Adrian Fedkiw
Carson Wentz hasn’t made any rookie mistakes so far, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have forced a plethora of them over the past dozen years.
If you haven’t heard the numbers so far, the Steelers are 19-2 against first-year players over the last 12 seasons, allowing just 15,75 points per game while intercepting 25 passes and surrendering just 12 passing touchdowns.
So do those numbers mean anything?
Not really.
It’s really simple, there’s no more Dick LeBeau in Pittsburgh. The godfather of the zone blitz makes it really tough for a signal-caller to decipher what’s really going on, let alone a rookie. A lot of LeBeau’s looks appear to be blitzes when they’re really not. He finds different ways to rush four. It’s a controlled chaos. When using a blitz with man-to-man coverage, it can actually make the job easier for the quarterback because they’re just playing pitch-and-catch with the wideout.
We saw this with Carson Wentz in the opener against the Cleveland Browns when he went 8-of-8 against the blitzes of defensive coordinator Ray Horton.
Keith Butler is in his second season as the Steelers’ defensive coordinator. LeBeau is his mentor. He’s taken a cautious approach so far this year and Pittsburgh has recorded just one sack. The outside linebackers are dropping back into coverage a bunch and the defensive line hasn’t forced a lot of pressure. When he does like to bring the blitz it’s through the A-gap with his linebackers.
We’ll see what’s in store for Wentz Sunday.