2020 Week Two GDT Steelers vs. Broncos

[MOSteelers56]

The snap counts offer some insight into the gameplan. Vance's snaps are down. It seems like Ebron has officially surpassed him as the #1. Also, FB Watt's snaps are still low. I wonder if he starts getting a few more as sort of a hybrid wingback/FB/TE kind of thing? I think it would really help the running game. Conner runs so much better behind a FB, at least to the eye test. 

[Steeler Hitman]

22 hours ago, 43M said:

Too soon to give up on the secondary.    They are probably the toughest positions to prepare for without games, and no offseason didn't help.

I agree with your assessment. The secondary will come around and make adjustments as necessary. Also it is a bit harder to prepare for the back-up after planning on a particular QB's tenancies. We had success early when Mason and Duck took over in games. Driskel played a solid game. We also had little tape on the first two opponents with changes to roster, staff, etc.

This was almost another vintage Tomlin loss.   

As HC, he would have taken the heat, but this game was not close because of poor coaching as much as poor execution, a few bad calls, and turnovers. Coach Tomlin and Coach Mitchell and Alston who I thought were supposed to help out with challenges. They missed the fumble on an early sack and the challenge on Fant's sideline catch was bad and could have hurt the teams comeback/win chances by losing a key timeout leaving them with one. The leadership deserves some criticism for these two decisions.

He almost never has this team fully prepared.   Never changes.    

I agree that in the past that was the case, but not yesterday. I think that this team was prepared from a coaching standpoint, but are not executing on all cylinders for a variety of reasons. Negative offensive plays early definitely hurt. Fist play from scrimmage a fumble by Dionte Johnson.

Third quarter you are set to take over the game and the offense turns the ball over and allows the Broncos back in the game.  That was on the offense and Coach T, played from the coin flip to take advantage, get up early in third at home. The offense didn't cooperate.

Defense or Special teams make a play and the offense sputters or gives the ball away (Snell fumble).   Those are mental mistakes by the players. They will get better as the season goes on, but this wasn't a case where they were simply out coached. Denver did make good adjustments, but the Steelers were still in position to put the game away at various points. They stopped themselves moreso than Denver did. Denver took advantage of the Steelers mistakes and opportunities much better.

Some timely very late PI calls that were a joke. My problem with the refs is that if you are going to call a close game be consistent. If you are going to let them play, then let them play. A few of the PI calls were phantom calls at best. 

The game should not have been this close and the defense was hung out to dry too long at times needlessly because of mistakes and poor execution on offense. 

[warfelg]

14 hours ago, 43M said:

As always, this team tends to play down (or up) to their competition.   Its a double edged sword with Tomlin.     We started off with two games against inferior opponents, and while Im not saying they should have been blowouts, we shouldve controlled these games.     

I think in NY you got an OC that’s new with new weapons to him and with Denver we caught the buck up QB and two rookie weapons with no tape. Not making excuses but that’s some big unknowns for players on the field to work with. 

[bigben07MVP]

Man I think a line of Chuks - Dotson - Pouncey - Decastro - Feiler would be awesome. AV through two weeks looks like he has lost another step (he lost one last year too). Also Feiler hasn’t looked quite as sold at guard as he did last year at tackle. I know this isn’t Madden and we are only two week into the season but interesting to think about.

Edited September 22, 2020 by bigben07MVP

[3rivers]

21 hours ago, bigben07MVP said:

Man I think a line of Chuks - Dotson - Pouncey - Decastro - Feiler would be awesome. AV through two weeks looks like he has lost another step (he lost one last year too). Also Feiler hasn’t looked quite as sold at guard as he did last year at tackle. I know this isn’t Madden and we are only two week into the season but interesting to think about.

great post. I never noticed Dotson other than a good play and that's always a good sign. Maybe they got a steal here, and do they need it with the injuries.  OL was decent from what I could tell. 

How many times did he have to block Casey? I figured Fangio would move Casey over to Dotsons side for the mismatch, but who knows. 

[bigben07MVP]

17 hours ago, 3rivers said:

great post. I never noticed Dotson other than a good play and that's always a good sign. Maybe they got a steal here, and do they need it with the injuries.  OL was decent from what I could tell. 

How many times did he have to block Casey? I figured Fangio would move Casey over to Dotsons side for the mismatch, but who knows. 

He was on Casey the majority of the game, they didn't move him around much and Dotson really held his own especially in pass pro. He's going to be a stud and a full time starter by week 1 of 2021. 

[Dcash4]

On 9/21/2020 at 9:01 PM, bigben07MVP said:

Man I think a line of Chuks - Dotson - Pouncey - Decastro - Feiler would be awesome.

I keep getting distracted by 2021. My mind goes there often but I think the injuries this year could be a real blessing in disguise in terms of how our OLine will effect our cap space in 21. We could be looking at a starting line of:

Chuks - Dotson - Pouncey - Decastro - Banner

I can easily see Banner back on a one year (or better yet, 2 year with more money in year 2/extension candidate ala a 2 year $8M but only a $2M 1st year hit) prove it deal with the team has has found success with rather than testing FA for a low pay day. If that happens and Chuks can play LT after a full year starting at RT that allows us to move on from AV with a rookie level deal and low end Banner contract.  

We will extend DDC, effectively lowering his cap. 

Dotson will be on year 2 of a 4th round rookie deal. 

Pouncey.....thats, thats pretty much the whole thought. (secretly, i say he actually gets extended with Ben too, further saving cap)

Feiler hits FA and gets us a nice comp, joining all the other comp picks we will get. We dont have to re-sign AV to a higher than needed vet salary, and we then have the flexibility moving forward to lock up guys (Chuks and Banner) with their real money hitting 2022 or later. 

That's a huuuuuuuuge piece of making $175M cap do-able. But its also way to early to feel comfortable about that, but at least there is a realistic path to it. 

[bigben07MVP]

@Dcash4 that lineup looks great to me. There would be some growing pains but that’s a great youth transition with a ton of cap savings.

I seriously could see Dotson being a peak level Ramon Foster type guard by 2021. He’s been nothing but dominant since training camp. If he went to a bigger school and wasn’t 24 y/o he could have been a 2nd rounder easy.

[jebrick]

LSU is not a big school?

[Dcash4]

5 minutes ago, jebrick said:

LSU is not a big school?

LSU is, but U of L really is not. 

[lomaxgrUK]

Just watching the game back on all 22 (from a Bronco perspective) - I've only watched the 1st quarter, but man - Chase Claypool is an absolute demon on kickoff and punt coverage. I can't remember the last time I saw someone that big, that strong playing Special Teams. 

Have any of your Coaches talked about him on ST? He plays like a man possessed, which is impressive for someone who does have a role on Offense.

[3rivers]

On 9/23/2020 at 11:25 AM, bigben07MVP said:

He was on Casey the majority of the game, they didn't move him around much and Dotson really held his own especially in pass pro. He's going to be a stud and a full time starter by week 1 of 2021. 

what a steal then, and for now let him play while DDC gets healthy. Good to know that they got a good OL in the draft.  Chuks was decent too, but will be a different test this week.

[3rivers]

8 hours ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Just watching the game back on all 22 (from a Bronco perspective) - I've only watched the 1st quarter, but man - Chase Claypool is an absolute demon on kickoff and punt coverage. I can't remember the last time I saw someone that big, that strong playing Special Teams. 

Have any of your Coaches talked about him on ST? He plays like a man possessed, which is impressive for someone who does have a role on Offense.

he shouldn't be on ST though, he will be WR1 at years end.  Another steal, good draft this year (finally)