On The Beat – 5 questions with Pittsbugh writer Christopher Carter: Steelers can't let Brady, Patriots hang around

Every week, we go deep on the Patriots’ next opponent with our “5 questions…” feature where we check in with a writer who covers New England’s next opponent. For this week’s game against the Steelers, we talk with our friend Christopher Carter, an analyst who covers the Steelers for DKPittsburghSports.com. Check him out on Twitter here.

1. What’s Pittsburgh's plan for stopping Rob Gronkowski?


The reports from training camp indicate the Steelers are going to use Cameron Sutton at slot cornerback this week. The Patriots saw Sutton guarding Brandin Cooks last year outside the numbers, but Sutton was specifically drafted to be a slot cornerback. He’s a fundamental tackler not afraid to challenge the run or get physical with receivers and a young technician. I see the Steelers assigning him to Gronkowski a lot with the occasional help from Sean Davis over the top or a linebacker underneath.

Gronkowski will still get his fair share of plays on Sunday, but the Steelers are going to try and make sure those don’t come on third downs and scoring plays like they have in years past.

2. We’ve seen the move from Le’Veon Bell to James Conner this year. How has that impacted the offense?

There’s been much talk about how Conner has neutralized the need for Bell, but studying the film rather than just the statistics show a major difference. Bell was able to create extra yardage and make plays behind various schemes and especially zone blocking schemes that made it more difficult for defenders to guess which gap he would attack. Conner has been successful, but behind more power run schemes that feature pulling guards and lead blocking fullback Roosevelt Nix.

I did a study earlier in the season on Conner’s numbers with and without a lead blocker and the results were clear; he’s much better following a blocker. What’s the difference? When a guard pulls, often that is a major tell for a linebacker to read where the play is going and can help a defense react quicker to the ball. In zone schemes, those tells aren’t available and defenses often have to guess more, leading to more mistake in gap assignments or less aggressive tacklers that aren’t sure if they’re in the right hole.

Conner has developed more chemistry with the offensive line since then, but it’s still limited the range of successful run plays they could rely on to shorten down and distances. If he does play, look for Dont'a Hightower to be moving downhill fast on those moments. That’s something I’ve always admired about Hightower, and could be a major part of Sunday’s game.

3. How much of the Bell soap opera has been a legit distraction for this team this year, and how much of that has been overhyped by the media?

If you asked them, the Steelers wouldn’t consider it a distraction at all. It has caused several sound bites that pop up in the national media, but I haven’t seen the Steelers lose any focus in game because of the absence of Bell. Conner has had some major performances and the team has been happy to have him carry the load.

Over the years it really seems a lot of the stories labeled as distractions are overplayed and the locker room has its fun making jokes about it.

Last year when Antonio Brown flipped a Gatorade cooler in the middle of a game the Steelers would eventually win over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium and it was talked about for an entire week. Meanwhile, Vince Williams and other Steelers were making fun of Brown for it by following him around with empty Gatorade coolers, joking that the cooler wanted a rematch.

This year, the players put a lunch box and dressed up Bell’s locker during practice one week to give off the impression he had snuck into the facility and was at practice somehow in an attempt to play games with reporters who were looking for any sign of Bell showing up every single day.

Even this week, when reporters are questioning the level of preparation the Steelers are taking for the Patriots after the loss to the Raiders, Maurkice Pouncey told Aditi Kinkhabwala from NFL Network that the team was watching "Space Jam" for inspiration. Kinkhabwala recognized it was a joke, but aside from a few moments here and there, that’s the Steelers’ locker room response when questions about the team arise. They laugh it off on camera and get back to focusing on their week-to-week preparations.

I see the distraction stories as something they know is there, but do everything they can to make it background noise, or “elevator music” has Mike Tomlin has called it.

4. Is there one under-the-radar type on the Pittsburgh roster who could surprise on Sunday?

I’ll give you two. One everyone may know of but not be key on is defensive tackle Javon Hargrave. He has 6.5 sacks on the season, has sacked Tom Brady before and was the player chasing Brady when he threw the interception to Williams last year (the only interception he’s ever thrown to the Steelers in the Tomlin era). Hargrave has been very good, but a lot of people should know about him by now.

The really off-radar guy? Inside linebacker L.J. Fort. Last year, he played his way from the practice squad to receiving some snaps in the playoffs. This offseason he showed considerable improvement and was always around the ball in preseason. He usually sees time with the Steelers’ sub package defenses as a cover inside linebacker because of his speed and quickness in the open field.

How might he impact the game? The Steelers have been using him considerably more in recent weeks in place of Jon Bostic. Bostic is a strong run defender, but can’t stick with the quick-cutting receiving backs in space. Fort, on the other hand, favors that kind of assignment. He’s not as good at flowing to gap assignments away from his hole or putting his nose in to take our lead blockers, but he’s quick to run step for step with underneath route runners. Look for him to run with James White on those short passing downs.

5. The Steelers win Sunday if...

Ben Roethlisberger is consistent and leads touchdown drives. I see this being another 27-24 type of game with both teams having extended drives with underneath passing attacks that stretch the field horizontally more than vertically.

The Steelers’ defense is good for the occasional stop now and then, but if they want to win, they can’t be in a situation where Brady can lead a single touchdown drive to put the game away in the fourth quarter. It will take the Steelers offense building and maintaining a lead in the second half. Because if it comes down to having to make a fourth-quarter stop, the Steelers have seen the past couple weeks how lesser quarterbacks have done against them.

Tomlin noted how the Patriots love to run a Cover 1 Robber defense against a lot of teams and disguise it to keep quarterbacks from noticing where their single man coverage opportunities exist until after the snap. That’s something Bill Belichick defenses have always excelled at, and those last second moves from safeties that go from showing Cover 2 and switching to Cover 1 or Cover 3 have helped them against teams with talented passing attacks.

If Roethlisberger sees through those moments he could have a big day. If he doesn’t, I see another late-game interception putting the Steelers away.

Christopher's Pick: Steelers 31-27 -- Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner has taken his first year and forced Roethlisberger to spread the ball more all season. Last year Brown was targeted on 27.9 percent of passes with the next highest player being Bell at 18.2 percent. This year Brown is targeted on 25.8 percent while JuJu Smith-Schuster has been targeted on 23.8 percent of throws. Why does that matter? Because the Patriots have done a great job over the years taking away Roethlisberger’s top target and his inability to rotate to other reliable playmakers has cost him. This year, he has two receivers he’s throwing to at about the same rate, and that could provide a more difficult challenge to stop him on the key downs, helping him avoid the crucial mistakes and throwing into the teeth of the defense.