Behind the Steel Curtain
The Steelers are 2-1, somehow tied for the first spot in the AFC North entering Week 4, and no one really knows what to expect. Last week in this column, we asked who the 2025 Steelers really are – and after a turnover-heavy, unorthodox win over the New England Patriots, it feels like we’re still not much closer to discovering the answer.
As a result, we’ll be looking at a similar theme this week. But we’ll start off by focusing on some defenders who made their Steelers debuts against the Patriots:
RP: The Steelers didn’t want to overwork the rookie in his first game back from injury, so he wound up playing 35 snaps. Still, that was good for a 47% snap share, the third highest among Steelers defensive linemen.
On the day, the Patriots attempted 37 passes versus 29 rushing attempts, so it makes sense that the majority of Harmon’s snaps (25) were pass rushes. The Steelers moved him all over the line, playing him mostly on the left (28), but with snaps at every defensive line position except nose.
To the relief of Steelers fans, he didn’t take too long to register his first sack, either.
At the six-minute mark in the first quarter, Harmon lined up as a 3-technique by lining up in the B-Gap. At the snap, he fakes a rush to the outside but then cuts back inside, clogging up the middle of the pocket.
While that is happening, T.J. Watt is ripping around the left edge, and Cam Heyward and Nick Herbig are executing a twist. To do this, Herbig lines out wide, fakes a rush to the edge with his first step and a headfake to the outside. Herbig then plants his outside foot, drops his hips, and turns to sprint left to the gap between Watt and Harmon, fighting through traffic to cut behind the rookie. Simultaneously, Heyward runs a delayed loop outside after the tackle bites and overpursues Herbig inside, creating an opening for Heyward to get in Drake Maye’s face.
Heyward arrives just as Watt does, with the outside linebacker positioned slightly behind the quarterback and to his right. Maye steps up and to his right to avoid Heyward and Watt, but that escape route quickly closes off to him as Herbig fills the gap. Herbig gets skinny in traffic and uses the left guard and Harmon as leverage to get himself free and spring into the rushing lane. Maye is forced to step forward again, this time right into Harmon’s arms for the sack.
It wasn’t an individually dominant play for Harmon, but he gets rewarded for playing his role by collecting the sack on a great team rep from the Steelers’ frontline.
Beyond that, Harmon looked like a rookie playing in his first game.
In the reel above, you see plenty of flashes of potential from Harmon, but also a lot of near misses, or almost made plays....
