Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Elandon Roberts. Roberts fills a specific role for his team, a role that I believe every LB room in the NFL needs: the certified crashout. The linebacker who is willing to run through a joker’s face in order to get to the ballcarrier. Roberts isn’t exactly the most impressive in space or against the pass, but he will absolutely light your ass up like a Christmas tree if you step into his gap.
He displayed that in full effect in the Steelers’ win against the Cleveland Browns. Roberts is a menace coming downhill, and Browns center Ethan Pocic found himself on the wrong side of that on Sunday. The Browns are running pin and pull, with Pocic being the second guy out the gates. The first guy, left guard Joel Bitonio blocks cornerback Joey Porter Jr and Pocic is going to come around and hit the first guy he sees wearing black.
However, Roberts had other plans. Roberts decides to send Pocic back to Cleveland himself by GOING CRASH TEST DUMMY DIRECTLY THOUGH POCIC’S CHEST. This is that real football right here. Enough of trying to slip blocks, trying to run around them. Nah man. SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS BY GOING THROUGH THEM FULL FORCE.
This play lost a yard on first down, putting the Browns back behind the sticks and Roberts’ laying the smackdown on Pocic’s candy ass helped to throw off the entire run path and give his teammates a chance to help make that tackle. My favorite part of this play is the fact that you can see Roberts charging up this spirit bomb, rocking back and forth like a psychopath and getting ready to let some pain go like Godzilla. POCIC LEFT THE GROUND! HIS FEET WERE OFF THE GROUND! THAT’S A 320 POUND MAN WITH HIS FEET IN THE AIR LIKE HE’S ON A SWING!
There’s another play that Roberts made that made me jump up, and it kind of encapsulates what the Steelers are. It’s 4th and 1 and the Browns are gonna run a quick little toss play to pick up this first down. They motion RB Jerome Ford into the backfield and try to kick out EDGE Alex Highsmith and the guard wraps around. The play is supposed to catch the defense off guard, expecting a sneak and getting the first via toss. Roberts is having none of that, hitting this hole with insane quickness. He makes this tackle for loss and gets the Steelers the ball back, something that Pittsburgh has just been good at this year.
Finding plays within the margins on defense to give their offense more opportunities to do … something with the ball.
The Steelers’ defense has arguably their biggest test of the season, a critical matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles. With the way that both offenses have played this season, I wouldn’t be surprised if this game ends like 18-12.
The Steelers’ defense against the Eagles’ ground game is going to be one of the coolest matchups to watch this season, and I’m excited to see if anyone learned from what happened to Pocic and bring their hard hat if you step to Elandon Roberts.
