Ups/Downs Week 1

[3rivers]

10 hours ago, stillersenat said:

I didn't see the game...so which was the issue? Bell or the run blocking?

bell looked slow and needs reps, and run blocking was suspect but give Williams D credit.

[Magnus-Viktor]

11 hours ago, Dcash4 said:

Just really sucks that we are probably going to have to watch another week or two like this before everyone clicks. This first team really didnt take too many snaps together in the preseason. Everyone seemed to miss some time somewhere. It will gel, its just painful to be so excited about a team and have them come out and seem like they just met each other for the first time ever yesterday morning. 

Felt like someone from the OLine was always out during camp/preseason as well. I expect those guys, who have played together for quite some time now, to be okay, but it wasnt. I expect that group to get cleaned up quickly, however. 

 

 

If they play like they did this week again next week, they're going to get killed.  The Vikings looked really good tonight.  They have a good pass rush and a good defense.  Probably top 3 overall defense.  Their OL also looked much improved except the RT (who was still a huge improvement but Remmers is not good and got beat tonight quite a bit).  I think it will be interesting next week.  The Vikings tore up a crappy Aints' defense and shut down Brees all night except garbage time.  (he moved the ball but settled for FGs until the 4th in garbage time)  

Before this week I would've picked the Steelers to win unless the Vikings' D really got after Ben.  But now I'm not so sure.  The Vikings O looked better, plus their D did.  The OL better pick it up now, rather than waiting a few more weeks.

[Dcash4]

Its just a matter of how fast we gel, and unfortunately, that probably doesn't happen in one more week. Bell is going into week 2 of training camp, Bryant didnt get into all the preseason games, our offensive line was in and out all camp it seemed, and I think this was the least amount of snaps Ben has gotten in camp - ever. With the first team set, healthy, and available and practice time almost entirely dedicated to them from here on out -- it will happen, but September football sucks in the NFL. Its about battling through.

The good news is we are home and hopefully they guys want to show out better than their performances last week. What really sucks though, is we are going to go about 5 weeks in a row facing above average defenses. The offense is going to need to gel while playing some of the best. Tough task, but good reps. 

[CKSteeler]

OL looked hungover at times. Not their best showing. I suspect there's some relatively light hearted drama with Bell and, well, everyone else that impacted some of what we saw.

Roethlisberger had 1 poor decision/throw, the interception. 1-2 other passes that were typical incompletes, and otherwise, just about everything was dropped. I didn't see any accuracy issues that other people are whining about. It's just kind of tough to get anything going when everything is a designed screen pass within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage and you spend most of your time on offense getting penalized and moving backwards. Really tough. The interception was typical greedy Roethlisberger a play after getting a ball tipped at the line which probably would have been a big gain. Cocky and over confident. But otherwise, he looks great and healthy. I emphasize the final point because it's really underestimated how much that impacts performance. This was not bad road Ben or whatever the hell it is people have in their minds right now.

I say it often, but really just a lousy offensive gameplan to start. Todd expected blitzes and pressure and wanted to show off his screen game. Browns played tight with deep safeties and mostly just wanted to create the illusion of pressure while adding extra guys to stop Bell. To Todd's credit, he did adjust by the half and he didn't have a lot of offensive series to go on before doing so. That's where the blocked punt throws things off. It was almost a quarter before the offense was on the field.

Sean Davis was a disappointment to me for a lot reasons, but it's week 1. I hope he settles in, but he was the guy the Browns were targeting very often and they left plays on the field. Haden looked good. The plays where he was almost beat, it was because he didn't get the help he was suspecting. Burns - I really don't like seeing him getting bullied off the line of scrimmage and giving up the TD there. He's young still, but that's not a good look. Still think he'll be a good player. Just not convinced he'll ever be a lockdown guy.

I honestly wonder if Joe Thomas isn't done or just doesn't care anymore. Outside the Browns goal line plays that ended in their first TD, he looked terrible. Everyone is making that game about Watt, but it was a rookie QB and Thomas did not look like the same guy to me. For whatever reason.

Browns young corners did a good job covering Brown despite Williams asking a lot of them. There are like 2-3 teams that give Brown issues, and unfortunately the Pats have been one of them. I don't see how. Those throws made to Brown are basically undefendable when both parts of the tandem are on point.

Basically, it looks to be a typical Steelers team to me, just on week 1. Talented, but too arrogant and lacking the right mindset top to bottom to really come out and dominate on a weekly basis. Not particularly smart. Offensively, as always, it's easy to find a couple of plays which could have been the difference between mediocrity and pretty damn good. Only silver lining is I suspect plenty of the guys on the Steelers treated this as a 5th preseason game, and I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few were actually hungover.

