Less than one week ago, the Pittsburgh Steelers made an in-season trade for a top tier player. The Steelers acquired defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick from the Miami Dolphins for a bevy of draft picks going in either direction. On Sunday, Fitzpatrick started for the Steelers in their trip to face the San Francisco 49ers. He wasted no time in making an impact on the defense. Despite losing the game to the 49ers, Fitzpatrick’s early contributions were not easily missed. It gave a good glimpse of what the Steelers defense could look like going forward in the years to come.
Minkah Fitzpatrick Has Instant Impact on Pittsburgh Steelers Defense
Minkah Fitzpatrick: Mr. Turnover Creator
Throughout last season, the Steelers struggled to create turnovers. Pittsburgh ranked as one of the worst teams when it came to forcing interceptions. Yet in the first quarter of his first game for the Steelers, Fitzpatrick recorded his first interception for the team off of Jimmy Garoppolo. That was the second interception of the game for the Steelers to that point. Earlier in that quarter, T.J. Watt had picked off another pass by Garoppolo. In 16 games last season, Pittsburgh had eight interceptions. In one quarter, the Steelers already had two.
Interceptions are not the only way Fitzpatrick made his mark. On the very next possession for San Francisco, Fitzpatrick put his hat on the ball and forced Raheem Mostert to fumble the ball. The recovery was made by rookie Devin Bush, his first of two recoveries on the day. All of this damage was done by Minkah during one quarter of football. Fitzpatrick rounded out his first outing with five tackles as well. Given more time with his new team, his impact will surely grow.
Stellar First Half Defense
Fitzpatrick’s fast start with the Steelers defense was emblematic of the unit’s performance in the first half. Pittsburgh’s defense entered the game facing San Francisco’s top-five offense. On the other hand, the Steelers defense entered as one of the five worst defenses. You would not have realized that by watching the first half. The 49ers were sloppy throughout the first half, committing four turnovers in the half. Jimmy G threw two picks in the first quarter, followed by a fumble on the center-quarterback exchange in the second quarter. Mostert’s fumble in the first quarter was the other turnover of the half.
Coming into the game, the 49ers were scoring the second-most points through the first two games. The Steelers, on the other hand, were giving up the fourth-most. But due to the sloppiness of the 49ers and the new life Fitzpatrick helped inject, the score was 6-3 in favor of the Steelers at halftime. Bush led the team in tackles at the half with six, as well as his two fumble recoveries. You couldn’t have asked for a better performance by the defense in the first half. If they put in a similar performance in the second half, the Steelers would be walking away with an upset over the 49ers.
Frustrating Second Half Defense
The Steelers did not turn in a similar performance in the second half. It was a performance reminiscent of the previous two games. The 49ers made adjustments, including attacking the center of the defense. They ran the ball almost exclusively between the tackles as well as finding open receivers across the middle of the field. Of the six possessions that the 49ers had in the second half, excluding the seventh that ended the game, they scored touchdowns on half of them. San Francisco even tried to give the game away with a late fourth-quarter fumble. The snap bounced off Richie James while he was in motion and the ball was recovered by Watt.
Now, the Steelers defense is in no way responsible for the offense not executing on their side of things. That is an entirely different problem in and of itself. However, it looked like the Steelers fielded two completely different defenses in the second half. The lack of any real adjustment to what the 49ers were doing was frustrating, to say the least. Pittsburgh held San Francisco to 50 yards rushing and zero touchdowns in the first half. In the second half, they had 118 yards and two touchdowns. Fitzpatrick, the catalyst in the first half, only had one tackle the whole second half. Bush led the team again with 11 tackles, and safety Terrell Edmunds also had 10. The fact that only one other linebacker finished in the top-10 in tackles for the game is very concerning.
Conclusion
It was certainly a tale of very two different halves for the Steelers against the 49ers. The first half showed the potential this defense has with 10 of the 11 players drafted in the first round. Minkah Fitzpatrick proved his worth in the first half with the turnovers he helped generate. If he can put in a full game, this defense will take on a whole new life. He could help lead this defense back to the dominance it enjoyed in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Fitzpatrick made an immediate impact in just one quarter. Here’s to hoping that impact will continue going forward.
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