Steelers' trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick is already paying off in a big way

[CGI_Ram]

Steelers' trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick is already paying off in a big way

No one is criticizing Pittsburgh's decision to give up next year's first round pick for Fitzpatrick now

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Steelers' trade for Minkah Fitzpatrick is already paying off in a big way

"That was a play Troy Polamalu would have made."

That was the thought of Steelers fans who watched new Pittsburgh starting free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick turn Sunday's home game against the Colts on its head. With the visiting Colts threatening to run away with the game early, Fitzpatrick jumped in front of Brian Hoyer's pass and returned it 96 yards for a momentum-changing touchdown.

The pick, Fitzpatrick's third in six days and fourth since joining the Steelers two weeks into the regular season, helped Pittsburgh rally to win their third straight game and fourth game since trading next year's first round pick to the Dolphins. Speaking of the Dolphins, it was Fitzpatrick's two interceptions that made the difference in Pittsburgh's come-from-behind victory over Miami in Week 8.

In fact, Fitzpatrick's presence has helped make the Steelers relevant at the midway point in the regular season when their season appeared all but over after Ben Roethlisberger sustained a season-ending injury two weeks into the year. But just hours after it was determined that Big Ben's elbow injury would be a season-ender, the Steelers sent shockwaves across the NFL after trading for Fitzpatrick, who, for various reasons, wanted a fresh start with a new team a year after being the 11th overall pick in the draft.

While the trade was debated by fans and media members alike, Bill Cowher, who won a Super Bowl near the tail end of his 15-year run as the Steelers' head coach, immediately saw what Pittsburgh was trying to do.

"Football is the total team game," Cowher said on CBS Sports HQ shortly after the Steelers acquired Fizpatrick. "When you look at it from that standpoint, I actually do like what they did in going out and getting Minkah Fitzpatrick, because what they've done now is they've kind of shored up their defense and filled a little bit of the void they had at safety.

"Sean Davis hasn't been able to stay healthy there, and Minkah Fitzpatrick is a very good football player, a proven player who has been in this league for a year now," Cowher continued. "He's young, he has multiple years on his contract. He gives you a lot of versatility from the standout of that he can play a lot of different positions and lot of different roles.

"So, I think at this point, you kinda go back to a little bit of the onus that when Ben goes down, everyone talks about the offensive side. Now, the onus goes back on the defense and shoring that up and taking the responsibility of keeping the games close, creating opportunities for their offense. Kind of like last week. They gave up some big plays, but they also created some big plays in terms of getting two fumbles that led to scores for their offense."

With Big Ben out, and with Fitzpatrick in the fold, the defense has undoubtedly become the Steelers' strength. Through eight games, Pittsburgh's defense is a respectable 11th in the NFL in yards allowed and 13th in points per game allowed. They are third in the league in interceptions and have already recorded more picks (11) this season than they did in the entire 2018 season (eight).

The Steelers are also second in the league with 22 forced turnovers, ninth in pass defense, and fifth in the league with 29 sacks through eight games, Pittsburgh's highest total at the midway point since 2008, the last time the Steelers won the Super Bowl. This is a defense, mind you, that allowed 61 points and 890 total yards in their two games before trading for Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick leads the Steelers with four interceptions and six pass breakups. When asked about his new safety's impact, Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin has a simple answer.

"The tape is his story teller," Tomlin said following Pittsburgh's win over the Colts. "He's been really rock solid."

The tape shows a young safety who has made significant strides after joining the Steelers. While he made an immediate impact after coming to Pittsburgh (he recorded an interception and a forced fumble in his first game as a Steeler), Fitzpatrick has been even better following the Steelers' Week 7 bye. Fitzpatrick, who used the bye week to learn more of the intricacies of Pittsburgh's defense, has recorded three interceptions in the Steelers' two games following their bye while only reinforcing the team's decision to trade for him.

Yes, Fitzpatrick hasn't been the only Pittsburgh defender is who playing well. Outside linebacker T.J. Watt, who has 7.5 sacks thus far and is on pace to eclipse his 2018 sack total of 13 sacks. Fellow OLB and 2015 first round pick Bud Dupree is having a career year, as he is second on the team with six sacks and two forced fumbles. Defensive captain Cam Heyward, a Pro Bowler each of the last two years, is third on the team in sacks. Defensive backs Joe Haden, Mike Hilton, Cam Sutton and Terrell Edmunds are also having solid seasons, while inside linebacker Devin Bush, the team's 2019 first round pick, is enjoying an exceptional start to his NFL career, as he leads the team with 66 sacks and four fumble recoveries while also recording two interceptions through eight games.

While other members of the Steelers' defense are enjoying strong seasons, Fitzpatrick is clearly the straw the stirs the drink. Since week 3, the Steelers have allowed just three deep pass completions on 15 attempts after allowing four deep completions in the season's first two weeks, according to Next Gen Stats. Pittsburgh's defense has also recorded three interceptions and have not allowed a touchdown pass on such pass attempts during that span after allowing three deep touchdown passes without an interception without Fitzpatrick. The opposing quarterback's passer rating on deep passes with Fitzpatrick on the field is a putrid 10.8 compared to the 141.4 rating the Steelers allowed in the season's first two weeks.

"No matter how many times we're on the field, no matter how many points are on the board, we just gotta go out and execute," Fitzpatrick told reporters following Sunday's win. "That's what defenses are meant for. If they don't score, they don't win. If we kick one field goal, and they don't score any points, we win."

Fitzpatrick is also excited to have played a significant role in Pittsburgh's climb back to relevancy when it comes to the AFC playoff conversation.