For a team with Super Bowl hopes, I'd rather see them come out in week 1 and look to dismantle an opponent. Especially when they barely made the playoffs last year.

[MOSteelers56]

I'd really like to see a breakdown of Chickillo's game. I had to watch the game on my phone and I can't remember seeing either of his 2 sacks. 

[jebrick]

Chick looked poor in run support and in coverage.  he is a decent backup.  Dupree needs to get healthy NOW!

[43M]

9 hours ago, jebrick said:

Chick looked poor in run support and in coverage.  he is a decent backup.  Dupree needs to get healthy NOW!

Yeah, his stats were more impressive than he was.

Same for TJ Watt, although Watt still looked really good.

Lets be honest, 4 or 5 of the sacks were because of Kizer being indecisive.  Still got decent pressure, but a veteran QB wouldnt have taken several of those.

[Magnus-Viktor]

Agreed on the 2 OLBs.  The sacks were more because of Kizer than anything.  They still did well in putting pressure on, but it's a bit misleading to just look at the stats and not put it into context.  

[warfelg]

7 hours ago, FourThreeMafia said:

Yeah, his stats were more impressive than he was.

Same for TJ Watt, although Watt still looked really good.

Lets be honest, 4 or 5 of the sacks were because of Kizer being indecisive.  Still got decent pressure, but a veteran QB wouldnt have taken several of those.

A few to indecisive, a few were I thought Kizer was trying to make a play rather than throw it away and take the loss.

Something I saw though that was nice was when the interior DL got pressure, the OLB's made life hard by not giving easy escape routes.  We forget but Kizer is athletic enough to run away from the pressure and this was one of the first times that I've seen in a while that the interior and exterior rush complemented each other and didn't give the easy escape that existed in the past.

[Steeler Hitman]

On 9/13/2017 at 1:04 AM, CKSteeler said:

OL looked hungover at times. Not their best showing. I suspect there's some relatively light hearted drama with Bell and, well, everyone else that impacted some of what we saw.

Roethlisberger had 1 poor decision/throw, the interception. 1-2 other passes that were typical incompletes, and otherwise, just about everything was dropped. I didn't see any accuracy issues that other people are whining about. It's just kind of tough to get anything going when everything is a designed screen pass within 3 yards of the line of scrimmage and you spend most of your time on offense getting penalized and moving backwards. Really tough. The interception was typical greedy Roethlisberger a play after getting a ball tipped at the line which probably would have been a big gain. Cocky and over confident. But otherwise, he looks great and healthy. I emphasize the final point because it's really underestimated how much that impacts performance. This was not bad road Ben or whatever the hell it is people have in their minds right now.

I say it often, but really just a lousy offensive gameplan to start. Todd expected blitzes and pressure and wanted to show off his screen game. Browns played tight with deep safeties and mostly just wanted to create the illusion of pressure while adding extra guys to stop Bell. To Todd's credit, he did adjust by the half and he didn't have a lot of offensive series to go on before doing so. That's where the blocked punt throws things off. It was almost a quarter before the offense was on the field.

Sean Davis was a disappointment to me for a lot reasons, but it's week 1. I hope he settles in, but he was the guy the Browns were targeting very often and they left plays on the field. Haden looked good. The plays where he was almost beat, it was because he didn't get the help he was suspecting. Burns - I really don't like seeing him getting bullied off the line of scrimmage and giving up the TD there. He's young still, but that's not a good look. Still think he'll be a good player. Just not convinced he'll ever be a lockdown guy.

I honestly wonder if Joe Thomas isn't done or just doesn't care anymore. Outside the Browns goal line plays that ended in their first TD, he looked terrible. Everyone is making that game about Watt, but it was a rookie QB and Thomas did not look like the same guy to me. For whatever reason.

Browns young corners did a good job covering Brown despite Williams asking a lot of them. There are like 2-3 teams that give Brown issues, and unfortunately the Pats have been one of them. I don't see how. Those throws made to Brown are basically undefendable when both parts of the tandem are on point.

Basically, it looks to be a typical Steelers team to me, just on week 1. Talented, but too arrogant and lacking the right mindset top to bottom to really come out and dominate on a weekly basis. Not particularly smart. Offensively, as always, it's easy to find a couple of plays which could have been the difference between mediocrity and pretty damn good. Only silver lining is I suspect plenty of the guys on the Steelers treated this as a 5th preseason game, and I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few were actually hungover.

For a team with Super Bowl hopes, I'd rather see them come out in week 1 and look to dismantle an opponent. Especially when they barely made the playoffs last year.

