The Steelers dusted off a retired James Harrison to bolster their pass rush this season. It's working out very well. Now, James "Deebo" Harrison has earned Stephen White's Hoss of the Week award.
Even before the Steelers suffered several injuries to their starting linebackers, I felt they should put a call in to former Steeler great James "Deebo" Harrison to see how he felt about coming back for a second tour and being a situational pass rusher for them. I know Jarvis Jones was supposed to be "the guy" to replace him, but thus far I've been pretty unimpressed with Jones' ability to get to the quarterback. As fate would have it, Jones ended up suffering a wrist injury in the third game of the season against the Panthers. Seemingly out of desperation, they made that call to Harrison. He was off the couch and back on field in black and yellow in a flash, as if he'd never left.
At first, the narrative was that he would only be a situational rusher. The guy hadn't practiced real football in a year. That was his first and only year with the Bengals. I thought at the time the Steelers were making a mistake letting him go. I understood why they were doing it, but I didn't agree with it.
Now, they had to bring him back and hope he could give them something, anything on third-and-longs at the very least. That was probably as much as they could hope for because he just couldn't have been in "game shape" right? It didn't take long for Harrison to get more than "situational" reps. He has seen his work load increase every week since he was re-signed, and I have yet to see him look dog tired. He hasn't started a game this season (yet), but on big downs you can bet your ass you will see number 92 on the field.
I am a huge fan James Harrison fan. He gives great effort, he's mean as hell, and one hell of a pass rusher. What's not to like, right? There are some guys who are just great "natural" pass rushers. They can roll out of bed long after they are done playing and still find a way to get to the quarterback. Harrison fits that mold. He has tremendous body lean and balance when rushing the passer and those traits are hard to find.
That isn't to say it didn't take a lot of work for him to get there, especially with him being a little short for a 3-4 outside linebacker. It's probably because of those years of hard work on his skill and technique, repping and drilling it over and over, that he still has the kind of incredible muscle memory to come in off the street and get right to work kicking offensive linemen's asses and putting quarterbacks on the ground.
His performance this past Sunday against the Ravens is an indication that opposing offenses left on the Steelers' schedule are in troubleeeee (Bernie Mac voice).
You want to talk about putting a guy putting his imprint on a game? Harrison made big plays through out the evening that helped the Steelers first get out to a big lead over the Ravens, and he helped make sure that they kept it until the final horn sounded. There are about eight big plays or so that he made including his two sacks against the Ravens that I am going to point out to you so you can understand exactly why he is getting the Hoss Of The Week for Week 9, but in the interest of not boring the hell out of you with too many words (reading is hard), I will try to make the descriptions of those plays as brief as possible.
I can't make any promises though, cuz you know how I get when I talk about top pass rushers.
1.
On the first big play, the Ravens were up 7-0 with 3:37 left in the first quarter. To that point the Steelers had three possessions on offense, all three of which ended in a three-and-out (one was technically a four and out because of a penalty, for all you #WellActually folks). The Ravens had already made a first down on that current drive and were facing a third-and-7 to try to keep the series going. Harrison lined up in his classic "motorcycle" stance on the right side and hit Ravens left tackle Eugene Monroe with his patented dip-and-rip move. He raced right past Monroe with tremendous body control and balance, his old calling cards, staying on his feet while Monroe tried to grab him as he turned the corner. He smothered Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco to the ground for a loss of 6 yards, and the Ravens had to punt on the next play.
2.
The score was tied 7-7 with 7:07 left in the second quarter. The Ravens were already at the Steelers' 48-yard line thanks to a penalty on Pittsburgh nose tackle Steve McLendon for roughing Flacco on the previous play (a weak call, but whatever). Harrison lined up outside the tight end on the defense's right side of the formation, but on the snap he looped inside on a stunt. He ended up weaving his way through traffic unblocked putting a big hit on Flacco just as he was trying to run away from Harrison and throw the ball downfield.
It went downfield alright.
Right into the hands of Steelers starting left outside linebacker Jason Worilds who happened to be dropping into coverage on that play. Worilds, a pretty good pass rusher in his own right, returned the interception 30 yards all the way to the Ravens' 30-yard line. Three plays later the Steelers scored their second touchdown of the game to go up 14-7. Now that's an imprint for ya ass!
3.
