Necessity is the mother of invention. And in this case, the necessity for the Steelers arose from the loss of defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt.
With Tuitt out for the season after suffering a torn pectoral muscle, the Steelers needed to pivot to a different way to get things done on passing downs.
Their solution -- at least on Monday night in their 27-14 win over the Dolphins -- was a "Rover" package in which the rovers were some players who aren't often expected to do the things they were doing.
Defensive lineman Cam Heyward was the only 300-pound player on the field and would walk around like a caged lion before the snap of the football. Joining him on the inside as an interior pass rusher was 240-pound inside linebacker Vince Williams, as the Steelers kept fellow inside linebackers Mark Barron and Devin Bush on the field, as well. Outside linebackers T.J. Watt and Bud Dupree largely stayed at their edge positions.
The idea was for the team to get its best pass rushers on the field in some obvious passing downs without wearing out nose tackle Javon Hargrave, who also subbed for Tuitt in some nickel and dime packages. And, they wanted to make it hard on quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to figure out from where the rush was coming.
"We just wanted to mix it up and show some different looks for the second half of the season. We can’t just give our traditional looks all the time," Williams told me. "Historically, we’re a great blitzing team. We wanted to utilize as much speed as we can. Fitzpatrick is a really smart guy. We were trying to confuse him a little and give him something he hadn’t seen on tape. We felt like that was an effective switch-up."
Plus, with Heyward as the only true 300-pound player on the field, the Steelers didn't want to make it easy for the Dolphins to double-team him.
"There was a lot of figuring out on the fly," Heyward said of the package. "Whatever it takes. We’ve got to get off that field."
The package worked. Heyward played 51 of the team's 60 defensive snaps in the game and the Steelers limited the Dolphins to three third-down conversions in eight attempts, sacking Fitzpatrick four times.
The success of that package likely means the Steelers (3-4) will continue to use it when they host the Colts (5-2) Sunday at Heinz Field. Or maybe they'll come up with some other unorthodox package.
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