The Pittsburgh Steelers got their running game back on track Monday night against the Tennessee Titans and many of the successful runs that Le’Veon Bell had in the game came courtesy of some power-o counter runs with right guard David DeCastro pulling to the left.
In total, I counted seven plays in the game Monday night in which DeCastro pulled left on a run and those plays produced 53 yards. Here’s a look at there of those plays.
O the very first running play of the game, the Steelers run a counter to the left with both DeCastro and tight end Heath Miller pulling from the right side. DeCastro does his job by kicking out the outside linebacker while Miller gets a block on the safety attempting to fill. Unfortunately, tight end Matt Spaeth is unable to get to his second block on the linebacker, but thanks to Miller taking a good angle with his block, Bell is able to read and cut outside for a nice gain of 12 yards.
The next two power-o counter runs we will look at came during the Steelers final drive of the game when the Titans absolutely knew they were going to run. This first play utilizes 13 personnel as fullback Will Johnson is essentially lined up as a strong side tight end. DeCastro and Johnson both pull left and both players hit their marks. Miller is able to get off of his first combination block to get the strong side inside linebacker coming across and Bell sees the lane and hits it for a gain of 10 yards.
This last power-o counter run is my favorite from that game. This time the Steelers run to the weak side again using 13 personnel and Johnson again follows DeCastro to the left. Miller, Johnson and DeCastro all do their jobs and that leaves Bell with only the safety to beat. He not only beats him, he makes him look bad.
