Ashburn, Va. – The 53-man roster is now in place and the 2016 regular season has begun in earnest. The results of the Washington Redskins quiet offseason will finally be put to one of the biggest tests it will face: hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers for Monday Night Football. This means the Redskins defense will face one of the most challenging quarterback/receiver duos in the NFL in Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown.
Roethlisberger is one of the toughest QB’s in the league and, at 6-5, 240 lbs., is hard to bring down. OLBs Ryan Kerrigan and Preston Smith would probably help themselves if they watched the special game tape that Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Dom Caper put together back in 2011. Before his team had to play the Steelers in that year’s Super Bowl, he created a film that showed futile attempts to bring down the QB.
I bet it was called, “How NOT to tackle Ben Roethlisberger.”
Large and deceptively elusive, the 2004 first-round draft pick is adept at extending plays. And although he’s been in the league since 2004, this four-time Pro Bowler just gets better as opposed to ‘losing a step’ like some veteran players. He was an All-Pro as recently as 2014.
Brown is… well, Brown.
This four-time Pro Bowler and durable wide out could be the best in the game right now. He’s recorded 1,000-plus yards in the last three seasons, logging the most in 2015 when he caught 136 passes for 1,834 yards and 10 touchdowns.
The two-time All-Pro is extremely fast and a great route-runner. He and his quarterback are going to put the Redskins defensive backs to the test. It will be interesting to watch what kind of coverage Redskins defensive coordinator Joe Barry puts CBs Josh Norman and Bashaud Breeland in to handle Brown.
They have got a great quarterback, No. 1,” Redskins Head Coach Jay Gruden said this week about the Steelers. “He makes them all look good. He’d probably make me look good if I ran a route. He’s excellent. But they do a great job in-house scouting and developing their guys and bringing guys into that building. They’ve been good for a long time for a reason. They have a great scouting staff, a great coaching staff, and they’re very dangerous all across the board – receiver, if a running back goes down, they’ve got another one coming up. They just keep refueling and they’re a good football team.”
Monday night fans will find out whether Washington’s defensive line and secondary can really complement each other the way they need to as the units match up against Pittsburgh’s prolific offense.