Coming into yesterday’s game, Broncos cornerback Chris Harris hadn’t allowed a touchdown in 36 straight games, dating back to Week 12 of the 2013 season. He hadn’t posted a game graded in the “red” (representing a poor game grade) at PFF since the same week, and had never allowed 100-plus receiving yards in a game. He was, and is, one of the league’s best cornerbacks, and he was taken to pieces by Antonio Brown, the NFL’s best receiver.
Denver more or less played one-on-one matchups with the Pittsburgh receivers: Harris covered Brown, Aqib Talib covered Martavis Bryant and Bradley Roby took Markus Wheaton.
Brown saw 15 targets when covered by Harris in this game, and he caught 14 of them for 164 yards and two touchdowns.
They were hammer blows at key times, as well, as the Steelers needed to mount a sizeable comeback in the game.
In truth, none of the Denver matchup master plan worked, it’s just that Harris was the player exposed most obviously and thoroughly.
Talib surrendered eight catches to Bryant on 11 targets for 75 yards. Roby gave up five catches for 48 yards and a touchdown to Wheaton on 10 targets, but also gave up five catches on five targets when he was covering anybody else.
This was arguably the NFL’s strongest trio of cornerbacks, and they were helpless against the league’s best group of receivers. Brown in particular hammered home the point that he is the league’s best wideout, and if you don’t get hands on him to disrupt him at the line, you have no chance. Ben Roethlisberger’s passer rating in this game was 99.8 overall, but it was a nearly perfect 152.2 when targeting Brown, and no higher than 87.5 when throwing in the direction of anybody else.
Brown was our top-rated receiver coming into the game, and only increased the gap over second-place Julio Jones. He is now averaging 113 yards per game this season despite playing with a combination of Michael Vick and Landry Jones for five of them, and the best part about his game from a Pittsburgh perspective is that he is just one option.
