Alex Highsmith to Ben Roethlisberger: Steelers defense was told to avoid 3rd-and-short vs. Eagles

The Pittsburgh Steelers' Alex Highsmith had the best season of his NFL career in 2022. He compiled 14.5 sacks to lead Pittsburgh and was snubbed during the league's Pro Bowl selections. Highsmith is entering the last year of his rookie contract with the Steelers and it should be a priority for the organization to retain his services.

Highsmith joined the 21st episode of the Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast in the first episode to add food-tasting segments to the signature beer sampling that is the program’s signature. Ben Roethlisberger and Highsmith discussed the recent Super Bowl and the Philadelphia Eagles’ signature play.

“How do you stop it,” Roethlisberger incredulously asked Highsmith. “How do you stop that play?”

“We played them Week 8, something like that,” Highsmith replied. “Listen, we got to keep them out of third and short. You gotta get low on those guys. Going over the top won’t work, Chris Jones had him, but unless you got one of your teammates pushing you from behind, it’s kind of hard to drive him back when he’s got people pushing him from behind." 

The Eagles exploited a loophole in the NFL rules all season long and the Steelers knew the only way to stop it was not to put themselves in a situation where they could run the play. Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia offense found a way to virtually guarantee short-yardage conversions. The NFL has a big decision on its hands this offseason regarding a play other teams will surely adopt in 2023.

“If it’s only one yard you can’t stop it,” co-host Spencer T’eo chimed in.

“I just feel at some point the competition committee is going to have to look at it,” Roethlisberger answered. “You can’t get more than like one person pushing, or something. At some point t, they are going to put like a big extra tackle in and just have him push, or your quarterback is going to get hurt.”

The NFL is ultra-protective when it comes to quarterbacks, so Roethlisberger’s point is valid. If Hurts tucks his head and drives forward or any quarterback for that matter, it is just a matter of time before a helmet-to-helmet collision occurs and god forbid causes serious damage to a signal caller.

“How many did they have five or six or something,” Highsmith concluded. “I remember Coach T was showing us film and he’s showing everybody the first seven weeks of the year, like linemen with their feet coming out from the pile. He said, ‘don’t be that guy’. That means you are getting driven back. They are pretty good at that I ain’t going to lie.”

The Eagles should get credit for being the first team to realize and exploit the loophole created by the NFL. It is not a recent change and, surprisingly, someone hasn’t tried it sooner. Creative offensive coordinators will come up with all kinds of wrinkles off this wedge formation to make it even better. If the NFL allows the play in 2023 then unfortunately Roethlisberger may be right and that it will only change if someone is seriously injured in the play.

Steelers And Matt Canada Should Prepare To Exploit Unusual Play If NFL Allows It In 2023

The NFL professes to be all about player safety, but this particular change would be helping the defense if it occurred in the offseason. The league is notoriously slow if not completely resistant to any changes to help or protect defenders, so it may take a team losing a franchise quarterback for anything to be done about this nearly unstoppable play.