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Game Balls, Game Goats & FU's..............@ Dallas

C

Chicoman

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After two really hard fought wins on the road @ Tennessee & @Baltimore.....this one had all the making of a trap game going into Dallas who has more injuries than any other NFL team. It couldn't have started off any worse going down 13-0 to the Cowboys & Garrett Gilbert a journeyman QB who I guess up until a few weeks ago was on the Clowns practice squad. That damn kid played fearless today and I'll give him credit in his first NFL start. I would have thought he would have struggled vs this Defense but he played a good game and kept Dallas in it all the way. I hate games on artificial turf and the whole game I was basically thinking to myself please no catastrophic injuries and then I saw Ben go down after taking a brutal hit from Gregory & Lawrence and come up clutching his knee but he was able to finish off the drive with a TD to James Washington to cut the lead to 13-6. Steelers Special Teams really struggled today.....they gave up 2 long kickoff returns and a long punt return that really put Dallas on our side of the field to start drives and then had an Extra Point blocked when the DL leaped over the Long Snapper and got his hands up. Danny Smith better figure out WTF went wrong today with Special Teams because they can't play like that again. You could make a strong case for them almost costing us the game today.....I'll also say I didn't like see Joe Haden back there returning punts.....not because I don't think he can but because he's our #1 CB and I don't want to see him get injured.....I wonder why they went with Haden over Ray Ray on Punt Returns. We really seem to miss Tyson Alualu in the middle of that Defense, I hope he returns soon as our run Defense seems to be a bit sub-par since he got injured. Alot of criticism early in the season about Minkah Fitzpatrick's name not being called....I'd say in recent weeks he's answered the bell.....BIG TIME! Cam Sutton has done a nice job filling in for Mike Hilton.....I think Hilton is a better blitzer but I think Sutton is better in coverage....he also had a nice forced fumble today and almost had an INT to end the game if the Cowboys TE didn't get his hand on the intended pass. I also noticed today that Alex Highsmith has another sack in limited time and he also looked pretty good in pass coverage back there on several plays.....I like what I am seeing from Highsmith. For all those peeps who don't think Juju is a #1 WR this is the 2nd week in a row he has stepped up and made some big receptions and gotten the tough yards to keep drives alive. I know many people will say this was Classic Tomlin playing down to the level of the competition but I don't think that's the case here at all. You have a team who is on the road for the 3rd consecutive week after 2 games against top tier AFC teams traveling down to Dallas. Also lets face it when you an Undefeated NFL team at the midway point of the NFL season you have a Target on your back! You will get every NFL teams best effort and we saw that today from Dallas a team going nowhere with nothing to lose. Saw our linemen on the OL struggle for the first time today as our running game was pretty much non-existent vs the NFL's worst run Defense and Ben took some big hits today......hopefully we don't see this type of performance from our OL the rest of the season. I wasn't sure what Tomlin was thinking at the end of the game going for it on 4th & 1 when they could have sent Boswell our there for a Chip Shot 34yd FG that would have put us up by 8 points. Congrats to Chris Boswell setting a Steelers Franchise record hitting a 59 yd FG before the Half.....was a rough day for him otherwise....missing 2 Extra Points. Let's enjoy this one......this is the best start for a Steelers team in Franchise History.........8 feels GREAT! 8-0 to start the season and we have Joe Burrow & the Cincy Bungles coming to the Burgh this week to take on a very road weary Steelers team. Tomlin better get his team rested up and ready for AFC North Football, Burrow looks good for a rookie!


Injuries:
Ben Roethlisberger - Able to return in the 2nd Half
Other than that no injuries other than bumps and bruises that come with playing the game

Game Balls:
Ben Roethlisberger - 29 for 42 for 306 yds with 3 TD's.....he bailed this team out today in the 2nd Half....another 4th QTR comeback for Big Ben coming back from 10 down in the 4th Quarter for the Win
Juju Smith Schuster - 6 rec 93 yds 1TD.....2nd week in a row he's made some clutch catches to keep drives going
Minkah Fitzpatrick - 1 INT & 1 Fumble Recovery & 2 passes Defensed today....his play today especially when Dallas was in the Redzone was the difference in this game
TJ Watt - only had one tackle today but he had 3 batted balls today.......one almost stuck in his hand...he just couldn't bring it in but that had pick six all over it
Cam Hewyard - He really pushed that pocket today against Dallas and made plays down the stretch to preserve the win


Game Goats:
Steelers Special Teams - Absolutely awful performance today....on kickoff returns, punt returns and FG's. Danny Smith needs to get this **** turned around and I don't want to see Joe Haden our #1 CB returning punts! They almost cost us the game today

FU's:
Tony Romo - He finally got to me today.....I actually liked his Analysis since he started alongside Nance because Phil Simms was just AWFUL! Today Tony Romo hit that same threshold as Phil Simms......FU ROMO!!! I hate you in the Booth! Next Man Up!
 