Agreed the OL seemed sluggish, but I think part of that was them being on the sideline for most of the first quarter and the play calling never allowed them to get into sync with their game plan. The penalties also helped take them out of their game plan as well. First play of he game was a 7 yard pick-up, but a holding call turned it into first and 15. Second down another holding penalty and now first and 25.

 

I agree that Ben did not play a bad game. There was one bad route or decision that was dropped by one of the Browns DB's. Overall, Ben and the rest of the offense was playing with poor field position and behind the down markers because of penalties. Big Ben is the least of the Steelers worries.

I agree that the game plan seemed lousy, but as much as I am critical of Haley at times, it is hard play calling when you are playing behind the downs regularly.  My one criticism is that the Browns played the single high safety. Todd Haley should have been licking his chops. That is what the Steelers did against the Cardinals in the SB an it wasn't until the second half that he started running slants and crosses.  Remember the Larry Fitzgerlald  TD that put the Cards ahead before Santonio's great catch? Look at the defensive scheme on that play? With AB and Bryant at WR, the Steelers should have been running more crosses and slants across the middle.  That puts the CB's one on one and if you get past the safety, count to five and then add six points to the score.

 

Explain your disappointment in Sean Davis.  I don't think he played a great game, but I didn't see where he or anyone else on defense played a bad one. To me the pass interference and personal foul penalties hurt them and yet they still held the Browns to under 250 total yards.

 

Joe Thomas is Joe Thomas. i think that it speaks more to the upside of TJ Watt and his motor and football IQ.  For him to have the game that he did against arguably the best or certainly a top three LT is pretty impressive. i am more impressed with TJ than thinking less of Thomas.

I don't know that the team was arrogant or took the Browns lightly.  The game was never in jeopardy in my humble opinion. This is the  type of game that they would have lost a few years ago, but they didn't. You will have weeks when you play poorly and weeks, when you play well. My biggest disappointment for years has been that rarely if ever over the past three years or so have the Steelers played a COMPLETE game in all three phases of Offense, Defense and Special Teams. This was a game where the defense and special teams game through.  We are like an eight cylinder sports car running on five or six cylinders.  It will get you to your destination, but the ride is awfully rough.   

 

It is week one, so I am not getting bent out of shape and hope that the Steelers are playing their best football come December, January and February.  I don't expect them to falter early in the first half like last year either though.  The Vikings will be a good test for the entire team as they have explosive receivers, an accurate QB, a versatile RB and a great defense that is chocked full of pro bowlers. Hopefully, we are up to the task and will play well at home.

[Chieferific]

It will be interesting to see how well the Ravens play them. They appear to be the biggest obstacle to a division title. That Baltimore Defense reloaded quickly but the Offense seems to be a work in progress. How well the Ravens play on the road may give us some insight as to how well we stack up against them and more specifically how our Defense compares to theirs.

[Dcash4]

58 minutes ago, Chieferific said:

It will be interesting to see how well the Ravens play them. They appear to be the biggest obstacle to a division title. That Baltimore Defense reloaded quickly but the Offense seems to be a work in progress. How well the Ravens play on the road may give us some insight as to how well we stack up against them and more specifically how our Defense compares to theirs.

I fear we are not going to know who the Ravens are for a long time this year. Just looked at their schedule and now I am actually scared that the Bengals suck this bad. There are a lot of very weak offenses on the list. There could be 10-12 wins on the Ravens schedule just based IF their defense is really that strong. Was hoping Cinci would be able to take 1 and 1 with the Ravens. but that's looking awful doubtful after their first two showings. 

It will be interesting to see if that's really who the Ravens are last week...but again, looking at their schedule only Pittsburgh, Oakland, Green Bay, and the Lions (possibly the Titans) can force the issue offensively to truly give them a test. Heard a stat on some NFL podcast that Dalton was only actually pressured on 8% of his dropbacks last week. I couldnt find the stats to confirm, but if thats even close to true that puts most of Daltons performance squarely on his own shoulders. Not saying the Ravens didnt create issues, but Dalton played his part into the awful performance. 

That's what is going to be difficult to know with the Ravens. Are they going to be this good on defense or are they looking at lot better playing Bad Dalton, Kizer, Blake Bortles, Glennon, Bradford, and Cutler before the bye in week 8?

Also -- shout out to the Ravens for not taking the bye after their London game. Short week and long travel to hopefully get a Steeler team firing on all cylinders by then......

....well, maybe -- it will be a road game for us...

 

[JLambert58]

On ‎9‎/‎13‎/‎2017 at 0:27 PM, jebrick said:

Chick looked poor in run support and in coverage.  he is a decent backup.  Dupree needs to get healthy NOW!

I think that is too much of a blanket statement.  He did look poor on certain plays, he also looked fair, good and very good on other plays.  Typical backup - can perform at high level but not consistently.