Storylines to follow on Monday Night Football

Equally as important as establishing the run game on offense will be stopping the run on the defensive side of the ball. Despite handing the reigns of the offense to Russell Wilson after Justin Fields led the team to a 4-2 start, the Steelers make it no secret that they want to run the football. Pittsburgh comes into this game with 235 rush attempts on the year, the second-most in the NFL. Even with Wilson starting at QB and throwing for 264 yards last week, the Steelers still ran the ball 36 times for 149 yards and two touchdowns.

Over the last few seasons, the Giants had struggled to limit opposing team’s run games. However, over the first six weeks of the season, the unit had done a much better job against the run. The Commanders (215 yards) were the only opponent to top 121 yards on the ground against the Giants over the first six weeks of the season. The recent success against the run came to a halt in last week’s matchup against the Eagles, though. Philadelphia ran for a total of 269 yards and 3 touchdowns, including 176 yards and a score from Saquon Barkley, who averaged over 10 yards per carry against his former team.

Leading the way for the Pittsburgh run game is running back Najee Harris. The former first-round pick from Alabama has run the ball 117 times for 478 yards (4.1 avg.) and two touchdowns. Harris has topped 100 yards rushing in each of his last two games, marking just the second time in his career he’s done so in consecutive weeks. Dating back to last season, Harris has split backfield touches with Jaylen Warren, who finally appears to be back at 100 percent health after missing time with a knee injury. Warren carried the ball a season-high 12 times against the Jets while adding three receptions. His 59 total yards from scrimmage were two short of his season-high.

As previously mentioned, the strength of the Steelers lies in its defense. Pittsburgh has the No. 2 scoring defense in the league, aided in large part due to the unit’s dominance in the red zone. Opponents have gotten inside the 20-yard line 21 times this season, but have been able to punch it into the end zone on only nine occasions. Their 42.9 percent red zone defense is the fourth-best in the NFL.

While Pittsburgh has talented players on every level of its defense, the unit’s success starts up front with outside linebacker T.J. Watt. The four-time All-Pro and former Defensive Player of the Year leads the team in sacks (4.5), quarterback hits (12), tackles for loss (eight) and forced fumbles (three). Not far behind Watt in each of those categories is defensive tackle Cameron Hayward, who’s second on the team with his three sacks, 10 quarterback hits and four tackles for loss. Watt and Hayward, along with linebackers Patrick Queen and Payton Wilson and safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott, have helped the Steelers form one of the league’s top run defenses.

Sticking in the secondary, cornerback Joey Porter Jr. will likely spend a lot of the game covering Malik Nabers. Across 40 coverage snaps last week, Porter matched up against Garrett Wilson on 16 routes and Davante Adams on 12 routes. According to Next Gen Stats, he allowed just one reception for nine yards as the nearest defender in coverage. Opposing teams have typically stayed away from Porter in coverage, as he has only been targeted on 12.8 percent of his coverage snaps this year, the seventh-lowest among cornerbacks with at least 100 coverage snaps.

Russell Wilson will start his second game of the season on Monday after the veteran found plenty of success in his first start last week. Wilson completed only 16 of 29 passes (55.2 percent) but for 264 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions for a passer rating of 109.0. The 35-year-old attempted three passes 20+ yards down the field and completed two of them for 81 yards and a 109.7 passer rating. On passes of 10-19 air yards, Wilson went three for four for 68 yards and a touchdown, earning a 156.3 passer rating on those attempts.

The biggest beneficiary of Wilson starting appears to be wide receiver George Pickens. The third-year wideout finished with 111 yards on five receptions against the Jets’ talented pass defense, which marked just the second time this season he’s topped the 100-yard mark, in addition to scoring his first touchdown of the year. Wilson also got his tight ends involved with Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington combining for six receptions and 87 yards.