Every play-caller in the NFL, including Dallas head coach and Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy, now has a quartet of game tapes on the Steelers defense. Entering a Super Bowl rematch with the Cowboys, Pittsburgh (3-1) is allowing the NFL’s second-fewest points per game (13.3).
But before the teams kick off on Sunday Night Football (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC), take a look at the quarterbacks on those four game tapes: Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins in a new offense playing his first game since rupturing his Achilles’ tendon, rookie Bo Nix in his second NFL start for Denver, a hobbled Justin Herbert who didn’t finish the game for the Chargers, and an injured Anthony Richardson, who gave way to 39-year-old Joe Flacco last week in Indianapolis.
Clearly, a healthy Dak Prescott is in a different class. And while Prescott will test the Steelers like no quarterback this season, former general manager Michael Lombardi said Thursday that what will affect the Cowboys most is their glaring lack of a running game. Dallas ranks last in the NFL, averaging just 75.3 rushing yards per game.
“When you break down Pittsburgh,” Lombardi said on the GM Shuffle podcast, “the one thing Pittsburgh is always about, their game is simple: If Pittsburgh makes you throw it on three-Mississippi, they’re going to beat your ass. But if you can block T.J. Watt and make it five-Mississippi, you can throw the ball on them. That’s as simple as it can be. And I don’t think Dallas can do that.
“You have to have balance to beat Pittsburgh. Now, I think Dallas will come in and have a lot of screens, perimeter throws to try to make it look like they have a run game but, for me, it’s hard having to go into Pittsburgh knowing that you can’t run the football. Because they force you to not run. See, the best teams in the league, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, they force you to not run. Cleveland last year, you couldn’t run the ball on them. When you eliminate one part of the offense, it sets it up into the strength of the Steelers, which is their ability to rush the passer.”
The ability for Dallas to rush the passer when Justin Fields and the Steelers have the ball, is expected to have one major factor, the high-ankle sprain likely to sideline Micah Parsons. The edge-rusher has never missed a game at any level in his football life.
Without Parsons, Lombardi said Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith can simplify blocking assignments at the line of scrimmage and doesn’t need to account for No. 11 moving all over the defensive front.
“I think it’s a hard game for Dallas. If it’s a 40- or 45-pass game, I don’t see how Dallas can win it, I really don’t. And Pittsburgh will move the ball effectively on Dallas.”