Pittsburgh Steelers vs Dallas Cowboys: Steelers’ two keys to win Sunday night battle
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin looks on during second half action on Thursday, August 5, 2021 in Canton at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. The game in Tom Benson Stadium is the official kickoff of the NFL preseason. David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
PITTSBURGH — A lot of history comes with the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday Night Football matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, and yet, both of these historic franchises come in as supposed playoff contenders but very flawed players.
The Steelers faltered against the Indianapolis Colts for their first-season loss last Sunday. Meanwhile, the Cowboys have uninspiringly got out to a rocky 2-2 start but still have top-end talent like Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb
With that in mind, here are the Steelers’ two keys to beating Dallas:
The Steelers, under all circumstances, can not let Lamb and Prescott dominate this game. Prescott still ranks in the top ten in every meaningful passing metric, including success rate. Lamb is among the top separators in the NFL and is a hyper-efficient wide receiver. He is second in yards per route run in the NFL.
Take Lamb’s target share, which is one of the highest in the league, at face value, too. The Steelers might have Joey Porter Jr. follow him, but this feels more like a matchup where they actively go out of their way and bracket a player. It is not that the Cowboys do not have other weapons. Tight end Jake Ferguson is a nice player, and even without Brandin Cooks. Jalen Tolbert and Kevontae Turpin can be productive. Yet, Lamb is one of those rare players that can blow up a whole gameplan by himself. He is in the elite of the elite of tier for wide receivers.
The Steelers’ defense got exposed against the Colts, too. There is a blueprint to defeat their spot drop Cover 3. Against the Colts, when they ran Cover 3 in the first half, the Colts averaged over 11 yards per pass until Pittsburgh finally switched to man coverage for the rest of the game. The Cowboys do not have a Josh Downs to exploit the secondary man coverage that they would receive if Lamb were taken out of the picture.
Yet, Prescott is plenty accurate and proficient enough to make a massive difference, too. He can run and add another dimension to the game. If the Steelers can at least contain both players, they can slow down a Cowboys offense that ranks last in rushing.