You gotta stop torturing yourself by listening to these no-nuts MFers that blather on through the prism of their glory days.

ST was a freaking JOKE today.

Ben gets the only game ball imho.
 
Ben and JuJu were excellent. I agree on Watt and Minkah. This actually felt like possibly Minkah's best game of the year.

Romo announces like a guy who bought all of the hype he (deservedly) received his first year. It's too much now.
 
Good job Chico. Point of contention regarding Haden being the punt returner on one play. On the resumption of the 4th down play after the time out, Dallas was lining up to go for it again. When the started the play clock they then pulled the offense and sent the punt team in quick, Pitt didn’t have time to get their punt return team out there without taking a time out.


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Juju had a Hines Ward kind of day. I love how tough he is.
TJ and Cam were beasts. TJ is so disruptive, and makes so many plays that don't show up in the stats sheet.
Mondeaux made a play! But any word on Alualu? We need him back.


Fichtner has got to get better at play calling, game planning. That was just awful. Just let Ben go hurry-up and call the plays himself.
Our o-line is just not getting it done. Overrated. Ben didn't get sacked, but he got blasted lots of times. Virtually no running game at all.
Against an inexperienced QB, why would we make it easy on him with soft zones and wide open receivers all day? LBs covering WRs?
 
MeanJim said:
Juju had a Hines Ward kind of day. I love how tough he is.
TJ and Cam were beasts. TJ is so disruptive, and makes so many plays that don't show up in the stats sheet.
Mondeaux made a play! But any word on Alualu? We need him back.


Fichtner has got to get better at play calling, game planning. That was just awful. Just let Ben go hurry-up and call the plays himself.
Our o-line is just not getting it done. Overrated. Ben didn't get sacked, but he got blasted lots of times. Virtually no running game at all.
Against an inexperienced QB, why would we make it easy on him with soft zones and wide open receivers all day? LBs covering WRs?
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On the MT show before the game, Savran asked him about (i thought it was savran). asked about how to prepare for an unknown QB. His answer was, we will prepare to stop what we know, Zeke elliot,, and focus on the run game. Just saying what he said here.
 
MeanJim said:
Juju had a Hines Ward kind of day. I love how tough he is.
TJ and Cam were beasts. TJ is so disruptive, and makes so many plays that don't show up in the stats sheet.
Mondeaux made a play! But any word on Alualu? We need him back.


Fichtner has got to get better at play calling, game planning. That was just awful. Just let Ben go hurry-up and call the plays himself.
Our o-line is just not getting it done. Overrated. Ben didn't get sacked, but he got blasted lots of times. Virtually no running game at all.
Against an inexperienced QB, why would we make it easy on him with soft zones and wide open receivers all day? LBs covering WRs?
Click to expand...

JuJu’a td had shades of Hines written all over. Was nice to see
 
Ike Kelly said:
Good job Chico. Point of contention regarding Haden being the punt returner on one play. On the resumption of the 4th down play after the time out, Dallas was lining up to go for it again. When the started the play clock they then pulled the offense and sent the punt team in quick, Pitt didn’t have time to get their punt return team out there without taking a time out.


Sent from my iPad using Steeler Nation mobile app
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Then the d should have been allowed a substitution... the o cannot just sub and go
 
Conner did he even play today?
 
Ben and JU JU game balls

to many goats to mention.
run game was terrible
defense was terrible...could not get off field...secondary terrible tackling...no pressure on QB
don't even bring up special teams...all though the way Dallas jumped over the guard,center was more of the problem than the BOZ.
offensive play calls in general bad

way out coached by a desperate team that had nothing to loose ( we played our third road game after a tough divisional game so this id the only benefit of the doubt.

We did win but hard on the heart
 
Game ball - Ben, JuJu, Heyward
GOAT - Boswell, Special teams, Nelson couldn't tackle, Claypool had a few drops (wonder if the ND game effected his prep / sleep for this game) In fairness he could have drawn penalties.
FUs - Fitchner terrible game plans don't understand the point of scripted plays.
 
I think the ref gets a game ball for actually calling the roughing the passer penalty when Ben got smacking in the facemask after throwing the ball....
 
I was super pissed at Randy F for putting Snell in on a 4th and short. Why not just put in Stephen Hawking? We have some capable runners. Snell is not looking like one of them these days.

