Steelers pack a 1-2 punch
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, February 2, 2006
DETROIT – Leroy Hill has a favor to ask.
The Seattle Seahawks’ rookie linebacker would appreciate it if the Pittsburgh Steelers would choose one running back and just stick with him Sunday. To use a baseball analogy, Hill would like to see either Roger Clemens or Jamie Moyer – not both in the same game.
“It’s like two different run games,” Hill said of the Steelers’ two-headed attack, “with (255-pound Jerome) Bettis being a one-cut, downhill guy, and (Willie) Parker coming in and outrunning you on the perimeter.
“It’s like, wow, just keep one guy in there so we can get a rhythm going.”
Seattle’s gap-control run defense has been successful most of the season, with the New York Giants’ Tiki Barber serving as the only Seahawks opponent to break the 100-yard barrier, but has never faced an attack quite like Pittsburgh’s.
The speedy Parker emerged as the Steelers’ main running threat early in the season, coming out of nowhere to open the regular season with back-to-back 100-yard games while Bettis and Duce Staley recovered from injuries.
The return of Bettis in Week 4 allowed Pittsburgh to adopt a rare thunder-and-lightning attack that is used by just two other NFL backfields (Atlanta’s Warrick Dunn and T.J. Duckett; Denver’s Mike Anderson and Tatum Bell). The 13-year veteran complimented Parker’s quickness and cutback ability by getting the tough yardage inside.
“It doesn’t change much for us,” Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill said. “We’re a gap team, and no matter what kind of offense we play, if we don’t play our assignments right, whoever is in there is going to hurt us. That’s just how any offense in the NFL will work. We just have to play our game.”
The gap defense calls for each defensive lineman to be responsible for a certain space between offensive players. Terrill, for example, could occupy the area between the right guard and center while teammate Rocky Bernard would be responsible for the gap between the center and left guard.
The theory is to close up any available running lanes while tying up blockers so that linebackers and safeties can come up and make the tackle.
“We play a lot of eight-man front,” defensive line coach Dwaine Board said. “Then you’ve got all the gaps covered. If someone’s not in a gap, then you’ve got a problem. The biggest thing is gap control and gap recognition.”
Parker might be harder to contain in the gap-control system because he has the quickness to turn a play to the outside. But Bettis also poses problems in that he hits the holes quickly – oftentimes before defensive players can get out of their stance and clog them – and has the size to bowl over Seattle’s undersized linemen at the point of attack.
“The thing that Bettis does is, once he gets to the line of scrimmage, he does a great job of turning his shoulders and getting yardage,” Board said. “When you get a back like that, you’ve got to make sure to hit him before he gets to the line of scrimmage. You’ve got to make him make his cut before he wants to make his cut. It’s not how hard you hit him, it’s how fast he goes down.”
Seattle will try to clog Bettis and contain Parker. Clog and contain. Clog and contain.
It seems like it would be much easier to just concentrate on one or the other.
Just ask Seattle’s Hill.
