- Joined
- Sep 12, 2014
- Messages
- 16,269
- Reaction score
- 6,438
- Points
- 113
Eh, I cant get past being +3 in turnovers and only winning by 3. I think this is very much a .500 team.
Another positive was shade tree
Big Dan saw a decent number on snaps and while he won't show in the stat sheet he was getting push allowing others to pressure while he was commanding the double team and sometimes shading the passing lane as well. I'll have to rewatch but it seemed our D was mostly effective while he was in there. Maybe our new DL coach is molding that large lump of clay into a rotational player.
If he gets cranking it will allow a far better DL rotation and possibly a fresher Heyward/Tuitt down the stretch run of games when they usually appear gassed. It would be amazing if he could command enough snaps to eliminate a good % of the 2 DL plays, that's probably asking way too much though.
Big Dan was reason Bud got the pick six. He pushed the center or guard right back to the QB in the end zone and pressured him into making that crappy throw.
CBs need to turn and locate the ball, they were in good position on a few of those and never turned to find the ball.
Sent from my XT1585 using Steeler Nation mobile app
People seem to be focusing on the defense giving up points late but there are way more positives.
I don’t care if they gave up some late drives. This defense was a lot better than last week. The Bucs have lots of weapons. They don’t have the RB, but they have 3 big play WRs and 2 TEs that are matchup problems. They have a pretty good OL too and Fitzpatrick is still on a hot streak.
it still needs to get better but we saw far fewer blown assignments. Guys actually made some plays because there was less confusion and they were able to react instead of think.
You also have to remember that much of the Bucs late game success was after Hilton left the game.
The offense was mostly great and that is with Decastro and Gilbert injured. The protection was mostly good against a team with some good pass rushers.
Ben is still not in sync with AB and his deep ball is a bit off but you saw the rust coming off. The offense should have had 34 points which is damn good when they aren’t even fully clicking yet.
The defense was mostly good vs the browns. The Chiefs was a debacle but they git pointed back in the right direct vs the Bucs. The Chiefs and Bucs may be the 2 most dangerous teams the steelers face all year and they got them early.
The main thing may be that they have finally acknowledged their own drama and seem to actually be trying to put it behind them, not just with the usual lip service.
Beat the Ravens and the steelers may be in first place, hopefully with all the bullshit behind them.
Their major problem is that Burns has lost all confidence much like Boswell but they have nothing behind him. You have to try people. Try Allen or Sutton. Burns is crying in his soup and lost his game. You need a diamond in the rough. The secondary is terrible.
7 points were scored on Dupree's pick-six, so no, the offense should not have had 34 points. In fact, the Steelers were shut out in the second half (along with AB, who registered zero catches) against a horrendous Tampa defense. Mostly great? In the first half? Yes. Overall? No.
The defense was slightly better because they incorporated the blitz, and were able to cause some turnovers. Still, there's so many holes -- they gave up over 450 yards of offense. They were +3 in turnovers, and they won the game by just 3 points...not a great sign.
I'd say the defense was "mostly good" against Tyrod Taylor, which isn't saying much. He put 18 points on the board against a porous Saints defense, and 0 against the Jets in almost a full half. The Steelers don't get a tie if stupid Hue Jackson starts his best quarterback.
They're lucky to be 1-1-1.