The Steelers opened against the Falcons with 21 personnel – two tight ends, one running back and two wide receivers and forced the Falcons to play their base defense.
The Falcons (1-4) are set to hose the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Falcons answered the grouping by playing their base 4-3 alignment, which kept Vic Beasley and McKinley off the field. Brooks Reed and Steven Means opened the game and played 34 and 23 of 61 defensive snaps respectively.
“They did a good job, they forced us to play a lot of base (defense),” McKinley said. “Me and Vic, we don’t play too much base. They did a good job the first pretty much three drives forcing our defense to play base. There was pretty much nothing we could do about that. When the opportunity comes, we have to perform.”
McKinley and Beasley both would like to play in the base defense.
“You have to ask DQ,” McKinley said, referring to coach Dan Quinn.
Beasley said: “I think coach had a good game plan. I think that would be a good question to ask him about what his intentions were. I think we were in the right position at times, but too many mistakes on my end and other guy’s, too. We have to be better.”
The Bucs, who are expected to be without tight end O.J. Howard, who has a knee injury, may try to emulate Pittsburgh’s approach.
The Bucs opened the game against the Bears in 11 personnel – one tight, one running back and three wide receivers.
“They had only played maybe up until that time 10 percent of their game in that package,” Quinn said. “So in this game, they did more. You probably saw in the second or third series we put them into that package.
“So, we're equipped to do that, too. It was just different design. I'm sure they were probably trying something new to them as well.”
HERE’S THE DEPTH CHART
OFFENSE
WR 11 Julio Jones, 14 Justin Hardy,17 Marvin Hall
LT 70 Jake Matthews, 74 Ty Sambrailo
LG 71 Wes Schweitzer, 63 Ben Garland
C 51 Alex Mack, 71 Wes Schweitzer
RG 65 Brandon Fusco, 68 Zac Kerin
RT 73 Ryan Schraeder, 77 Matt Gono
TE 81 Austin Hooper, 82 Logan Paulsen, 85 Eric Saubert
WR 12 Mohamed Sanu, 18 Calvin Ridley, 83 Russell Gage
QB 2 Matt Ryan, 8 Matt Schaub
RB 24 Devonta Freeman, 26 Tevin Coleman
25 Ito Smith, 32 Brian Hill
FB 30 Ricky Ortiz
DEFENSE
DE 44 Vic Beasley Jr., 90 Derrick Shelby, 56 Steven Means
DT 99 Terrell McClain. 94 Deadrin Senat, 93 Michael Bennett IV
DT 97 Grady Jarrett, 95 Jack Crawford
DE 98 Takk McKinley, 50 Brooks Reed
LB 42 Duke Riley, 36 Kemal Ishmael
LB 54 Foyesade Oluokun, 55 Bruce Carter
LB 59 De’Vondre Campbell
CB 23 Robert Alford, 20 Isaiah Oliver, 33 Blidi Wreh-Wilson,
CB 21 Desmond Trufant, 34 Brian Poole, 28 Justin Bethel
FS 27 Damontae Kazee, 35 Keith Tandy
SS 29 Jordan Richards, 41 Sharrod Neasman
SPECIALISTS
K 3 Matt Bryant
KO 5 Matt Bosher
P 5 Matt Bosher
KR 14 Justin Hardy, 18 Calvin Ridley
PR 14 Justin Hardy, 17 Marvin Hall
LS 47 Josh Harris
H 5 Matt Bosher
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