The good, the bad, the Jimmy G: Steelers edition!

[big_palooka]

10 hours ago, Tank4Drake said:

Agreed. It’s 1a 1b for me and I can be swayed either way, right now I like Maye more and think he will be a better pro. I think the Caleb hype that Maye is not even close to him is getting a little much. 

Maye for me is a better pocket player. He can play outside the pocket and make highlight plays, but will stand in and deliver.

Williams I feel relies to much on breaking the pocket. Which looks great when you're making highlight plays at USC, but will need to learn patience at the next level.

 

[big_palooka]

10 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Let's see Baker tonight against Philly before crowning him.

Last weeks flavor was Eric Bienemy. How'd his offense look Sunday?  

So..... what's the week 4 flavor of the week going to be?

[big_palooka]

10 hours ago, Geezy said:

Over thinking it. CW is a a1 playmaker, can make all the throws, make plays with his legs, keeps plays alive and keeps eyes downfield. He’s Mahomes Lite in that he don’t have the cannon Mahomes has but there’s plenty there. Maye is a quality prospect l, don’t get me wrong. Hed be QB1 most years, but Caleb is the guy that comes out every so often. 

Not over thinking it. CW has the flash. Lincoln Riley QBs always do. Maye has the substance. 

While I think CW will be a terrific NFL QB. The "Mahomes lite" thing is what keeps teams reaching for QB who make wild throws outside structure. There is only one Mahomes and one Andy Reid coaching him and teams need to stop playing themselves.

[RaidersForever]

8 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Not over thinking it. CW has the flash. Lincoln Riley QBs always do. Maye has the substance. 

While I think CW will be a terrific NFL QB. The "Mahomes lite" thing is what keeps teams reaching for QB who make wild throws outside structure. There is only one Mahomes and one Andy Reid coaching him and teams need to stop playing themselves.

     100% this

[Geezy]

9 hours ago, big_palooka said:

Not over thinking it. CW has the flash. Lincoln Riley QBs always do. Maye has the substance. 

While I think CW will be a terrific NFL QB. The "Mahomes lite" thing is what keeps teams reaching for QB who make wild throws outside structure. There is only one Mahomes and one Andy Reid coaching him and teams need to stop playing themselves.

It’s not just flash though, he wins from the pocket too. We’ll see. 

[FloydFan]

Lord these men have even broken Hondo’s optimism. 

[Devilshark69]

For the record I never mentioned mayfield one way or another, however, I did mention “the stache” quite a few times. Lol

[big_palooka]

2 hours ago, Geezy said:

It’s not just flash though, he wins from the pocket too. We’ll see. 

I dunno... he seems to lack awareness 🤣

In all seriousness, yes he can win from the pocket. He's not challenged much with USCs Oline. He tends to hold onto the ball to long at times and get in trouble. He tries to win every rep with his athletic profile. In the pros, things will be tighter. He's a unicorn prospect. I just hope he live up to it when the expectations mount. I mean some people are already saying he's going to have a HOF career. His hype is unreal. 

[ronjon1990]

2 hours ago, big_palooka said:

I dunno... he seems to lack awareness 🤣

In all seriousness, yes he can win from the pocket. He's not challenged much with USCs Oline. He tends to hold onto the ball to long at times and get in trouble. He tries to win every rep with his athletic profile. In the pros, things will be tighter. He's a unicorn prospect. I just hope he live up to it when the expectations mount. I mean some people are already saying he's going to have a HOF career. His hype is unreal. 

The USC effect. 

Williams is the QB that's going to shine as bright as a super nova in college. Against lesser opponents, his sheer athletic ability will make highlight reels. It's flashy, it's tantalizing, but it's also ridiculously unsustainable. 

My worry is that USC is a  blue chip program that sits in a different plane from most other schools. College football's parity is way beyond anything the NFL has. At SC he got the hotshot coach and a wave of hype that saw guys literally choose to be there,  whether by signing as recruits or high tailing it from other programs, supported by the NIL insanity. That won't be the case in the NFL, and given his talent (not saying he's not talented after all) relative to the competition, he's going to be on one of the worst teams he's ever been on. 

