Ryan Tannehill’s poise under pressure presents a problem for Steelers

Through the first six weeks of the 2020 season, no defense is attacking the quarterback successfully like the Steelers’ defense. Pittsburgh has blitzed on 46.3% of its defensive snaps this season, and for that, they have created 36 quarterback hurries, and a hurry rate of 17.7%. They have 24 sacks, 80 pressures, and a pressure rate of 39.4%. All of those numbers lead the league. If you’re playing the Steelers, your quarterback is in trouble.

Unless your quarterback is Ryan Tannehill of the Titans, and it’s Tannehill’s ability to thrive under pressure this season that makes Sunday’s Pittsburgh-Tennessee matchup so fascinating. When pressured this season, per Pro Football Focus, Tannehill has completed 24 of 45 passes on 54 dropbacks for 263 yards, seven touchdowns, no interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 110.5, which leads the league. The Steelers will unquestionably come after Tannehill as they come after every quarterback, but as was once said on another matter, if you come at the king, you’d best not miss.

This touchdown pass to receiver Adam Humphries in last Sunday’s win over the Texans is but one of many examples of Tannehill making big-time throws under pressure. Here, he’s got underrated Houston nose tackle P.J. Hall in his face, but he’s still got the wherewithal to get the ball to Humphries after Humphries motioned to a reduced split and then took his defender outside on what looks like a busted coverage.

What makes this matchup even more interesting, as Football Outsiders majordomo Aaron Schatz points out, is that both Tennessee’s offense and Pittsburgh’s defense take nosedives on third-and-long.

As Robert Mays of The Athletic pointed out, the Steelers will discard their pressure packages on third-down obvious passing situations.

And as I pointed out, that has not worked out well for them.

Now, the interesting thing here, also per Sports Info Solutions, is that when Tannehill faces zone or combo coverage and he’s not pressured, he’s more vulnerable. In those instances, he’s completed 57 of 71 passes for 780 yards, 507 air yards, and three touchdowns… but also two interceptions. Which are the only two interceptions he’s thrown all season. One came last week against the Texans, and the other in Week 3 against the Vikings.

This deep attempt to Kalif Raymond against the Texans is fascinating, because it shows that discipline in coverage is the best (perhaps the only) way to beat a heady quarterback with total confidence in his offense, and a heavy reliance on play-action. Tannehill has been perhaps the league’s most efficient play-action quarterback over the last two seasons, and one of the reasons that’s true is the Titans’ ability to manufacture shot plays out of it. In this case, Tannehill is hoping that cornerback Bradley Roby will bite and leave his deep receiver alone. Roby, to his credit, is not falling for the banana in the tailpipe.

To blitz, or not to blitz? When the Steelers take on the NFL’s best quarterback under pressure this Sunday, they may want to flip the script and show Ryan Tannehill things he’s not expecting from such an aggressive group.