2021 Week One GDT Steelers at Bills

[Dcash4]

 

I would like to see the breakdown of 1st half to 2nd half, but this is still substantial. 

*Edit: Noticing the whole photo doesn't show up without clicking, so in case you don't want to click through to Twitter -- We ran PA 53% of the time on early downs in the first three quarters on Sunday. For the entirety of 2020, we did it at 14%.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Dcash4

[Dcash4]

Snap count numbers that probably interest me and no one else:

- My boy Pat, 29
- Ebron, 27
- Gentry, 16

Boy, felt like Pat was impactful even though he just played 50% of the snaps. I would like to see this broken down by half though. I noticed Gentry a lot late and Pat made his mark in the second half too. Wonder if Ebron's work was cut, or if it was a true distribution throughout the game. I would phase Ebron to #4 receiver snaps in "2 TE" looks. 

- Derek Watt, 4 (offensive)

Again, I would like to know when they came. There's potential here, but will we use him?

- Bush, 73
- Schobert, 66

The more interesting piece here is that neither of these two played 100% of the snaps. Your DBs and your ILB are usually 100%ers. I don't necessarily think this means anything other than they have a lot of tools in the box to work with, but interesting non-the-less. I thought Bush played well, and this could just be easing him back from the ACL injury, but you would like to see the guy that cost you 2 entire days of draft picks to be the guy. No worries there yet, but let's check back in month 2. 

- Norwood, 68 (80%)
- Pierre, 31
- Maulet, 13

Just shocked about Norwood. Dude's a 7th rounder. Pick 245. Played 80% of the snaps on a top end defense in week 1. WEEK 1! It will be interesting to see if this is just the start of a rotation that will match-up to opponents and a play to keep teams from getting reads on weaknesses or if they really do believe in Norwood. Excited to see him and Pierre in week 2 action. 

- Benny Snell, 19 (ST snaps, second most on the team)
- Kalen Ballage, 4

Just in case you were wondering who loses their spot when McFarland comes back. 

Edited September 14, 2021 by Dcash4

[MOSteelers56]

I feel like Norwood's playing time was matchup dependant. We're probably not going to see any team as pass happy as Buffalo. I'd expect his snaps to considerably drop against different teams. It's still a pretty big sign that he played that much, though. He could be a real player for us. 

[DR43]

On 9/13/2021 at 7:43 AM, bigben07MVP said:

We absolutely needed a draft like this and Colbert nailed it.

Speaking of Punter, did anyone else notice Berry hit an absolute rocket for the Vikings yesterday? 

Colbert and Tomlin nailed it.

[43M]

This is why I like the approach of signing CBs in free agency, trading for them or drafting them later as opposed to drafting early round CBs.   We seem to have the same or better success in drafting and developing players in the mid to late rounds.    After about 2 decades of drafting CBs in the first 2 or 3 rounds only for them to be severely disappointing...its time to recognize the best approach going forward.

Not that I wouldnt take a top end CB prospect if we picked top 10, but by the 20s or so, most of those DBs have notable flaws, and in many cases, dont have much better chances of developing into a good player than many mid round CBs.

Im also happy we have started focusing more on coverage skills for CBs.   For years, this team looked more for physical CBs who could tackle, even at the sacrifice of coverage ability.

[August4th]

going against Waller next week will be a big test for Joe/bush. Bush has gotten torched by athletic tight ends

[Dcash4]

16 minutes ago, August4th said:

going against Waller next week will be a big test for Joe/bush. Bush has gotten torched by athletic tight ends

I’m wondering if Sutton will get a crack at him too. Tomlin compared Waller to Claypool, who Sutton covered a ton in the off-season. He is also the only real inside/outside flexible cover player we have.

I see Sutton, Minkah, Edmunds, Schobert and Bush all getting opportunities. 

[bigben07MVP]

I’m really not worried about Waller at all. We have so many guys we can throw at him. Also Carr was really inaccurate for most of the game last night and will be running for his life all day against us. Their o-line rough and just suffered another injury.

[Big Snack]

Just now, bigben07MVP said:

I’m really not worried about Waller at all. We have so many guys we can throw at him. Also Carr was really inaccurate for most of the game last night and will be running for his life all day against us. Their o-line rough and just suffered another injury.

Waller cam make the craziest of plays bit I'm with you in being pretty confident in holding him to a lot less than the ravens.  They blitzed all night and left him singled up a ton. We generate a lot more pressure with only 4 rushing. The windows for waller to make plays will be much smaller 

[43M]

1 hour ago, August4th said:

going against Waller next week will be a big test for Joe/bush. Bush has gotten torched by athletic tight ends

In fairness, the vast majority of LBs cant consistently cover the more athletic TEs.     Even Shazier struggled.  

Its all about the gameplan when stopping those TEs.   Raiders have some talent, but its not more than our defense can handle.   Biggest problem would be of Josh Jacobs got rolling.   That would create more issues.