There was a ridiculous play he made against ASU where he basically flipped direction evading pressure and got the ball off. It looked video game amazing. It also looked like the type of play that sees him get crushed in the big boy league. If an already good team held the top pick due to a previous trade, he'd have more of a chance to succeed.

Caleb in KC or Buffalo or Green Bay or Sam Fran or Philly, etc is plug and play and a rookie of the year candidate because the support is already there and he can settle into the league. Caleb in Chicago or Las Vegas or whatever, not so much. Less parity, a salary cap, guys not just able to demand a "trade" to a particular team left and right (akin to a transfer) keeps teams from just accumulating talent hand over fist, and I honestly question his game translating successfully in time for him to be a franchise building block the way a lot of people think. 

I could be wrong and he could very well step into a bad situation and be great. But man I don't see it. Too much freelancing that works against the guys on lesser teams in college for me to be comfortable with him being the guy you choose to build around. USC plays some scrub teams where the talent disparity is worlds away from the difference between the best and worst NFL teams (except maybe in the case of Miami and Denver). I need Caleb Williams to look like a million dollars against  Notre Dame, Utah, Oregon, Washington, UCLA, and the bowl season to be sold on his raw ability being enough to withstand the NFL's competition level. The door isn't shut for me to climb aboard that train, but the hype is insane and sets unrealistic expectations, imo. 

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by ronjon1990

[Darbsk]

Just re-watched the game (glutton for punishment, I know 😀) and some thoughts in the cold light of day:

Great to see playaction early and it worked, TD on 4th down was beautiful. We need to keep using this.

Good to see Koonce getting some real time and he added a little pressure, we needed it as only Crosby was doing anything otherwise. Tillery at DE was anonymous.

Butler, Nicholls at DT were anonymous in the pass rush, really offered nothing. Jenkins had a few decent run stops and Young looked stout though slow. I have some empathy for our LBs as on a few occasions our DTs notable Nicholls just got marched back into the LBs laps and there simply nothing they can do then. As expected our DTs are getting beat up every week as they're not up to standard.

Basically, we got beat in the trenches, Oline struggled all day and lost the battle, Dline was nullified apart from Crosby and the odd flash from Koonce.

Peters had a strange game, he made some really nice plays and his coverage was pretty good but I think he was the one beaten for the long TD (though Koonce should have gotten a holding flag I think) and that pick 6 drop was a real game changer. Brutal. Hobbs I thought played well, he's always feisty and fights for everything but Bennett looked like a rookie making rookie mistakes. I think he'll learn and get better though, rough outing for him.

Defence overall I don't think was bad, sure they got burned once and made some bad mistakes like the Crosby penalty and a few miscues but they didn't lose us this game. We desperately need something from DT, we're offering nothing in pass rush yet again. What have we got to lose by putting in Silvera at this point?

I need a paragraph for Garoppolo unfortunately! 

Now seriously, I don't think Garoppolo is a terrible QB overall, he's not a top guy but he should be a guy who plays percentages and does the simple things to not lose you games. He should be good on anticipation and timing throws and accurate and picking high percentage options. Unfortunately, he is playing badly for one reason or another right now. Someone mentioned 'happy feet' and that is a good description, his throws have been late, hesitant and behind quite a few times and he's staring guys down. The 1st interception was way behind the TE, no idea what the second Int was and the third was just desperation so i'll forgive that one.  He looked very nervous in the pocket and even simple throws you'd expect him to make like swing passes were going all over the place. he just doesn't look comfortable at all in there. 

Generally, the play calling I thought was OK, not brilliant but decent enough to get guys open and I like the playaction, especially the call on 4th down that netted the TD was great. The trouble we had was Garoppolo was awfully inaccurate and our Oline got beaten badly by the Dline so Garoppolo was under pressure and seemed to panic. I think if we get better QB play and a bit more from the Oline then the offence will start clicking. 

