New York Giants’ Blueprint to Beating the Pittsburgh Steelers

The New York Giants (2-5) are looking to salvage their 2024 season, but the task at hand against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that is 5-2 on the year and which has been dominating at home won’t be easy, particularly for a Giants team that is 1-15 in primetime games. 

But the schedule rolls on and there are challenges for the Giants on both sides of the ball, starting with the Steelers offense.

Pittsburgh started the season without Russell Wilson, whom they signed in free agency and picked to be the starter in camp, and had to play behind Justin Fields who stepped up in a winning fashion. 

He led the Steelers to a 4-2 record in the first six weeks before handing over the reins to Wilson last Sunday night against the Jets for a dominant 37-15 victory where he threw 264 yards and two touchdowns in his return. 

The Steelers offense they’ve both guided has been one of the more proficient units in the NFL over the last few weeks, averaging 23 points per game and scoring 24 or more in three of their last four games. 

They’ve benefited from some good run blocking up front, led by guard James Daniels. and are top-10 in attempts, yards and touchdowns, respectively, led by the efforts of Najee Harris who paces the team with 117 carries through seven games. 

On the defensive end, the scariest player on their team is edge man T.J. Watt, but they also have a few other players that excel at getting pressure on the quarterback for their top-10 pass rushing team. 

Where they will make it difficult for the Giants to flourish is the ground attack, as they rank fourth or better in all four major categories and it has translated to second and eighth place spots in total opponent production as well. 

The Steelers are a team that isn’t loaded with house name superstars, but their talent is feisty and can run up a scoreboard if the opponent doesn’t come prepared. They also make it tough to face them at home with a 14.1 average points allowed which is right around the realm of the Giants’ results in recent weeks. 

If New York wants to right the ship and get back into the win column, it’s going to take a crisp effort from all three phases as has been the case in their other victories. Still, here are some specific keys that should make the game bode well for the Giants if they succeed at them. 

There is not a more concise way to put it that Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt is a massive problem for opposing defenses to handle when facing this team. 

Watt, the 2021 NFL Defensive Player of the Year and three-time league leading sack artist, has developed himself into one of the best edge rushers in eight seasons with the Steelers. 

He holds six seasons with at least 53 total tackles and four with double-digit sacks, the most coming in that same year when he collected 22.5 to tie the single season record with Giants legend Michael Strahan.

In his first seven games this season, Watt has 26 tackles, a team-high 4.5 sacks, two pass deflections, three forced fumbles and a fumble recovery, good for 14th best among active players in the sacks category.

He is just one piece of a talented linebacker position for Pittsburgh that knows how to get to the quarterback at some of the highest rates, but has been the No. 1 threat that opposing teams prepare for in this matchup given his individual 20% pass rush success rate that includes 8% against double teams. 

Watt is readying to square off with a Giants offensive line that took a statistical bruising last Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, but more importantly has been starting to get banged up at both sides of the starting front. 

Josh Ezuedu got his first start at left tackle in the 28-3 loss and struggled from the jump with two sacks allowed, and now the right tackle spot is up in the air as Jermaine Elueminor deals with a groin ailment that could sideline him.

After giving up a season-high eight sacks last week, Watt is going to come hungry to bring the pressure at the Giants offense and fluster Daniel Jones into his old turnover habits. One of the best ways for them to combat him might be supporting the edge with some extra blockers who can pick up the extra slack that comes with guarding a relentless pass rusher. 

One way that the New York Jets attacked this part of the game was by playing in heavy personnels with a tight end aligned on the right side where Watt typically resides. They had Tyler Conklin lined up just off the back of the right tackle and on the inside shoulder of the edge rusher to show signs of an extra blocker. 

Conklin would take off at the snap to run a short route to the outside, but gave a little contact on his progression before running back Breece Hall stepped into the hole to assist the right tackle with double teaming and crack blocking Watt. 

This allowed the quarterback enough time to wait for Hall to break off the block before slinging the football on a screen pass and taking up the gap left by Watt for a huge gain. 

The Giants don’t need to execute it in the same fashion but having an extra set or two of eyes on Watt and picking him up could help provide more time for Jones and the passing offense to operate, which was a big problem in Week 7. Pittsburgh does allow opposing teams to move the ball more freely in the air and that takes us to the next key for this contest. 

With the Steelers defense suffocating opponents’ rushing statistics the way they’ve done so far this season, it’s going to be imperative for the Giants to get their aerial offense back to form. 

In the two weeks following their big win against the Seattle Seahawks, the Giants have not been proficient in the passing game. They had just 183 yards and one touchdown against the Bengals in Week 6 and followed it up with a woeful 119 yards and a field goal in Week 7 against Philadelphia.

