Over the course of the next several weeks I will be recapping the sacks registered during the 2015 season by the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. Each post will be dedicated to one individual player and along the way we’ll document the down and distance, time and number of players sent on each and every sack. Once we recap all of them, I will summarize them in one final post.
Today, we’ll recap the sack registered last season by nose tackle Steve McLendon.
The NFL officially credited McLendon with 1 total sacks during the regular season. The league also credited Moats with 2 total quarterback hits during the regular season while the Steelers have him down as recording 1 quarterback pressure.
McLendon’s lone regular season sack came in Week 8 against the Cincinnati Bengals.
WEEK 8 – 1-10-PIT 33 (11:39 3Q) A.Dalton sacked at PIT 42 for -9 yards (S.McLendon). 5.05 seconds, 5-man rush, blitz inside
On this sack against the Bengals, the Steelers call a run blitz inside out of their base 3-4 front. McLendon, by the way, played a lot of left defensive end in this game being as starter Stephon Tuitt was sidelined with a knee sprain.
The Bengals run a misdirection play on this first down complete with a play-action boot to the right. While the play-action back does release into the left flat after the fake, this is essentially a two-man route and the Steelers secondary covers it very well. Even though quarterback Andy Dalton has plenty of time on the play, he has nobody open to throw to. After McLendon works off of the block by the tight end, he easily takes down Dalton for the sack.
Summary: Not really much to add here when it comes to McLendon as most of his playing time in 2015 was inside as the nose tackle in the team’s 3-4 base. Most of McLendon’s pass-rushing opportunities came on first and second downs when opposing quarterbacks often had the football out well before three seconds were up. as a result, it’s no surprise that he didn’t produce many hits or pressures.
Previous Sack Reviews:
Steelers 2015 Sack Review: LB Jarvis Jones
Steelers 2015 Sack Review: LB Arthur Moats
