5 Up and 5 Down Steelers vs. Raiders 2023 Wk. 3

[Steeler Hitman]

 

1A. Kenny Pickett played his best game of the 2023 three-game short season and threw two TD passes.

1B. Calvin Austin continues to step up and show he can be a big play game changer

2A. Committed to trying to run the ball more.

2B. Boz and Harvin look like a great kicking/punting duo. Harvin had a bad punt, but overall has improved since being called out.

3. Run defense improved from games one & two versus the Browns.

4. The offense used the TE more and got a TD off a play-action pass.

5A. Saw some offensive play adjustments and nuances that helped the offense.

5B.  The defense got sacks against an OL that had not given up ANY sacks in 2023.

 

 

1. The OL is getting bullied. Some of this is predictability in the scheme, habits, and traits of the offense.  However, it also that the linemen are also losing one-on-one blocks and getting beat by many of the opposing interior defensive linemen.

2. The defense has to stop giving up splash plays.  They have given up at least two splash plays a game.  The good thing is one of them was not a 40-plus-yard run.

3. I won't poo-poo the refs who I thought did a good overall job of officiating. However, they had a few calls that helped make the game closer than it should. Horrible call on Minkah's sack.  I get the leverage rule, but that was an interpretation as I saw the OL going low for his legs as he tried to jump. Natural thing, use your hands to push down. It didn't look like he was trying to use the OL's back to help jump. They did a good job of not calling the personal foul on Cole Holecomb.

4A. Levi Wallace is in there because he is a veteran, but I would like to see more J-Peezy Jr. He got two Ints that were big, but he was overall exposed and the obvious target for the third week in a row. This defense is not elite, but has some traits to be very good overall. The picks go on the stats, and look good, but he has been an obvious target of all three opponents in the first three games. No doubt that Devonte Adams is an absolute beast.  Levi looks like he may be a better #3 or #4 rather than a #2. 

4B. Patrick Peterson. The veteran is a future HOF'er. He got a pick as well.  However, his play has declined as somewhat expected, but I expected more from him in terms of coverage. Maybe a little nit-picky here by me, but I see Patrick Pete's greatness, and I expected to see a little more as it is early. 

5. We continue to make games closer than they have to be. Should have closed this out better. Part of that is the refs and the other part was we couldn't run the ball.

 

[3rivers]

https://steelersnow.com/steelers-punter-shows-off-strong-boot-against-raiders-pressley-harvin/

deserves credit. If he can keep this going it will help anyways.  Propbably shuld have been a flag when the player hit him but how the player got there is a concern. Don't get Harvin injured , it would be a loss right now.

Bos has played well but never know when that can change, PK is very hard to predict as Ravens fans found out this weekend.  

agree with SH, the run game is needed to really close games out. This OL though, really isn't the answer for this.  No idea how we close out games vs good teams. Games will probably go to the wire and possibly rely on a TO from the defence near the end of the game . 

another up is the turnovers. Some are gifted, others are earned, we are getting both.  On pace  for 45 TO's  which is a  nice leap and in elite section which is always good.  Remember there was a time when our CB's very rarely got an INT and overall, low INT count over the years. FF was decent though, but now we appear to have both FF and INT.  This could actually increase if the offence could get some decent leads as well since they would force teams to throw a bit more. 

on pace for 73 sacks

Golden is a great relief player for TJ and Alex, who both are always the UP in these threads

ILB's - much better than last year  

Benton is a beast, they need to play him all the time , either DT, 5T or NT, just keep him out there.  Adams had a nice game too

HM: when they showed tyree wilson vs Moore and Moore really owned that snap and at the end gave wilson a nice get lost type of finish to the play.  Moore has been run down by PFF and the like but was decent last night.  I'm not giving up on him, and improvements are expected. 

Down:

not throwing to Washington - why not?

OL run game issues- when will this get corrected? 

Leal leverage - don't know the rules?

refs, the minkah penalty was  lame  but if jimmy is in protocol because of that, then maybe make QB's wear  padded helmets . Sullivan play as well, the refs need to clean up their calls .  

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by 3rivers

[JustPlainNasty]

5 Up 

1. Steelers Nation showing up and taking over the the stadium. 

2. TJ Watt 

3. Wanna give Naj some credit, hes doing everything he can with what hes got, both his current talent/ability and the blocking/play calls or lack thereof. Its not for a lack of effort. I think the smartest thing he did yesterday was eek out every yard he could falling forward, slipping thru the cracks of a tackle to get 1 or 2 more yard as he goes down. Big difference between 2nd and 7 AND  2nd and 5 .

4. Kenny laying that deep ball out there perfectly. 

5. Special teams, Boz was money..we were all kind of shocked they were kicking that 57 yarder, at first from our end it seemed even further until we calculated the distance. By the replay Boz had 5 more yards on that at least. Special mention to Harvin again as we was booming those kicks. Those guys mightve been feeling themselves with the altitude difference as Vegas sits at about 2000+ ft above see level (not necessarily Denver like but perhaps a small factor) 

 

5 Down 

1. Steelers Nation sitting on their hands late during that comeback until about the final play they finally woke up again. 

2. Connor Heyward seemed to have a couple down plays. The 3rd and1 run not really his fault but got nothing and then whatever happened on that out and up route where he seemed to do the wrong thing. Had that play been picked it wouldve likely changed the entire game cause it was going for 6. 

3. Meuth shoulve had about 7 or 8 catches in this game and there has to be some effort to get the ball to him over the middle. Took til the 3rd qtr to get him involved was baffling. 

4. We still only averaged like 3.6 yds per carry against one of the worst run defenses in the league. At least they made some progress but they are going to struggle offensively until they are getting at least 4+ yards per carry

5. They ran a pass late and killed the clock when they absolutely shouldve just ran 3 times in a row. It wasnt a time to be tricky it was a time to milk the clock and impose your will to the best of your ability. They also ran one of those late plays with 7 seconds on the clock. 

 

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by JustPlainNasty