There are a trio of big plays that Harrison dished out on the Ravens' last drive of the first half. The score was still 14-7 with about 4:14 left in the second quarter. The Ravens faced a second-and-1 at their own 44-yard line. On that play Harrison hurdled the Ravens fullback to get to running back Justin Forsett and help stop him for no gain on the run.
4.
On the very next play, Harrison crashed inside of backup offensive tackle James Hurst, who was lined up as a tight end on the defense's right side, and was able to redirect back outside just enough to get his hands on running back Lorenzo Taliaferro to help get his ass on the ground for no gain as well.
5.
Harrison limped out of the game slowly after that play. After being checked out by the Steelers' medical staff. The Ravens ended up getting a first down with a sneak by Flacco on the next play to keep the drive going. Baltimore actually made it all the way down to the Steelers' 28-yard line on their last play before the two minute warning. With 1:59 left in the half they were looking at second-and-8 with a chance to tie the game on the line. Here comes Harrison back in the game to try to prevent just that. He looped inside once again on the snap as is unblocked for a second time.
Big mistake!
He ended up blasting the shit out of Flacco just as he tried to deliver the ball up the seam to his tight end on a go route.
No interception this time, but I'm sure Flacco was feeling some deja vu after that big hit and incompletion. On the next play, Torrey Smith wasn't able to haul in Flacco's deep ball. Baltimore was forced to kick a field goal on fourth down. Not the worst thing in the world for the Ravens, but I'm sure they were hoping for more after such a promising start to that drive. James Harrison, hope crusher.
6.
Ok class, let's fast forward to Baltimore's first possession of the second half. The score was 22-10 at that point. This time the Ravens drove alllll the way down to the Steelers' 39-yard line in just six plays. Facing second-and-4, which is a pretty good down and distance to be in, Flacco handed the ball off to Forsett on a fullback lead ISO weak. The formation was strong to Harrison's side, so this time they were trying to run away from him (to the defense's left), but it didn't make a damn bit of difference because he was still going to make a play.
Harrison looped inside and met Forsett in the hole for just a 1-yard gain. On the very next play with the Ravens facing third-and-3 Flacco lined up under center then took a quick three step, 5-yard drop looking to get the ball out of his hands right away. Harrison jammed the piss out of Owen Daniels at the line of scrimmage, then stayed on his hip about 3 yards or so downfield, staying square with his eyes in the backfield. Once he saw that Flacco was still holding the ball he came roaring back toward the line of scrimmage with all bad intentions.
The Steelers had elected to only rush two defensive lineman on that play initially. The protection was holding up well at first, but when Flacco saw Harrison steaming toward him like a wild man he panicked. Instead of staying in the pocket under the protection of his offensive line, he tried to get outside of Harrison and throw the ball away. He appeared to be successful in that endeavor as he did throw the ball as Harrison tackled him to the ground, but the referees over turned the initial call after seeing that Flacco's knee was on the ground with the ball still in his hand. They awarded Harrison a sack after Mike Tomlin won the challenge of the play.
And why did Tomlin challenge it since it was an incompletion on third down anyway you might be wondering if you didn't actually see the game?
He challenged it because the Ravens could have gone for it on fourth-and-3 after the incompletion. What we do know is that after the referees changed the incompletion to a sack with the resulting loss of yardage the Ravens sent their punt team out on the field instead.
Think about this again now, Harrison was able to jam the hell out of a pretty good tight end, drop back into pass coverage and then come up and still get a sack that forced a punt. There are dudes in the NFL who can't get a sack even if you let them get a free rush ... I know, I've seen them! However, the OG Harrison will find away.
Hell, he wasn't actually done after that, either. He got another hit on Flacco later in the game to help force an errant throw on a deep ball to Steve Smith. He also jacked up Monroe on a two-point play before ripping inside and tackling Taliaferro short of the goal line. The game was pretty much out of hand at that point, but I bet you nobody was trying to tell James Harrison that!
I get a kick out of seeing older (hell, I'm only like five years older than him), hard nosed guys still making big plays in the league, so it was probably just a matter of time before I named Harrison my Hoss Of The Week. But understand this, Halloween was last Friday, and I don't hand out treats to strangers for no reason except that one day in the year. James Harrison balled the hell out against the Ravens and was a big part of why the Steelers molly whopped them. He absolutely earned this Hoss Of The Week honor by what he did on the field.
Deebo is back and he's coming for your QB!
Be afraid, be very very afraid!
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