"I think 4-4 is a good spot to be at," he said. "Could be better, it's not where we want to be at, but it's all we could be right now. Just gotta keep fighting. The Colts are a great team. We proved we can compete against good teams."

 

[CGI_Ram]

View from Pittsburgh:

Labriola on the win over the Colts

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Labriola on the win over the Colts

When the Steelers assembled at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport for a Saturday morning flight that would take them to LAX on Oct. 12, included in the baggage they were transporting were a 1-4 record and the reality that the people who had occupied the top two lines of their depth chart at quarterback when this regular season began would be unable to help them on the trip.

The Steelers now are halfway through a season that has been filled with potholes and obstacles, some of their own doing and others seemingly a perverted gift from the football gods. They played that game against the Chargers without their top two quarterbacks, and at other times along the journey to where they are today, they’ve played without their starting cornerbacks, without their top two running backs.

They’ve been forced to mix-and-match at wide receiver and on the defensive line. They’ve made two trips to California, played twice on Monday night, and twice on Sunday night, and just about the only thing they know for certain moving forward is that the next time they see either Ben Roethlisberger or Stephon Tuitt in full pads will be next summer at Saint Vincent College.

In a lot of ways, the journey hasn’t been kind to these Steelers, but after yesterday’s 26-24 victory over the Indianapolis Colts at Heinz Field, they are 4-4 and they are relevant. Their three-game winning streak that vaulted them from 1-4 to 4-4 says they are.

A couple of days before taking the field against the then 5-2 Colts, themselves an outfit having to navigate 2019 without their franchise quarterback, Coach Mike Tomlin was ruminating on what clawing to .500 would tell him about his team.

“That we have a chance to be relevant, and that’s what you ask for at the turn,” began Tomlin, “but as a sidebar: We’ve probably been through more than most who have a chance to be relevant, and hopefully that’s an asset to us. The scarring, the hardening, the things associated with our journey is an asset to us as we proceed.”

The victory over the Colts certainly contributed to the scarring, because there was nothing about it that was simple or easy. As has been the case recently, the Steelers offense was the culprit, with the unit’s specific crime on this afternoon being the typically lethal habit of settling for field goals instead of scoring touchdowns.

Being down to Jaylen Samuels and Trey Edmunds at running back is a reasonable explanation for 1-for-4 in the red zone and 1-for-3 in goal-to-go situations, but having a reasonable explanation is not a tiebreaker and so ending up 3-5 after a loss to the Colts would be heading in the opposite direction of the road to relevancy. And so, as they have often during this three-game winning streak and in the four victories over the five games since that 0-3 start, the Steelers manufactured a way to compensate, with their defense leading the way.

Minkah Fitzpatrick’s 96-yard pick-six, which was the third-longest in franchise history behind James Harrison’s 100-yarder in Super Bowl XLIII and Martin Kottler’s 99-yarder against the Chicago Cardinals in 1933, got the Steelers to a 10-10 tied early in the second quarter, and then Bud Dupree’s strip-sack-recovery early in the second half set up a short drive that ended with a 7-yard pass to Vance McDonald for a second touchdown. Outside of that, the Steelers offense came down to Chris Boswell’s right foot, and that appendage was good for 12 points on a 4-for-4 afternoon.

Which accounted for all of the scoring for the Steelers against the Colts. Which then left things up to their defense and the football gods. In that situation, Tomlin believed what his team had been through would help them get through.

“It’s like a boxer who has a (strong) chin and he knows it. You’re not knocking him out,” said Tomlin about the positives to be drawn from the team’s travails earlier in the season. “I’m a big combat sports fan, an MMA fan. There are some guys you’re going to have to beat by out-pointing them, because you’re not going to knock them out. And it’s because they have a general aptitude in that area, but they also have a knowledge of their strengths. When you’ve been through something and you consistently come through the other side, it strengthens you for the similar challenges that lie ahead. That’s just the reality of sport competition.”

The Steelers’ reality vs. the Colts was that they refused to be knocked out. When Samuels lost a fumble in the fourth quarter to set up a short Indianapolis touchdown drive, the Steelers denied the two-point conversion attempt to keep the deficit at 24-23 instead of 26-23. That allowed them to re-take the lead on another red zone field goal set up by a 40-yard completion to James Washington and a 24-yard pass interference penalty drawn by Diontae Johnson.

On Indianapolis’ final possession, the Steelers again seemed to be teetering on the edge, especially after a 35-yard pass interference penalty on Steven Nelson converted a third-and-10 and then a 19-yard completion from Brian Hoyer to Zach Pascal gave the Colts a first down at the Pittsburgh 31-yard line just outside the two-minute warning.

At that point defeat seemed inevitable, what with the Steelers down to one timeout and Rudolph a longshot to eat up the chunks of yardage the offense would need in a hurry-up situation to get Boswell in a spot where he would have a legitimate chance to match the inevitable go-ahead field goal Adam Vinatieri was going to kick momentarily.

But the defense rose up one final time, specifically Dupree, who dumped Marlon Mack for a 3-yard loss on a third-and-1 when the Colts were so close to being able to bleed the clock as they also got ever closer for Vinatieri to apply the dagger. That play made Vinatieri’s attempt a 43-yarder, and after a sloppy hold he missed the kick badly to the left. The guy who all but handed three Lombardis to the Patriots with his right foot this time helped the Steelers achieve a victory that put them on the path to relevancy.

And as they embark on the second half of their season and travel down that path, the Steelers will have been strengthened by their climb out of a 1-4 hole that began with a trip to Los Angeles.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

When they made that trade it seemed obvious that Minkah was their new Polamolu. He fits that role better than your usual NFL safety.