Offense has reason to clean up ‘little things’
concerned with after smacking Washington, 38-16, in the opener or beating reigning AFC North champion Cincinnati at home in a monsoon.
“I’m just saying there are little things that when you have success and win games maybe don’t seem quite as important because you get away from them,” Haley noted. “But when you have a game like that, it’s a great opportunity from a coaching standpoint to really hammer home that these little things matter. Because it wasn’t big things in that game, it was little things and little details that we just have to be on and execute at a high level all the time.”
An example of those little things would be a receiver on a quick route trying to chip-block a defender in order to help out — when that might have been someone else’s job. By first chipping the defender, it slows down the receiver’s route and, against the rampaging Eagles pass rush, the design was to throw quick passes. It took away from the rhythm.
“We had a handful of guys trying to do a little too much, which is a good thing. The guys care,” Haley said. “But we got out of position trying to help other people instead of doing each guy’s job and trusting the guys around them to do theirs. I think we would have made more plays and it wouldn’t have been such a one-sided outcome as it was.”
Here is another benefit Haley hopes his entire offense embraced from the game in Philadelphia:
“We’re obviously not good enough to go out and do it halfway.”
Double trouble
It appears more and more that the Steelers plan to use both Le’Veon Bell and DeAngelo Williams in the offense at the same time Sunday. It is something they did not try much of last season.
“They’re two of our best players, so at times we’ll probably have to try to find ways to get them on the field at the same time,’’ Haley said. “When you have good players who are versatile, it’s fun to have those kinds of players. It gets your creative juices flowing.”
Haley pointed out that when he was head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, he had two halfbacks share the field plenty of times.
“We played a lot of snaps with multiple halfbacks on the field trying to use it to our advantage and did a lot of things,’’ Haley said.
Bell is the better receiver, so he would most likely be the one they would split out and hope to get mismatches on linebackers.
“Some guys are just born natural catchers,” Haley said. “He just has more natural receiving skills. It starts with his build, he’s a little longer and leaner than you see most backs, which gives him more flexibility. But his ball skills are very good, his hands are very good. And he enjoys it, he takes great pride in it, he’s always asking me to let him play wide receiver and all kinds of stuff.
“Some guys are just naturally better and then he works at it. He and Ben have a nice connection so it’s a big positive.”
Picks to win
Like the Steelers, Kansas City’s pass rush, ranked fourth last season, has not been up to snuff in the early going, with just three sacks in three games.
But the Chiefs defense remains among the best at picking off passes, and the Steelers are wary of it, especially second-year cornerback Marcus Peters. He made All-Pro as a rookie last season when he tied for the league lead with eight interceptions, two returned for touchdowns.
He has four to hold the early lead again. The Chiefs have eight, which also is tied for the league lead; they were second with 22 last season.
The solution for the Steelers?
“When somebody is especially dominant like this Peters, there will be times we make decisions to work away from him,” Haley said.
And, “when you are running routes over there, you have to be very precise, you have to be very exact in what you’re trying to do and you have to be aggressive to the football.”
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.