Finally, the call for a FG on 4th down in the 4th a few yards out was just insane. Simply no defence for that. No idea what an offensive minded coach is thinking there. You have invested all that money in the off season into the O, you have Adams and Renfrow who specialise at that type of thing ffs and you don't go for it when it counts? Also, if you don't get it at least the O is pinned to their line and if you stop them you get the ball back in their half not 75 yards away. I really am lost for words at that call, I'd bet 100% of us here would have gone for it on 4th down in that scenario. Maybe the pressure got to McDaniels I don't know but that was just something he needs to own up and say he got it totally wrong.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Darbsk

[big_palooka]

2 hours ago, Darbsk said:

Finally, the call for a FG on 4th down in the 4th a few yards out was just insane. Simply no defence for that. No idea what an offensive minded coach is thinking there. You have invested all that money in the off season into the O, you have Adams and Renfrow who specialise at that type of thing ffs and you don't go for it when it counts? Also, if you don't get it at least the O is pinned to their line and if you stop them you get the ball back in their half not 75 yards away. I really am lost for words at that call, I'd bet 100% of us here would have gone for it on 4th down in that scenario. Maybe the pressure got to McDaniels I don't know but that was just something he needs to own up and say he got it totally wrong.

My issues with it as I mentioned before. Carlson made a 48 yarder. You got the penalty and new set of downs. If you were going to play for 3 anyway, why not take it there and save the clock? I get maybe he thinks they get a TD, so at that point you have to commit to getting it. Just a massive mismanagement of the situation. 

[NickButera]

15 minutes ago, big_palooka said:

Just a massive mismanagement of the situation. 

I think this sums up DZ and McDaniels time here overall.  For most things they've done, this could be said. 

Some of it by circumstance and some due to bad foresight (getting rid of Carr while certain they were going to get Brady according to Hondo), Waller and Renfrow's contract, Jimmy evaluation, play calling during games, Josh Jacobs situation, the list is getting longer. I kind of feel bad as some of this could have been prevented and some was just bad luck, but some is just bad decision making. Add it all up and they do not look good.  

I do wonder what life would be like had they just committed to trading up and releasing the resources to get the #1 overall pick like they were trying to do. Our situation would be much brighter. Sometimes, overpaying is worth it. 

[big_palooka]

8 minutes ago, NickButera said:

I think this sums up DZ and McDaniels time here overall.  For most things they've done, this could be said. 

Some of it by circumstance and some due to bad foresight (getting rid of Carr while certain they were going to get Brady according to Hondo), Waller and Renfrow's contract, Jimmy evaluation, play calling during games, Josh Jacobs situation, the list is getting longer. I kind of feel bad as some of this could have been prevented and some was just bad luck, but some is just bad decision making. Add it all up and they do not look good.  

I do wonder what life would be like had they just committed to trading up and releasing the resources to get the #1 overall pick like they were trying to do. Our situation would be much brighter. Sometimes, overpaying is worth it. 

Well said. And to your last point, I agree. They had no trouble trading assets for Adams then shied away when it came to acquiring a franchise QB. Feels like they have an identity crisis. Are you the team that takes big swings or are you the team that plays it safe?  

They came in taking big swings as if they wanted to go for it. Only to tuck tail and get conservative a year later. Which doesn't work, because of the collateral damage you created taking those swings to begin with. 

Now you're a directionless collection of parts with no real identity. BP has finally seen the light.

[Darbsk]

1 hour ago, big_palooka said:

My issues with it as I mentioned before. Carlson made a 48 yarder. You got the penalty and new set of downs. If you were going to play for 3 anyway, why not take it there and save the clock? I get maybe he thinks they get a TD, so at that point you have to commit to getting it. Just a massive mismanagement of the situation. 

Agree, if you’re going to turn down a 3 points that’s already on the board then you have to commit to the TD fully and 2 pt conversion. Otherwise you got he worst of both worlds.

[Devilshark69]

Then to top it off, you justify the decision by saying the defense was playing well? Throw them under the bus AND demonstrate 0 reality?  What? 1 or 2 series vs 19.5 games? Cue the Micheal Irvin please!! 🤬🤬🤮🤮