Also, why did we NOT go for the FG at the end of the game to go up by 8? Really dumb. I was waiting for the magic Hail Mary to succeed. God bless those rushers who wanted the game to be over.
 
SteelerFan448 said:
Doesn't explain his performance last week for Steelers-Ravens.
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I swear to God, I think he's been a little salty ever since Ben called him "Antonio" and congratulated him for getting one right during the one broadcast, which was actually funny as hell.
 
Djfan said:
I was super pissed at Randy F for putting Snell in on a 4th and short. Why not just put in Stephen Hawking? We have some capable runners. Snell is not looking like one of them these days.
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And Snell came in cold (I don't know if he had many, if any, touches prior to that). Snell seems like the type that needs a few snaps to get going, so I was pissed about that as well.
 
Djfan said:
I was super pissed at Randy F for putting Snell in on a 4th and short. Why not just put in Stephen Hawking? We have some capable runners. Snell is not looking like one of them these days.

Also, why did we NOT go for the FG at the end of the game to go up by 8? Really dumb. I was waiting for the magic Hail Mary to succeed. God bless those rushers who wanted the game to be over.
Click to expand...

Snell is capable but not in spot usage as much. He needs carries to get going and pound.
 
Goats Fichtner and Butler. Want more proof they are both subpar? The Steelers are undefeated. You ever hear a commentator talk about how Butler or Fichtner will be a head coach soon? Cowher was losing assistants to head coaching jobs left and right. Nobody wants to interview Butler or Fichtner

Look at how much damn talent is on this defense. Butler has had above average talent every year but only after trading up for Bush, trading for Minkah, and Dupree finally emerging as a threat did Butler's defense become a factor. I mean what DC could not have a top defense with this much talent? And yet somehow this defense still gives up big plays and finds itself time and again in bad matchups far too often.

How does Spillane or Dupree end up covering CeeDee Lamb? This isn't a one off. We have seen offenses dictate this by formation and get easy plays. How does it keep happening?


I don't understand Fichtner. How is his initial gameplan wrong every single week? I understand the concept of scripting plays. You are calling plays to see how the defense will stop various concepts then you use that info to adjust your playcalls and attack that. Lots of teams do it. But scripted doesn't mean random. The scripted plays are supposed to work. Not be throwaways just to gauge a reaction. The script should have a plan to it based on film study.

It seems Fichtner does eventually figure out what will work but sometimes it's not until the second half. They can hold off the Cowboys but what happens when they get in the playoffs and find themselves down by 10 at the half to a good team? I see this season ending when the steelers just seem to run out of time playing catch up against a good team because as usual, they flushed the first 3 or 4 drives down the toilet.


This run game is garbage. A total afterthought. You have a good OL and big WRs who can block and you can't pick up 1 yard vs a bad run defense? Bullshit. They had to call a counter play on the 4th and 1 hoping to trick the cowboys. Can't possibly just call a dive play up the gut. It's barely in the offense.


There are far to many OCs who make their reputations on getting splash plays and easy yards, but it's the tough yards that win championships. STeelers can't get tough yards and until they can, this offense will ultimately be unreliable in big moments.
 
As we saw today, the OL has been going downhill since Munch left. The scrub they have coaching them should be sent back to Pop Warner where he came from. Time to go and get a real coach

How is it that they always seem to have a **** ST Coach? Is there a pool of money to pay coaches, and all they have left is $20 to pay a ST coach?
 
Ok so the team played a bad game, after two tough games on the road it was very probable to see a sub par performance visiting Dallas, Ben has had a clean pocket for most of the season despite the forced rotations to the OLine, can't blame sarret for one bad game

Enviado desde mi Moto G (5) Plus mediante Tapatalk
 
tapeANaspirin2it said:
Goats Fichtner and Butler.


I don't understand Fichtner. How is his initial gameplan wrong every single week? I understand the concept of scripting plays. You are calling plays to see how the defense will stop various concepts then you use that info to adjust your playcalls and attack that. Lots of teams do it. But scripted doesn't mean random. The scripted plays are supposed to work. Not be throwaways just to gauge a reaction. The script should have a plan to it based on film study.

It seems Fichtner does eventually figure out what will work but sometimes it's not until the second half. They can hold off the Cowboys but what happens when they get in the playoffs and find themselves down by 10 at the half to a good team? I see this season ending when the steelers just seem to run out of time playing catch up against a good team because as usual, they flushed the first 3 or 4 drives down the toilet.
.
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It seems that the game turns around when they quit playing the 1980s 49ers style offense, and just tell Ben "you make the calls." It's like Randy has no idea what Ben's skills are.
 
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