the last two games – meaning the Steelers may not have enough opportunities to get to Smith.
However, I feel bullish on this prediction after seeing that the Los Angeles Rams got to Smith six times in 17 pass attempts coming in cold off of his return from a gruesome leg injury. This last four games haven’t been against strong defenses either – the Giants, Lions, Bengals and Cowboys, who combined to get Smith on the ground nine times.
Against the best pass rush in the NFL, I believe Washington will struggle. Even without Bud Dupree, who was placed on IR earlier this week, the Steelers have a rookie edge rusher, Alex Highsmith, who had wrecked opposing college defenses. The Football Team’s line won’t be much more premium than the competition he faced, and he’s doing so while being aided by fellow defensive front teammates such as Cameron Heyward, Tyson Alualu, and presumably reactivated Stephon Tuitt, along with November’s AFC Defensive Player of the Month, T.J. Watt.
With a healthy Mike Hilton and integrating Avery Williamson into the inside linebacker rotation, the Steelers, who send pressure more than any other team in the league, could get to Smith with as high of a frequency if not more.
Washington will attempt to limit the Steelers pass rush by running the football with a committee of running backs, headlined by stellar rookie Antonio Gibson. However, a ticked-off Ben Roethlisberger is going to make sure the Steelers offense plays better on Monday, and a running game isn’t going to be beneficial for the Football Team against the Steelers defense, particularly if they fall behind early.
I realize that the Steelers still had their issues with the Ravens running game, but who hasn’t? They were still only ten yards short of holding Baltimore to their lowest ground game output of the season.
I’ll call my shot and say the Steelers bring down Alex Smith and company at least six times on Monday while extending their unbeaten streak to 12-0.