For most of their games, the defense has played up to par and limited opponents to under 20 points while giving up an average of 21.3 points on the season to account for the lack of production. It’s time for the other side to step up and do their part to assist in complimentary football, and the Steelers present a good opportunity to do so. 

Pittsburgh is not a pushover by any stretch, but they have shown a slight weakness against passing plays this season. Per Pro Football Reference, they rank second to last in attempts, a sign that opposing teams know they can attack them in that realm, and 26th in yards allowed with an average of 217.5 yards per game. 

In addition, they’ve allowed seven passing touchdowns and an average pass of 6.2 yards despite holding the fourth best opponent red zone scoring percentage, a number that was lifted up by their early contests that held opponents to beneath 10 points in the first three weeks.

With an average play given up like that, it would behoove the Giants to find some plays that work in the intermediate range. Among the Steelers active coverage contributors with at least 100 snaps, five of them have opponent reception percentages above 70 percent and 150 receiving yards out of a total of nine with triple digit numbers. 

Two of the highest victims have been their perimeter corners which could bode well for the Giants threats in Malik Nabers and Darius Slayton, the latter who has started to get going with three games of 56 yards or more in the last four.

Expect them to look for the speedy Wan’Dale Robinson as well, who has torn up defenses in the first 10 yards deep with 33 catches for 235 yards and 103 yards after the catch.

At the same time, both parties of the Giants offense need to be cleaner in their connections that have featured too many drops on must have plays. Daniel Jones hasn’t been the problem on all of these missed plays, but has been inefficient at nailing the long balls of 10 yards or more with a percentage under 55.3 percent. 

He also has three of his turnovers in these ranges this season which is something that has cost the Giants chances to score points that have been the difference in their close losses. 

New York needs to correct their aerial deficits and fight their way into the endzone if they want to pull out their third road win in a second hostile environment and Pittsburgh presents an opportunity if they can manage it.

Each week there seems to be one offensive player that the Giants defense has to worry about every time the ball touches their hands. For this game, it is Steelers lead running back Najee Harris that is bound to be on Shane Bowen’s radar. 

While the defense might still be getting over their embarrassing display against Eagles running back Saquon Barkley last Sunday, Harris is another ball carrier that is owning the rushing landscape and can burn you if you let him. 

The Alabama product sits 10th in the NFL in overall rushing production in 2024 at 117 carries for 478 yards (4.1 average) and two touchdowns, notching an average of 68.3 yards per game that is good for the same ranking. 

Harris has been on a heater in his last contests, carrying the football 14 and 21 times for 106 and 102 yards, respectively, against the Las Vegas Raiders and New York Jets. Adding to that has been his average 9.6 yard catch that’s accumulated 135 yards and placed him fourth on Pittsburgh’s receiving leaderboard as he looks to chase his career-high 467 yards from his rookie season. 

His last two contests were buoyed by two opponents with modest to low level run defenses and will now meet a Giants group that has had its fair share of struggles slowing down the opposing run game. New York enters Week 8 ranked 12th in total yards allowed, but has allowed the 25th highest rushing yards and the 32nd average yards per carry of 5.4 yards. 

The lack of an answer for the run game has hurt them numerous times on fourth down conversions and been one of the factors for their opponent’s red zone scoring percentage rising to almost 55 percent after being much lower to start the season. Very few plays have shown this better than the 47-yard gash and score by Joe Burrow in Week 6 and then the 176 yard bruising given by Saquon Barkley and the Eagles last Sunday at MetLife Stadium. 

With these numbers, there is no doubt the Steelers will look to dominate the game through the ground and wear out the Giants defense and with Harris they have a guy that can handle the workload, holding one of the highest carry rates amongst running backs. It’s going to take setting the tone up front early and finishing at the point of contact which was a topic hammered home in the locker room during preparations this week. 

The Steelers will attack with Harris early in their possessions on first and second downs and look to set up reasonable passing distance on the late downs. Harris can average up to 4.6 yards on his carries on their reps which puts extra pressure on the defense to make more third down stops if they don’t gain the advantage of the line of scrimmage. 

The Giants can also expect most of his work to come from in between the guard positions, as Harris has taken 61 of his carries in those gaps this season. He isn’t much of an outside zone master but has the ability to bust a few runs for big yardage if the space is there to take it, a problem that the Giants left for Saquon Barkley on his massive hauls last weekend. 

Outside of George Pickens out wide, Harris is arguably the Steelers biggest offensive weapon and is searching for a record campaign as he finally has sole majority control of the backfield of Pittsburgh. 

Their passing game isn’t anything to sleep on either, but if the Giants can take away the element that moves the needle for Russell Wilson and company, they have a shot to make this another competitive defensive match that has allowed the team to be in the picture for a victory. 

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