The Cleveland Browns may have provided the rest of the NFL with a roadmap to stymie Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy’s offense.
According to Christopher Carter on his “Locked on Steelers” podcast, the Browns forced the Steelers into "five-on-five football" and dared their three-receiver sets to win isolated matchups. By doing this, Cleveland exposed a fatal structural vulnerability in Pittsburgh’s 11-personnel groupings.
"The key weakness, it's the fact that the Steelers offensive line was struggling to pick up blitzes, struggling to handle just one-on-ones, to communicate, and they were playing press coverage at the line of scrimmage, forcing the Steelers receivers to have to beat that press coverage and forcing Aaron Rogers to have to hold
on to the ball longer," explained Carter.
Instead of respecting Pittsburgh's perimeter threats, Cleveland aggressively pressed receivers at the line of scrimmage while sending five rushers against five blockers. This approach disrupted timing routes and forced a less-mobile, 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers to navigate congested pockets while waiting for slow-developing separation.
As Carter noted, both McCarthy and Rodgers acknowledged the reality of the matchup postgame.
"Mike McCarthy even talked about it after the game. Aaron Rogers talked about too talked about it too, saying, you know, it was a lot of five-on-five football. Five blitzers versus five linemen, five covermen versus five receivers or targets. And the Steelers just couldn't win those situations," added Carter.
Without elite separators across all three receiver spots, leaning heavily into 11 personnel plays directly into opponent strengths. Moving forward, Pittsburgh must adjust its personnel usage, specifically incorporating heavier 12 and 13 personnel featuring Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington, or risk seeing every defense on its schedule copy Cleveland's press-and-blitz strategy.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: How Cleveland exposed the fatal flaw in Pittsburgh's offense
